Like always…

Plenty to do in the garden but I only have two hands. The first poppy of the season is in bloom and it made me really happy when I spotted it, even though I’m not that happy about the color. I want it to be really red and not that red/orange color… but hey. All my poppy pictures look exactly the same... need more practice.


The papaya is enjoying the sun on the balcony. I really didn't expect it to grow but it did, and it looks nice against the blue house. But will it make it through the winter? I think it's too warm and dry for him but we'll see.


Introducing Prins Padda. I think he's a cutie! He needs to move down to The Tea Corner though but... I need to sweep The Tea Corner.


The boxes are filled with potatoes and corn, only one kind of potatoes is peeking up though. I had to get the box that had “Arvid, you old rascal!” written on the side of it.

Off season

I hope I made a bargain today but who knows. I went to the garden story and they were selling asparagus and onions and guess it’s a little late for it but what the hell, it was very cheap and all the unions and plants looked fresh and healthy so I have some digging to do. I have found a spot for the asparagus and I’m thinking I will do with the unions what I do with the garlic, just plant it here and there in the flowerbeds. Maybe a few onions can fit in the greenhouse…

Rhubarb and Asparagus

When I was shopping today I saw that they had rhubarb and my dad only cooks two things, rhubarb pie and oven made pancake (he is also the king of the barbeque but that does count) so I wanted to get me some pie but the rhubarb was really nasty. If it was my store I would not have that in the store, it looked disgusting and I doubt many people bought it. I have some rhubarb seeds that I bought years ago and forgot to sow them, I will now and see if they grow. If it doesn’t work I will prepare a place for some rhubarb next year.

I don’t eat asparagus but others in the family does. It cost 199kr per kilo… I guess we need to plant some asparagus ASAP. But there’s no room, not really… Maybe I have to be big and sacrifice a flowerbed? It is better to grow food than flowers isn’t it?

Growing herbs

I made pizza today and it was so nice to pick my own herbs for the sauce, I only wish I had grown the tomatoes, garlic and union as well… maybe next year?

Growing you own food is fun; well it might be when things are going well. Right now the cucumbers are worrying me to be honest. The tomatoes are all good, well except the one that took a nose dive from the counter… The carrots are peeking up and the leek is in its pot, one kind of potatoes is in the ground.

Feels like...

I'm drifting from my original theme... do I have Edward Scissorhands on DVD? Yes I do, tea and Tim Burton for inspiration it is. On the commentary track of Edward Scissorhands Tim Burton refer to the house as, “Martha Stewards house, when she’s old and crazy”

There…

6 stipa seeds in the soil, keep your fingers crossed. Planted some leftover parsley in a pot and some chives by the climbing rose (it’s supposed to help keep pests away). What else did I do? Oh, I sowed on pot of late carrots. It's not that warm outside and wet so I didn't feel like spending that much time outside today. Tea and a book would have been better but...

The Tea Corner

I think I want some grass and poppies there. Sounds easy somehow, I’m sure it’s not and I’ll complain about something late but at the time it seems like a good idea.

Annual poppies and feather grass (stipa pennata). My feather grass does not look like that, I hope it will one day… mine are just a few straws. Picture found here.

Current plants at The Tea Corner
1. Poppies, annual and perennial
2. English Poppies (I don’t want them there and I’m removing them the moment I see them)
3. Aquilegia (removing them)
4. Tulips
5. Allium
6. Lavender
7. Bleeding heart
8. Climbing rose “Flammentanz”
9. Elephant grass (miscanthus)
10. Lily of the valley
11. Anemone nemorosa
12. Daisies (bellis perennis)
13. Peony (There should be but I haven’t seen it yet, have I killed it? That’s what I thought before and I bought a new one)
14. Iris
15. Scabiosa
16. Rudbeckia
17. Boxwood
18. Forget-me-not
19. Tiger lilies
20. Garlic

There could be more plants, what a horrible mixture of plants… I don’t like it at all but it’s become a place where I just plant things because I don’t have many flower beds. What are the colors here… red, pink, purple, blue, lavender, green, white, yellow, orange. Sometimes I just want to start over… but what would I do different if I started over?

I think I have some Stipa seeds so I'm off to plant them.

Today

I bought four big pots (29 liter) for my carrots and my leek. They might be a little too big but the ones I wanted were sold out so it was either small or bigger and I went with bigger. I bought some paprika (bell pepper) and chili. I was also looking for a bird bath but Jesus how expensive they were! So instead of buying a pretty ugly expensive thingy I went with a cheap saucer for flowerpots, I don’t think the birds will mind the low budget version.

Dahlia

I’ve planted two dahlias outside, “Arabian Night” (2/5) by the greenhouse and “Lucky number seven” (5/5) by the redcurrant. Just so I remember…

Arabian Night, but it's even darker when you see it in real life. I've never been able to capture the true color of it.

