A fresh start begins here, happy 2022

I would like to wish all my blog friends, a safe healthy, hopeful and happy new year. Never loose hope. Because the hope will be the light in your heart, today it will give you courage, tomorrow strength 💖 

Mellandagarna (or In Between days)

Frosty Flyxen

The days between Christmas and New Years Eve in Sweden (Romjul in Norway). Both days in the weekend, so this year not that special because not every one is free of duty. But a lot of organisations and fabrics close down temporary. So time to enjoy the very nice frosty winter weather as long as it stays with us, while we prepare for the final of the real. Time for ice fishing or a long walk on the lake Flyxen. Or have a quick stop with Vittaryd Kyrka to enjoy the forst and the sun coming through, when you are on the way for some New Years Eve shopping.

Vittaryd Kyrka

Frosty tree on a cold winter day

It's Christmas Time again

God Jul! Now when Christmas Time is coming pretty closer (Lille Jul Aften or Little Christmas Eve as they say in Norway) we want to wish every one a very a special Christmas Time. We hope you all can enjoy with all your loved ones, even when that's not possible we hope your can feel them warming your heart. We hope all can find the energy to spread cheer, warmth and happiness around the world around you. We wish you a happy Christmas. 

We also hope all of you can step into the new year with lots of happiness and good health. We hope you take care of the nearest and dearest. Wishing you a merry Christmas and a very happy new year, vi ses!

Because of the snow covered most of the natural materials (and it's not that easy to buy here in Sweden) I couldn't make as much Christmas Decorations as I used to. When you want to take a look, you can find it here: It is beginning to look like Christmas... 

Last weeks, today and the next week we are enjoying the cold weather and the snow around us. It really feels wonderful, like living in a magic Christmas card. From this place we wish you all a very nice and warm Christmas Time starting on Lillejulaften. Vi ses!

Walking in a WinterWonderland

Luciacrown (foto: Pixabay)

 

Have a glad "Saint Lucy's Day" or "Glad Lucia Dagen". It's a traditional celebration of the light on one of the shortest days of the year, they thought in the Julian Calender. Long ago they thought that long night was dangerous, with dark spirits outside. Best was to stay awake, burn some candles and eat something nice. Nowadays they still eat Lussekatter (sort of safrancake) and drink a glögg. there is still a procession (Lucia Tågen) with mostly girls in white dresses carrying lights singing the Lucia song. In the center you will find Lucia, bearing the candles on her head. Maybe have a Google on "saint lucia Sweden", you will surely find this tradition.

End of november Winter started, even in Småland in the south of Sweden. It started snowing a lot. The temperature went down, at first only for some days, but in the end it turned out to be some weeks. We felt like being on a wintersport holiday. We went out of home to enjoy the Winter Wonderland as much as possible.  When you look at the picture above it looks like the IKEA pepparkakor huset.... The only difference is, you can not eat it, it's real and it's our house in wintertime. 

It feels like living in a Christmas Card for us. We love it. Better snow and some coldness in this time of year then lot's of rain, dark skies and little of daylight. The world is looking lighter because the snow is reflecting the light. Very nice to prepare this way for Christmas Time. Of course we really hope we can keep the snow till Christmas? 

It's not possible to do things in the garden right now, beside of making plans for next year. Of course you have to do some fysical snow work, to clean the car and the road on your property. You never know how long the snow will stay and it will be more an more heavy and icy to take away. So mostly we fix it when it stops snowing a while. This time it had been snowing a lot, we were very happy our neighbor came with his shovel and helped us to clean the entrance to the main road. 

Last week we saw the wild pig had been around (as you can see above), just beside of our garden, on their way to find some food. They have never been so close as far as we know. So it must be because of the hunger. It's not funny when they come and ruin your total garden. On their way for food they plow very deeply in the ground and destroy everything on their way. We are so thankful we made a fence around the garden last year with the help of our neighbor Sebastian.

