Garden Catch Up 4/4

So to the final photo catch up from my garden!

Feel free to ask questions in the comments field!

Enjoy:

My Dining room window with Pelargoniums Mårbacka and a very high Bornholm in the middle, plus others

My Living room window from outside with Pelargoniums Appleblossom Rosebud & Mårbacka

Outside my kitchen window on the north side did I make this shadow bed with pallet collars, it looked OK already this first summer and will hopefully be solid next year

Sunflower

Tagethes

 Day Lily

Echinacea/Rudbeckia

The Fragant Abyssinian Gladiolus/Etiopisk Doftlilja & a combination I'm very happy with: Red Smartweed/Blodpilört & Giant Daisies/Stor Prästkrage

September Charm/Höstanemon

Fuchsia Pink Marshmallow

 Fuchsia Jubilee

 Hollyhock/Stockros Alba

 It only rained twice this summer in Lövstabruk, this being one of the unique days

Thank You for follow me on this 4 day catch up, now it's time to start new projects for next summer!

The last days have I also been visitng two of my favorite gardens in Stockholm: Rosendal & Zetas, I will follow up with inspirational photos!

Take care for now!

Per!

Colourful shadows in my garden

These days when the heat is balming here in Sweden do I enjoy the more shadowy part of my garden.

Often I find that there is more intresting plants here as well, and I do my best to add more, both wild and tame :D

Off course is it the Rhododendrons that is showing of at this time: come rain, come shine, they still look fantastic.

This one I planted for a few weeks ago, and loving it!

Lady's Mantle/Daggkåpa

I always found Ferns fascinating and cannot get enough of taking photos of the birth process.

Off course was my visit to Stewart Island in New Zealand a amazing moment, Ferns in all sizes and shapes, whole forrests with them

The new Bugle Ajuga Reptans/Revsuga start to get its first blue flowers, looking good against the dark leaves

My Astilboides/Parasollblad start to recover after freezing down a couple of times

Another favorite, the Hostas

This is the Hosta Mediovariegata/Brokfunkia

Another Fern

And now it's the time for the Ramson/Ramslök to bloom and spread its mild fragance of onion

I hope You all have a great weekend, Per!

Busy days and noisy neighbors in my garden

It has been amazing sunny days for over a week now and yesterday it was 20C in the shadow, and balmy in the sun. A pleasure to work in the garden wearing a T-shirt :D

This is also when eating and other normal things coming second, when one loose track of time in the garden, specially since it gets lighter and lighter here in Uppland, now the sun is up at 4:53, down 20:38, loooove it!

That also means that everything else is waking up early as well, this morning I heard a constant noise trhough my bedroom window which was intriguing

(remember I moved here in October, all this is new to me)

The sound came from the huge old Maple at my entrance that just started flowering, and it must have been millions of Bee's and Bumble Bee's, wonderful :D

Over the road and by my stream stand a old tree that my neighbors told me that Seagulls usually nesting in, and Oh Yeah they do, the noise from them when protecting the nests (2 of them) is incredible, but somewhat comforting for me coming from the Baltic coast growing up with this noise.

In my garden that had nothing, digging is the daily shore. But it's great to start see how my plan works to get some basic structure. Off course some changes in the plan are done now and then.

A small hedge of Raspberries "Preussen" are planted north of the veggie garden to somewhat protect from northern winds

 My plan is to have a straight line from the Apple tree Signe Tillisch to the house through the Veggie garden, with the Raspberrie hedge, then the Pallet collars to the left and it will be open beds to the right (just now only Black currants and Rhubarbs there). On the east I will plant a Blackcurrant hedge (saw one at my friend Evy's house here in the village and liked it).

In the "Formal" garden next to the house did I dig a 10 meter long flower bed the other day, a lot of Slag stone (the backside living in a old Ironworks village), and roots from the Snowberry hedge.

Here I will have mostly flowers attracting Bees & Bumble bees, that can take the constant sun here.

In the center of the square lawn did I plant a little Finnish Cherry tree: Rauhala

I changed my mind with the Pallet collars I put by the barnwall corner to protect from winds. My plan was to have Tomatoes, Chili and other plants in them because of the all day sun, BUT when it was raining a night a couple of weeks ago did I see that the water from the rooftiles went straight down in them, not good.