I think this is Lucky Number Seven, could be Thomas Edison too but... I know Lucky is pink.

Learning the hard way…

Planning has always been the main problem in the garden, well the lack of… I usually think that the small size is the problem but it’s not. Me not planning is the problem. Like with my Aquilegia vulgaris seeds I collected, “Oh, I just pour them out all over the place”, now I have Aquilegia all over the place and I’m not that found of them. There’s plenty in The Tea Corner and I feel poppies are more appropriate and besides, I like poppies a lot more.

So I am now trying to get rid of them from The Tea Corner to make room for some poppies. Perhaps I should plant the Aquilegia by the hedge? It’s just weeds there anyway and I don’t mind some flowers between the weeds… The area by the hedge is awful…

Someone said, “A gardener’s work is never done”, so true.

Things are growing

A lot of my seeds are nice and are growing. Just the little problem of where to plant them all, perhaps not a very little problem either since there’s a lot of seedlings and not all that much space at all. Later today I will replant some seedlings and perhaps look around to see where the H I can plant my things.

I'm really happy that all of my Ipomoea seeds I got from Aimée are growing, especially the Runner Bean because the bean was so big. Big seeda are always more fun for some reason.

Also happy about the kiwi seeds growing!

Herbs

I bought a rosemary and peppermint. Planted each of them in pots and placed them in the greenhouse for the time being. I wish I had a way to store rosemary for the winter but so far no luck. They smell so nice! I’ll place the peppermint at The Tea Corner and hopefully there will be some butterflies around.

The slope

There’s a rumor that there will be a stone wall build in the slope, which means that there will be no more slope (I’m all for it) and a little bit more lawn. I thinking a small shrubbery thingy at this new little bit of lawn to create some more privacy because there’s none of that now and a cute little garden gate. And hopefully a small shrubbery-ish area will attract birds.

My day so far…

Went to a garden centre called “Blomsterlandet”, it’s a big chain and they have the popular things but nothing really exciting and the plants are… well they are cheap. There used to be another garden store called “Hortus”, the plants were a little bit more expensive but the quality was much better, now it’s more about quantity and not quality I’m afraid.

I managed to leave the place with this weird looking toad… with a crown on his head, what the F? It’s not my style at all but he has these big eyes and he looked at me like, “Save me!” and I had to have him. He’s called “Prins Padda” which means, Prince Toad (very creative) and I placed him in The Tea Corner. My mom bought a crossed eyed gnome… I find those sorts of things tacky but, oh well.

At the grocery store I bought some pansies for Inka Dude and some Oregano, last year there were lots and lots of butterflies swooping around my other plants and I want more butterflies so I got one more and I planted it by the greenhouse. But by the looks of it I’ll need a peppermint as well, wow!

(picture found here)

A few seeds got planted in pots:
Sunflowers “Magic Roundabout”
Sweetpea “Bijou”
Echinops bannaticus
Echinacea purpurea ”White Swan”

Yesterday I planted a few things as well:
Horned Pansy
Dipsacus fullonum
Aimées Passionflower
Aimées Cardinal Climber Ipomoea × multifida

I have been lazy...

I feel like I’m running behind and today I really need to get something done! There is so much too do. I have a lot of seeds that I need to sow and I think I'll do that today and I have to have a look in my diary and see when I planted the dahlias last year, is it too soon?

Updates and crappy pictures

Popcorn corn: Just because… (I planted my sweet corn just the other day and they looked very different from popcorn). They grow fast and I need to replant them soon. I still don't know where to plant them, not really...

(Corn)

Tomatoes: I like tomato plants because they smell so nice and they don’t give you any trouble. Well, they haven’t produced many tomatoes lately but other than that they are nice plants.

(Tomatoes)

Leek: Growing pretty good but how will these tiny little straws become leek? Guess we just have to wait and see. Don't know where to plant these either... I always do this.

(Leek)

Ginger: Growing kind of slowly but she’s making her way up. She's not much to look at but it's fun. I'll give her a bigger pot and I'll let her be outside during the summer and I'll see how she likes it.

(Ginger)

Basil: I have three pots of basil so I guess I have to make some pasta sauce along with the tomatoes and garlic this summer.

(Basil)

Garlic: I have some garlic that started to sprout (is that the word) and instead of throwing them I planted them in pots indoors so we’ll see what happens when I plant them outside later.

Plans for spring 2010

Most of these are from 2008, not good... there will be more added to the list soon I'm sure.

• Fix the raspberries
• Build bathouses
• Build birdhouses, an owl one too
• Build a compost
• Build a birdbath
• Cut the boxwood
• Cut the buddleia
• Clean up the backyard

I take a picture of these crocuses every spring and the first time it was like one flower and now…

Ooops again…

I can’t find my little note with where I storage what so I don’t know if I dug all of them up or if someone is still down there in the backyard and it’s an awful awful mess there right now so it’s impossible to know. I look around a bit more and hopefully I will find the note, I don't want to leave anyone behind.