In Sweden they always shovel most of the roads. It can take a while in our neighborhood on the countryside, they take the most important road first. When it get's icy they sprinkle some sand or grit, depending on the circumstances. So they put less salt on the road (better for nature plants and your shoes 😊). I think this works perfect!

Lake Flyxen in winterdress

About gardening the mind

Often people think a garden is just about another extra job, that needs to be done...

For me it is about taking care of something. To give and get a lot of energy back. To enjoy the happiness when you see a new flower suddenly or succeed to create a beautiful area together with nature. The garden often makes me smile and feel balanced. There is no need to go to the gym, because I train a lot while gardening and I walk at least 0,3 miles a day. It is my hobby, my talent and my interest. It is also a way to calm down, to clean my mind from too much incentives. It really gets you down to earth again. I bought a new book which explains it, "The well gardened mind" Sue Stuart Smith wrote it, very inspiring. She is so right. Thank you for writing. 

So before more and more people get out of balance or a burn out, because they are running always, chasing the money or more unimportant....

Just get out of your head now, wonder what is happening around you without any money any pressure or challenge. Take a rest. Start to slow down for a while and start gardening again like we did in former days and feel the balance again. Think about it, good luck💚!

Autumn Time in Sjöbygget Garden Småland

 

Some work to do next weeks... About 60 wheelbarrows with leaves to carry away? For now it's still looking nice, when the sun is there you can feel the yellow color warm your eyes and body. But when we leave the leaves like this, the lawn will disappear totally in one winter. I think the owners before just left it for years so all the grass was gone we we arrived. Now we have been trying to create more green around the trees successfully, but you really need to take away the leafs every year. The positive parts? I will stay fit without an boring inside gym and we make some extra nature compost out of the leafs by conserving them in my backyard. 

Just before the first forst came (last week), the Morning Glory plant (Ipomea) was still flowering overwhelming. They had a very difficult start after sowing because it was to dry to grow, even with watering the seeds and the small plants. After a lot of rain late summer they started growing very quick and overtake the time they had lost before, because they are annuals. Next year I will have more....

Since they cut down a lot of trees in our backyard in spring, we are still celebrating the extra light we have got. Special in late summer and autumn it was already very dark in the garden. And now? We still have sun evening time in the house, even when the sun goes down more early. We are still very happy with the light, it's like a present. 

Other late flowering plants in my garden right now are the Heleniums and the Asters. These weeks we are fixing some of the the last garden jobs (like weeding and grass cutting), before temperatures are getting under 7 degrees. At that time the plants stop growing, at the same time it will get to cold for your hands to work in the soil. There are some other jobs you still can fix, like carrying wheel barrows, composting or pruning. So we will go on working outside for some weeks (if the weather is ok), while the robot has already started the winterstop and his parked inside (to take care of the battery). 

Only some weeks left for the gardening season. I have to prepare to go inside now. In 9 weeks it's Christmas Time. Nearly time to go inside...

Botanical impressions from Göteborg

Lately I walked around in the Trädgårdsförening in Göteborg again. Mostly just for a walk through, sometimes to take a better look. It's always a beautiful place to be. There is always something to see, they make so nice flower beds, every time of year and they started some prairie style gardening. This time of the year a lot of roses where still flowering, they didn't plant the bulbs yet (will come soon). In the middle of all you will find the beautiful Victorian Greenhouses. I read it was started as a park in 1842 for the people who were living inside the City walls, for trading plants en seeds, to recreate and relax. Goteborg City is still the owner of the park. It is funny to see all the inhabitants see the worth and still spent a lot of time to recreate in this gardens, during lunchtime, weekends and music festivals.

This time I had enough time to visit the real Botanical Gardens (little more south). This is one of the biggest botanical gardens in Europe, around 175 ha total (including a nature reserve and arboretum). So you can walk out of the city into the nature within half an hour.  Only 40 ha is cultivated and includes very rare varieties. You will find a herb part, a tree collection, a formel garden, big greenhouses with exotic palmtrees and special bulbs. It was founded in 1923 for research, development, conservatory and education. A big area where you can make a big (you can walk via the backdoor in nature to Mölndal), a small walk (just make a round in the gardens) or have a coffee and something to eat outside with a beautiful view. You can take a look yourself, I made some pictures of the Botanical Garden. They are building new greenhouses I saw this time.

