Chickens in the garden... one day

I have wanted chickens in the garden for a long time. There's something cozy about it, makes you think you're in the country even though you're not. There should be animals in the garden, the right kind of animals and turns out that chickens eat a lot of the wrong ones and gives you eggs and fertilizer.

My dream of chickens forced me to take a walk down to this farmesque place two weeks ago to see if there were any hens out. There was one brave hen out and she seemed very suspicious of me.

Some sowing problems

The best temperature for tomatoes and bell pepper I think is around 20C-25C but in the window where I keep them it gets closer to 35C, even with the window open. And then I forget that the window is open and the sun starts to go down and suddenly it’s 15C instead. Jumping around between 35C and 15C is probably not great for them

Bought some potatoes, “Cherie” and “Amandine” which is French. Put French on it and I want it, it’s the magic word for me. I will make some French potatoes gratiné with leek and garlic, hopefully, this summer. Oh and I have to look into have to save and store some potatoes so I don’t have to buy new one ever year.

Tomatoes and bell peppers

Got the seeds today and planted them right away, 4 pots of each with 2 seeds in each pot. Placed them in the window in a mini greenhouse. I got "Promyk" tomatoes because it said it would bare fruit early, knock on wood. And it of course looks pretty at the seed companies website, mine will not look like that, I know that much.

For bell peppers I got "Marconi Rosso" but I think I might have written Maricon instead on the pots, ooops. It's an early kind and hopefully I will get some bell peppers this year, and tomatoes... and cucumbers but I won't sow that just yet.

(picture from Impecta)

Poppy porn... I have to read this post about how to master growing annual poppies later. It's my favorite flower and I don't have enough of it in my "garden", I feel I have to use "" when I say garden because it's not really a garden but an awful mess.

I need this so bad. A walk in a garden with lavender, surely that would calm me down. But no, snow and ice is still with us, months away before we will see any lavender, unless you count a visit to a garden center. The garden is appropriately named, "Garden of Wellbeing". I want to sit there, no I want to lie down and have cup of tea. I love stone walls in gardens...

Peaceful...

I don't have the space (or the knowledge) for a meadow but look how nice and serene it looks, bet it's even better at dusk and dawn. I want this but I can't have it, like most things I want. Pictures from Arundel Castle are probably by Martin Neil since I took them from his blog called "Ernie and I".

To do list in the garden

• Clean up The Backyard
• Tidy up the Kitty Graves
• Look to see if I need to buy any seeds
• Accept the fact that the garden will never be perfect or finished

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.