Roses…

(Rosa rugosa "Wasagaming" picture found here.)

Into roses right now, they attract butterflies and birds into the garden making good shelter and provide food. But, depending on what rose you pick, they take up a lot of space and they should. The huge rosebushes or the ones covering a wall, arch or an entire house are my favorite. Just a small bush is dull but if you have a rose all over the fence running wild it’s amazing.

It might be an idea for The Slope… I’m not a huge fan of the idea but it’s better than what we have now so.

I have a few spots where I might be able to plant a rose… but what rose? I need a light color rose that can handle shade and smell divine, hardy and strong climbing. Oh and maybe plant it with some honeysuckle!

Oops…

(papaver commutatum "Ladybird")

I forgot to buy my poppy seeds, Ladybird. I thought I had saved some but I can't find any so... Now I have to make a new order, and you have to buy for 100kr at least so I better buy some other things too because a 100kr worth of Ladybird is a lot of poppies. Think I’ll go with herbs and other plants that birds and butterflies likes.

Carrots

I’ll tackle it vegetable by vegetable and I’ll start off with carrots since I found some fun stuff about growing them in pots! That sounds like a nice idea and it will be nice with big pots with green stuff in them. I'm pretty sure I'll grow my carrots in pots this year.

Problems: How many pots do I need? And is there enough space in the greenhouse or should I grow them on the balcony? Can I grow leek and dill in pots too, I really want to grow them together?

Carrot links
World Carrot Museum (I didn't know there was such a thing)
Vegetable Garden Guide (I got the picture from that site)
Short video from GW

Snow

We’ve had a really cold winter so far, and by the looks of it spring is not coming anytime soon. Thank god for all the snow! There was some digging necessary after Christmas (cat burial) and when we had shuffled all the snow away the ground was soft and just a few centimeters down there were plenty of worms wiggling around. The snow is like a thick cozy down blanket and the garden loves it, I hope the garden will also love all the water that will come in the spring. But with the cold weather we’ve been having I was worried that some things might die but the snow seems to have taken care of that problem.

Veggie worries

You should prepare before you grow vegetables, in the fall for best results and I have not done that. And I don’t have much space and I might have to grow things in the flower beds with other flowers which isn’t great… There’s so much work with growing vegetables. I have to read up on it. I have to get to the library and keep an eye out now with the big book sale coming up. I really want to have a garden that is not only pretty (not that my “garden” is pretty but still) but useful as well.

I fear this will be one of those evenings where I will spend way too much time on the net looking at garden blogs and sites…

Planning

Yes, the thought of digging in the garden isn’t as appealing as it usually is due to horrible and ugly new houses on the street but I have bought seeds this year as well. The seed should come in the mail today, they really should or I’ll be angry. I think they should have come on Friday but the because of the snow we didn’t get any mail so… I’ll take my doggy for a walk and check the mail… Yes, seeds in the mailbox but I had totally forgot just how much work seeds are. Now I have to do some research and see how the best way to sow these suckers.

SEEDS FOR 2010
Oxeye Daisy Leucanthemum vulgare: I bought the wild sort and I want to have some blood red poppies but where to plant them? No clue, like always… Maybe by the old swing?

Horned Pansy"Bambini" Viola cornuta: Cute little violet in different colors. I’m hoping for most purple ones and I may (if they grow) relocate the other colors to somewhere else in the garden. I planned to have them on one of the kitty graves, I feel slightly macabre but oh well… violets go well with graves, like in that old sad song, “A violet from mother’s grave”

Aubrieta "Cascade Blue" Aubrieta cultorum: I don’t know why I bought this… but I have a little rock area or maybe one of the other cats?

Blue Fescus "Varna" Festuca glauca: I like grass and I’m sure I’ll find a place for this cute little guy.

Garden Pinks"Spring Beauty" Dianthus plumarius: Well, they are cute. Where am I going to plant them if they grow? Um, maybe in the small rocky place? Maybe The rocky place needs a makeover and maybe I can make it a little bigger? I’m also under the impression that these cute little flowers smell nice.

Smooth Oxeye"Summer Sun" Heliopsis helianthoides: Not the prettiest thing I ever seen but it’s big and hopefully it will be big in my garden as well, I need some big plants in my dull little garden.

Nepeta Nepeta faassenii: I hope the neighborhood cats won’t eat it. Cute blue thing, that I am sure will fit in somewhere.

English Marigold "Fiesta Gitana" Calendula officinalis: I always say and think that I don’t like yellow and orange and that I don’t want it in my garden but I have lots of it. The marigolds are to go with the potatoes, corn and sunflowers, where I am supposed to plant all of this I have no idea.