It's always nice to walk around there, in the middle of the city in an oase of flowers and fresh greens. It always gives my new inspiration and energy. But it's also a very nice feeling to go back to my own garden and enjoy the flowers. Like you can see, down here. The lime Annabelles are still there, accompanied by the Little Sedum "Pure Joy".

Most successful try out this year: Blomstermorot

Do you like to see more? About the Botanical in Göteborg? Take a look here. About Trädgårdsförening
or The Botanical Göteborg?  Gardenista? 

September feelings Sweden

Dew in the morning, over the land and the lake, delivering beautiful atmosphere. Mostly the sun can come through and it will be a beautiful day like in summer, some times not and it will stay foggy. Late flowers, all sorts of red berries, orange cantharel -if your are lucky- and leafs starting to color).  Typical moods of september in Småland Sweden. Last weeks we had beautiful sunny summer days.  When I can trust the forecast (not sure about it) it will be more like that next weeks, but no Indian Summer (Brittsommar) like we had once. 

It's very nice weather now to be outside. To work, to paint, work in the garden and have coffee sometimes. Only in the early morning and late afternoon it will be more cold soon. But it will take another six weeks before frost, at least. But you never know, so lets hope so. I need some jobs to be done before. I'm already busy with some of the september garden jobs this year: 

• This is the perfect time to devide plants. It very humid in the air and it's easy to increase your number of plants, some also need a change of place. Most easy is to take them out and split them.
• I've been pruning the black current plants . Taking out the old branches so there's air and space for new ones to grow now. On time to make a lot of new flowers and berries in spring. 
• I got some sawing advice, some plant sorts you can already saw in autumn. They can manage the winter they said. They need even the winter cold to germinate and will be more early next year. I bought some special sorts, like dark foxglove and pimpernel perennials. It need to be done this week. 
• End of September I'm expecting some new bulbs for spring, ordered with Goteborg Botaniska. 
• Make some new autumn decorations around the house, to have a nice look again. 

• Prepare "växtloppis" plants (plants to sell) for winter. Give dem extra space to grow in containers. Make some new cutting of Sedum for next year. 
• Fatten, cover or prune other plants. Take away the annuals. 
• Make changes in the robot lines if needed (I have extended the robot mowing surface, so less cutting for me) and repair some defects. 

• Last weeding all around the garden (quit a lot high weeds I can tell you 🙈)
• Hopefully I can fix the gravel path too before my hands are getting to could. We had more rain then last years, so the weeds have been growing faster as I could keep away the weeds. I'm very sad it's getting more and more green. 
• One of the last gras cuttings. Maybe one or two more times. As long as temperatures are above 7 degrees it will keep growing. Keep in mind that the last cuttings must not too short to give the gras strength and cover for the winter. 

Both last three ones keep me busy at least 3 days a week. So I decided the garden is big enough now. We have been cultivating wild parts in the back extra (within the 2500 square meters) this year because we had more sun, plans and plants. Of course it takes more time to maintain, but now it is enough to manage, so I need to make it more smart and easy now. 

Time to harvest

It's time to harvest now

Finally, after years of investment, it is time to harvest now. Not only the vegetables like the very tasty late potatoes "King Edwards" (you see above), nice apples (sorts Katja and Inge Marie) but also a lot of beautiful red tomatoes, beans, carrots and of course herbs. Fresh mint for the tea, chives and parsley without any pesticides. 

This is also the first year we can harvest the result of years of time investments, with little money and a lot of hard work. Of course it would be easy when you put in a lot of money, but still the plants need to grow by themselves. You can not make them grow quicker by pulling the leaves. It takes even longer when you start with very small cuttings. I brought about 150 plantcuttings from The Netherlands (because plants are soooo expensive here in Sweden) and I got some cuttings form Swedish friends.

