Rising Borlotto Beans and Water levels

It was a little bit cold today and after I've been to the ususal farmers auction in the village did I do some indoor photography.

I had put some Borlotto Beans from Gourmet Garage in Pots to come ahead in the growth outside. They have started to sprout.

The stylish growth procedure fascinates me:

I'm happy with the result and made it to a Logo for this blog and are going to use it for my website as well

After four more or less rainy days have the waterlevels rised and it is dry no more.

At the end of my property have the wetland got back it's water, I suspect I will call this the Mosquito Coast when it gets warm next!

 Here grows Waterlilies and other natural waterplants.

As I wrote before, the area in front of it is covered with Nettles and Thistles, over a meter high when I came here. 

I covered large areas with Tarpaulin/Presenning and so it will be for one-two years before I plant something here.

I put earth covers down in the middle for isle and put grass turf over it.

 On the edge towards the water did I put down a Weaping Willow/Hängpil today

One of the "Half-Shadow" flowerbeds behind the barn is ready for now

I put a isle of rocks between the two large beds for easy access.

The rocks coming from all the digging of the new hedges

In this part do I have two different kinds of Rhododenron; "Grandiflora Alpenrose" &  Yakushimanun "Fantastica".

Besides that a small Birch Dalecarlia/Ornäsbjörk, Daylilies ("Joan Senior", "Happy Return" & "Mauna Loa"), Toad Lily "Blue Wonder, Blue Bugle/Revsuga, Bergenia and other.

In the lowest part of the garden where it's usually most moist did I make a Iris flowerbed with a braided Danish Willow and a smaller Dalecarlia Birch/Ornäsbjörk (that got beaten up at the last frost).

There is space to the left in case I hopefully need to make it larger.

The Iris there just now are; "Gusto", "Double Standard", "Concord Cruch", "Gulls Wing", "Ruffled Velvet" & "Dance Ballerina"

Even if the weather have been cold the last week is the sensitive Zon 3 rose "Ilse Krohn" thriving against the south rock wall of the barn, so well that I dared to put a Lavendel there as well

The spring is loooooong this year, love it!

The Narcisssus still looking great and smells fantastic

Some of the Grape Hyacinths start to get brown from below

And some of them look fantastic, still

Even if it's raining, there is so much beauty around, some of it just then

Warmest Regards, Per!

Old trees and little new ones

Living in such a old village as Lövstabruk with parks and gardens there are some really intresting trees around and it's going to be fun to discover them and learn more.

My favorite, so far, is the Chestnut/Kastanj by the bus stop, I love to follow the dramatic development of leaves and flowers on it

Elegant season opening of the Common Lime/Parkolvon

This is a very rare one for Sweden: Caucasus Buckthorn/Kaukasisk Getapel

There are some I don't know what they are, so help me if You can:

Today it has been a brilliant sunny day and I planted some small trees myself, some rooted by me and some I bought small (to save money)

A Larch tree/Lärkträd to expand the meadow & a Weaping Willow/Hängpil in a wet area

My favortie Birch, the Swedish Ornäs Dalecarlia, small but still with the beautiful leaves & my Magnolia "George Henry Kern" is still in a pot, have not made up my mind yet, dig it down or keep it in a pot (a larger one). It has one flower (upper left) and more coming :D

Other things happens in my garden, like that my favorite Tulips start to bloom: Tarda Tulip/Flocktulpan!

I love the low flowers and that usually have 5-7 flowers on each bulb, the Roe deers don't eat them and the colouring is like a beautiful aquarell

And the Grape Hyacinths/Pärlhyacint I got from my parents last fall start to bloom as well

And OHHH the excitement, soon it's Rhubarb/Rabarber time, yum yum!

The Heavy wet snowfall the other night disappeared quickly, but brooke branches on young trees and flattened hedges, in my case only my beautiful fragant Narcissus (bought cheap in a pot at IKEA) where all flattened :(

But I cut them off and put them in my Finnish seven armed vase to enjoy

Have a great weekend all!

Warm regards, Per!