Peas "Dwarf Sweet Green"Pisum sativum L.: No idea where to plant this either, but it is said they peas like to grow with dill and carrots so I’ll plant them together.

Carrots "Resistafly" Daucus carota L. F1: Late kind.

Carrots "Nantes 2" Daucus carota L. : Early kind. Carrots also like to grow with garlic and leek so I’ll plant one kind of carrot with those playmates and then one with dill and peas.

Sunflower "Ring of Fire" Helianthus annuus: Tihi, it looks like it says anus. Sunflowers are one of those yellow/orange flowers I say I don’t like but I want sunflowers so… And I wouldn’t like them if they were in another color.

Dill "Como" Anethum graveolens: Since it’s a good plant that helps the soil and other plant, and because I need it with my cucumbers when I “pickle” (?) them I thought I should grow some. I want to make cornichones but I have no recipe.

Cucumbers "New Pioneer" Cucumis sativus L. F1: It said that these were good for cornichones so that’s why I got them.

Cucumbers "Partner" Cucumis sativus L. F1: Cucumber for pickling in the fall.

Tomatoes "Gemini" Solanum lycopersicum F1: The tomatoes the last few years have been, crap… So I hope some new seeds means that there will be plenty of nice tomatoes in the greenhouse.

Tomatoes "Chadwick" Solanum lycopersicum: Small cherry kind.

Leek "Musselburgh" Allium porrum L.: will be planted with carrots and garlic.

Corn "Sweet Nugget" Zea mays L. F1 : Corn, how cool is it to grow corn?! I’m sorry for being such a dork but it sounds awesome to me. I don’t eat corn but I will eat a little since I’ve grown it (if I’m successful that is) and I’ll also look into how to make popcorn.

Ginger

Bought a piece of ginger in the store awhile back and planted it on Wednesday(3/2) and I’ll see how that goes.

I don’t feel like it…

But it is time to start sowing and look into what seeds I want this year. I’m not very inspired at all, the thought of being gawked at in the garden makes me feel like swinging a bat but maybe I’ll regret it later if I don’t sow something? But last summer I was barely in the garden at all. Not much joy in it I have to say…

Inspired

Inspired by “Monty Halls’ Great Escape” I want to cram in as many veggies in my garden as I possibly can this season. I have very little space however and growing veggies have not been going so well the last few years. To save space I’ll look into planting veggies and flowers together, then I can use my flowerbeds for the veggies and that will save a lot of time and work. (But one should never be lazy in the garden; it will come back and bit you in the ass. There are no shortcuts in the garden.)

THINGS I WANT TO GROW THIS YEAR
Potatoes: I did this a few years back with some old potatoes from the fridge and they were delicious! So I’ll get some proper potatoes and see what happens, got to make sure I have space for them though. To plant Kale with potatoes is apparently a good way to keep pests away.

Peas: There is as far as I know only one pea in the world that I can eat without feeling like vomiting and that’s Pisum sativum L. No idea what it is called in English but I’ll see if I can find some space for it in the garden. It needs a place to climb and there’s no space among the grape. After reading a little about the pea it seems perfect for Swedish conditions. First rules for easy gardening is to always work with nature and not against it.

Salad: I want to grow some sort of salad but I don’t know what kind. I have tried to grow salad in the past but with very bad results. So many pest and difficulties that it didn’t feel like it was worth the trouble. I’ll see if I find an easy salad and grow that one.

Carrots: Probably my favorite veggie, I want to have early and late ones so I have carrots whenever I want. I hope they are not too difficult to grow.

Chives: Which is easy to plant. Every now and then I buy one of those little pots in the grocery store and then I dig down the bulbs. I just read that planting chives with the roses will help prevent Black Spot on the roses. Love little tricks like that. Oh, and aphids is said to hate chives to it might help keep them at bay too. Lovely little onion chives!

Garlic: My favorite union, well I like leek as well anyway… Garlic is also a good thing to plant among other veggies and plants to help keep pests away. Avoid planting it with beans, peas and cabbage.

Kitchen garden

By accident I saw “Jamie at Home” and I just loved his garden. I would really like to have a kitchen garden and grow my own veggies but I don’t have a lot of space and I hate the new view which honestly makes me feel like physically hurt people. So no space and no joy to be in the garden and the fact that I have had horrible results growing things the last few years is preventing me to do it but I do want this in future.

Another show I was by accident (most things I see on TV is by accident) was… Monty Halls’ Great Escape where this guy Monty moves to a small place in Scotland (Applecross) to live as a crofter and lives right by the ocean where he spots otters and seals from the window… What a dream it would be. Does anyone want to move to Scotland and become a crofter with me and my dog? I'm almost serious.