Jul 28, 2014

Gift of flowers and more First this and that!

This week I was extremely lucky, a Facebook friend of mine, Anita Eriksson in Skutskär, asked me if I wish to have some of her plants!
They are building a new patio outside her apartment where she have big flower beds and she need to downsize. I went to her on my way to our summer cottage and picked up the plants.
Here they are back at my home, and I'm SO happy for them, a white Iris, a couple of different Day Lillies, a Agapanthus and a lot of other plants!
Thank You Anita :D

There is a LOT of firsts lately in my new garden, here is a few:
First Potatoes
First flowers on the Agapanthus from Lövstabruks Trädgårdsmästeri, unusual for the 1st year
First Cucumber flowers on a plant I got from Evy
First Fragant Tobacco Flower & First Black Currant
This "Pink Gallery" Lupin are now having a total of 10 flowers, amazing.
Today the First Hollyhock/Stockros "Alba" started to bloom
First Beetroot
First Flower on the Agapanthus from Anita & First Phlox
First Flower on the September Charm/Höstanemon
First Flowers on the white Astillbe

There is also a few First Insects in my garden:
Frittilary Butterfly/Pärlemorfjäril
Dragonfly/Trollslända

In a corner in my inner garden do I have this solid Brass sculpture I dragged home from Cochin-India, He's watching out for that part of the garden
I got more stuff for my garden at the local summer auction today, antique Swedish Jam pots and a a heavy 50 litre wooden box with handmade Iron mounting for my potted Hellekis Manor Walnut tree

The south barn wall towards the entrance start to shape up. Growing more quickly by the day is; Sun Flowers/Solrosor, Tobacco Flowers/Tobaksblommor, Summer Dahlias, Marigolds/Ringblommor, Mulleins/Kungsljus and Tagethes
On the other part do I have Tomatoes, Paprika, Chili & Pelargoniums

That's all for today, and I end with a photo of my new Jubilee Fuchsia thats just growing and growing
Have a great week, Per!

Jul 22, 2014

Garden Inspirer: Evy in Lövstabruk, Part 3

Last week my garden friend here in Lövstabruk, Uppland-Sweden had garden friends visiting.
She invited me to come and say hi! Great to meet them, really nice gardeners; Cecilia, Anna-Karin, Veronica & Stefan. I hope to see them and their gardens in the future.

I have been taking photos of Evy's garden before:
and this time I took a little quickie around her amazing garden again,
Enjoy:

Thank You again Evy, so great to have You as a garden friend, inspiration and village neighbor, Per!

Jul 21, 2014

Now are Evenings the best time to work in the garden

Just now it's too hot to work in the gardens in the middle of the day, so early mornings, or evenings.
Since the sun going down around 22:00 there is a good 4 hours to do some job.
Like shifting stones for a new path!

But first: The Great Globe Thistle opened up its first flower today and quickly the Bumble Bees where there, I love it, my garden is buzzing all day long as I hoped :D
And just below in the shadow is the Dahlia "Playa Blanca" brighten up with it's first flower as well

In my shadow garden behind the "barn" have some work been done, yes I do actually working in the garden as well as taking photos of pretty flowers, they all need a start :D
Some of You maybe remember the mudbath it was there when I started this spring, if not, here it IS

Digging new flowerbeds here is always intresting, and hard work. Since there wheren't any Garbage collecting in the old days, people digged holes in their garden and dumped the stuff there. I find a lot of animal bones, porcelain, rusty metal, corks,... but mostly rocks and slagstones.

The rounder rocks going to a new path in the large shadow flower bed, from the garden to the compost. I just fill up everytime I find one
My Yellow "Meadow-Rue"/"Aklejruta" is the first to bloom in the part to the west, but more is coming
It looks pretty empty now, but these plants will be pretty large so I space them out a bit and have planted a lot of different ground cover plants to keep the moist here in the future.
(far left is a willow from our cottage)
Here to the East have the Rhododendrons had their amazing show, and now it's the different Day Lillies time to show off. Here the "Bugle weed"/"Revsuga" quickly cover the ground.
Next to the shaddow flower bed is the Irisbed. My neighbor cats use this as their toilet so many Irises are gone :(, but I'm continuing my task and have planted a lower Pink/White Geranium to cover the ground here so the cats have to find somewhere else to do their dumps. The Geraniums will also give a soft contrast to the sharp Iris leafs.

The Willow to the left was a braided stick I bought at the Nordic Garden Fair from some Danes.
Here in the end of the "Mid Easter Report" You can see when I planted it!
I put it there for fun, and since it's the lowest most moist part of my garden so I thought I could use it to suck up some water.
It seems to like it there

Not being a Fuchsia Lover/Expert, this "Fuchsia Jubilee" makes me change my mind!
I love it by my evening coffee place and it's quickly growing to a small bush.

My first Garlic Harvest of the "Aglio Rossi di Sulmona" from Gourmetgarage
And with that it's time to get out and enjoy the sun&heat, Per!