So I took away the long ones, and kept one. I planted a lovely little Lilac "Josée" that only will be 1,5 meter high, and are extremely fragant. Around the base did I pland Isops that I got from my friend Evy, they are called the Lavendel of north and suppose to be able to take our winters:

It will be fantastic to sit here with a cup of coffee

So what did I do with the left over pallet collars?

I re-digged the whole shadowbed by the house and extended it :D

My Magnolia "George Henry Kern" have it's first flower bud. It's in a pot, and I'm still debating with myself if I dare to plant it in the protected entrance garden, or keep it in a pot.

Oh well, I guess it will take a lot of Fika/coffee breaks pondering that, but now I'm off out in the garden again!

Have a Great Sunday, Per!

A long Spring weekend & changes to Summertime

This weekend have been fantastic, a first real Spring weekend with a lot of sun and generous temperatures, topped with changes to Summertime (the sun now goes up at 6:14 and down at 19:30 here), all good!

I love when I'm in the garden all day long, working in the sun and fresh air, totally forget about time and food, and a nice feeling of satisfied exhaustion in the evening!

Since I already Linseed oiled the Pallet collars for the Veggie patches, it was just to start to dig.

The first box where already down, with the Red Garlic I planted in the fall! 

To the left Black Currant and Rhubarbs!

 Each square meter of soil had about a bucket or more of rocks, mostly Slag stone/Slaggsten since this village lived of Iron production since 16th century it's not a surprice.

The soil is incredible rich being ancient seafloor, hence I just don't cover the ground and put the collar on top of it which is the usual way. I wan't to use this soil, and check out the Earth worms/Daggmaskar, loads and loads of them, Fantastic :D 

The Saturday was just incredible!

 Done! I placed them with 80cm in between, exact the mesurement of a collar so IF I wan't I can put one more between them

The only breaks for "food" was besides the regular "Fika" breaks with coffe, a cold powerdrink (Broccoli, Spinache, Ginger, Chili, Cucumber & Apple), I usually just use what I have at home.

 The Black Currant "Polar Ribes" I planted in October coming strong

 The Ball Thistles I got from Ann-Cathrin (see Oct 2013) start to wake up with small fussy green leaves.

So, digging those Veggie pats, what to do with the removed lawn?

I added another 30cm to the front lawn (former graveled parking)

On the north side on my barn it's a naked big soil patch where the former renter had covered with Tarpaulin/Presenning to protect the ground from car parts.

Here it's shadow until 4 or 5ish in the afternoon, so yet another place good for shadow plants (which I LOVE).

 I decided to keep the area next to the wall free, plant a few Ferns against the rock wall & a climbing Hydrangea to cover the old electric cabinett (not in use). I also have my leaf composts here against the wooden wall.

 So I made a meter wide path with the lawn bits and kept the larger part open for a shadow garden plus a few trees and bushes.

The water falling freely from the rooftiles and I put all the Slag stone where the water lands.

Maybe I will have to put a stone path there later, but that's the day!

It's not all hard work, it's also important to enjoy the small sensations popping up here and there in the garden :D

My favorite little Tulip Tarda/Flocktulpaner

And here something where I enjoyed the color and shape of the leaf

I also oiled some smaller Black Pallet Collars, here I placed 3 on eachother, two larger and one smaller, where I will plant a Climbing Hydrangea to cover the electric unused cabinetts and somewhat the kitchen/Veggie Compost.

In the lover collar will I plant something bushy and hanging.

I put the compost here nere to the house since it's a warm compost for year around use, good when I need to shovel the snow in the winter.

As some of You remember from October, I planted a Lilac here that I brought from our summer cottage, I took it away to place it somewhere else.

 Towards the south part of the barn did I put the collars a little bit larger and 3 storey high for full sun, but also to create some room feeling of the former laaaarge gravelled parking

Here on the south side it will be a nice corner in the sun for coffee breaks/Fika.

In the boxes will I have Tomatoes, Chili, Paprika and Herbs, very close to the house/kitchen

Many beautiful hours outside will be continued inside where I have branches of Japanese Cherry bought in Stockholm when I worked there earlier in the week!

Hope Your Spring is as beautiful, Per!