Ilse Krohn in her new home & the Forrest floor filling up with beauty

When I moved in to my new home and garden in the late fall last year did I do some good deals at the garden centers closing down for the season.

I did fall in love with the climbing rose Ilse Krohn, even if Zone IV where I live could be a challenge. I decided to put her against the beautiful stonewall to the food cellar, south facing, there she would get warmth, also stored in the stones and be protected from the north winds.

I put her down in the soil temporarily last fall and today I put her in the final flower bed with wooden frame, open in the bottom with a deeper soilfilled hole under. Next to it I probably plant some Thyme, but not sure yet.

I took the opportunity to weed and clean out the whole flowerbed next to the food cellar wall.

When I moved in last fall was this part totally neglected and the rest a gravelled parking lot, the grass You see is moved here from other new flower beds (see October in my Blog) and the rocks found in the soil and put where the water comes from the roof tiles during rains.

I have a few pots with spring bulbs (Grape Hyacinths & Narcissus) around my entrance,......

..., but now I need those pots for other plants so I put all the bulbs in the new flowerbed where they would end up anyway. I will fill this bed with bulbs for next spring :D

This flowerbed, very visible from the entrance will be for the spring bulbs, but also for a lot of summer flowers that can be changed every year.

This is the flower combination for this year:

Sunflower "Ruby F1", Summer Rudbeckia "Cherry Brandy", Marigold "Bronzed Beauty" & Spice Tagethes "Tangerine Dream".

I think this combination will look great towards the stonewall.

I took a break in the gardening to go to the English park in the village to pick some Ramson/Ramslök for lunch.

The snow is gone in the park and all the Ramson makes the forrest floor greener by the day!

This small tiny flower and leaves of the Butterbur/Pestskråp will grow rapidly and tower over all the Ramson after they had their glory.

But for now the Ramson is the star, here with the village Manor House in the background

I took a little de-tour home in the fantastic spring weather to check out how far the forrest flowers has come!

Here the simply beautiful Coltsfoot/Tussilago-Hästhov

And the delicate Blue Anemone Hepatica/Blåsippa which cover larger areas of the forrest floor, pre-cedor to the as beautiful white version.

The Ramson/Ramslök was put in a Omelett made by local Eggs from Roslagen and Cheese made on the nearby Island of Åland!

Bon Apetite, Per!

Snow´s gone and it's Spring again

The mini winter is over and with +10C the snow quickly disappear!

Time to start up the garden slowly but surely, and it's all so fun this the 1st spring in my garden :D

Up in the Geranium Hotel on the top floor it's soon time to take cuttings, but I will wait another week!

The little garden gnome I bought in Chile for 15years ago posing amoung the Geraniums!

A little Maple tree I digged out from the Lilac hedge at the cottage survived the winter indoors and shooting beautiful lime green leafs

My 1 meter high Mårbacka Geranium will give a lot of cuttings this year

Down in the kitchen it was time to put the 1st seeds in soil and I started with Franchis Peperone "Padron" from Gourmet Garage, Chilipepper "Piment dÉspelette" that is supposed to be able to grown outside, Hollyhock/Stockros "Chaters Double" for the south facade towards the road, Eryngium "Miss Willmott's Ghost" and Large Verbena.

Plus some seeds I got from my red Amaryllis and also from the Flock Tulips/Flocktulpan at the cottage

Out in the garden I discover more and more Snow Drops everywhere, in the Woodland, in the hedges and here and there in the lawns, so beautiful.

On the other side of the stream is the 1st bud on the Lilac showing

 And the water is on full power with all the melting snow.

Time to take away the protecting leafs from the new flowerbeds and make space for all the bulbs to see the daylight.

I cheated and bought some ready flowers in a flowershop to get a teaser of what's coming, here some Narcissus put together with some moss and branches from the forrest. I put it in a big pot for outside.

In my livingroom I have some colourful Tulips to match the art on the walls

And today I found some funky shaped Birch/Björk branches that I put in my favorite vase from Finland, for my diningroom!

Until next time, enjoy!

Per!