So we needed to believe we would reach that moment one day and be patient. This year the plants got more body, filled up the space, started flowering more, the mentioned garden structure became more visible and the big jobs are done.

A big challenge to grow all these. Most difficult (and important) is the very sandy poor ground in Småland. In summertime it get's very dry quickly, you need to water extra to keep things alive beside of that the rain rinses away all nutrition easily. In a wet winter the waterlevel raises very high.

Last years we have been trying to create some drainage in the back of the garden, to get away water (when it is too much and the plants will be rotten).

At the other side we tried to fertilize the ground by carrying lot of compost everywhere or to water with fertilizer and we mulched (covered) the ground with green compost like leafs to appear drying out.  

Typical prairie plant: Red Pimpernel

Also we selected plants for special areas. In the driest parts we like the native ones (plant families who have been growing there naturally for a long time). We replenish with prairie plants, they are "tough guys" and love dry sunny circumstances while they normally grow in prairie landscapes. (I wil write about them later. The Sails and Willow trees like to have a lot of water and don't mind getting wet feet in wintertime (while prairie plants would die). 

I'm happy to see we are coming somewhere now. Now it is time to enjoy it, to look back, select new plants to sow or plant and order in wintertime. Next year will be even better 👍 

Sjöbygget Garden with a view

New experiences in the Swedish garden

 

After a very hot start of summer in June and July, it changed in August. Like the rest of Europe had before, now heavy rains and thunderstorms in Sweden. All this water made the garden plants grow spectacular fast, like it never did before. (At least not in the last 5 years have been living here.) Only problem is that the weeds exploded too!

My herb garden

The new herb garden, which i started in May is fully grown now. It's looking good and very successful,  hopefully I can extend it a little more with some extra plants next year.

Since they have been cutting a lot of trees in my backyard in spring, we have got so much more light, even in our house in the late afternoon or evening. The dark high wall in the back is totally gone, that will be a big difference in wintertime. We are still very happy about it.

Spontaneous grow... Devils Trumpet (Datura)

We found some surprises too in the backyard. The big trees dissapeared and suddenly new plants appeared... The seeds were saved in the bottom for some years and got the possibility now to grow. Suddenly we have spontaneous a very big beautiful white Devils Trumpet (Datura) decorating our garden 😉. (By the way, don't eat anything of the plant, it's a very poisonous one...)

After some time the garden and the plants will be more and more grown, hopefully it takes less time to take out the weeds. Before that it will take extra time to fertilize the soil with compost, to keep the moist a little longer, because it's still very poor. Though we have been putting in a lot.

When you look back, we already achieved a lot. We started with nothing, only weeds, a lot of trees and high grass and no borders at all. Now we have a lot of borders, filled with flowers from spring til autumn, some fruittrees and berries, a path around the house and a fenced garden.

When you are curious what it looked like when we bought this property? Feel free to take a look!

Celebrating Swedish summertimes

Photo: Pixabay

Summer times when the living is easy... Just enjoy! very day we wake up the sun is there, mostly it is already warm. Even in the north of Sweden (Lapland) it has been over 30 degrees for weeks....We worry about it but don't try to think to much about it, because we cannot change this on our own, we can only take our part.

Sometimes it is a little cloudy for some minutes. Already for weeks. As you have been reading in the last post the weather was too hard to work in the garden. Not only the heat (always above 26 at least) but more the horseflies attacking you the whole time. They developed very well due to the high humidity last weeks. We decided to slow down. Celebrate sun and summer before it's dark and lonely again. Just enjoy what's coming up. So now we stopped working and started sleeping in the afternoon, having dinner evening time outside with friends and we decided to travel again (because soccer finally started after the Corona restrictions and we got our second vaccination 😀). Of course we still need to to be careful and take care of the rules in Sweden. But it is never very crowded or close and every one is taking care till now... maybe because it is holiday time? We will see, have a nice summer time too (and don't think it is always cold in Sweden anymore)... Enjoy!

Photo: Pixabay