Hunting spring signs

 

It's a pity, last time I wrote it was a real Nordic winter... some beautiful days. But within one week it was green, raining warm water or very misty in Småland again. We didn't see the sun for weeks. Only some moments we had to go out quickly to catch the sunlight for some minutes. Hopefully now it will change to early spring, don't you think? Maybe spring will come a little bit earlier this year 🙏.

While we keep ourselves busy inside we keep on hunting spring signs, till now we only found the snowdrops. Just now we are busy with next years planning. What days shall we open? What events we will take part of? This is the time to subscribe and upload actual information. I think we will start with Lingonställen beginning of June. They have an Easter event end of March (info is coming soon on the side) but that is really too early for a garden. Would be nice to start some earlier, somewhere in May. I'm hoping every year but I don't think nature will hurry, so it's wishful thinking. But you never know.

End of June it will be time for Tusentradgardar again. A lot of (private) gardens in Sweden open up for every one. An event I really can recommend. Organised it every two years. Full of energy, even more inspiration and meeting only nice people and gardening enthousiasts. 

Half of July I'm happy to join the open garden day 2024 by Land.se again. They have not got the new information on the website yet, but it will come soon. It was a big succes last year, we booked a visitors record!

End of July I'm very honored to welcome the members of  "Värnamo Trädgård Förening" in the garden for a loo around and a fika. 

The event season will end with a Lingonrundan in the beginning of September. 

So it's looking like we will open up every two weeks in summer, maybe some spontaneous openings in between, depending on time and weather. I'm sure the summer won't be as bad and rainy as last year....

But now it's time to get out of my head again. I started with cutting the pelargon. I have some nice English (French for Dutch people 😝) Pelargon. My collection is growing more as I thought. They are so nice to grow here in this climate and they seem to like it in my upstairs room. But last year I managed to sell them also in the small plantmarket att the street side. This year I had also an a refugee, staying over for winter. The neighbors had no place to put it so it had a sort of sabbatical inside with us before getting out at their side again. 

Of course i started with the seedlings. Maybe to early but  just can't wait. I started with the experimental ones. Some difficult plants I want to seed, some plants who need warmth inside on my kitchen floor and cold outside to germ or seeds I hope they will flower this season too though they are two years plants. So experiments first. After it i started with Hollyhocks and Sunhats because i like to sell them flowering. But then they need to be quick unless I'm so quick to seed them more early. 

Hollyhocks

Outside we started with all cuttings. A nice part is always the Willow trees. Because it triggers me always to make something nice out of it. Those tranches are so fresh and beautiful colored and easy to work with. I already have some ideas in mind, you will see later. Beside of the water in the garden, it really needs to go down because now it's like a swimmingpool. But also in the lake is very high water. At lease we have no problems with drinking water next summer season. As soon as the temperature will go up to 7 degrees or above it will go fast and all jobs need to be at the same time. Before you know you are in the middle of summer (when you take a rest for midsummer). 

After the snow i'v been looking for Spring signs every day. It took a while but I'm very happy to tell you I found some: 

• Last week I was waken up very early by a singel crane in the lake nearby. The very first one a heard. It's looking like his/her partner is not back yet. When I look for the place where they collect before spreading after migrating from Europa I can read the first one was seen the 19th of February 2024.
• The snowdrops I told you already about but I even found the new buds in the Clematis Alpine what is climbing on the iron stairs. It's growing in the total open air in the back of the yard, so a very cold micro climate you could say. But maybe this is a tough cookie. 
• The Alliums bulbs started growing already... that's the sign we will need to prepare for closing the garden. Otherwise the hares will eat all of it. Or even worse they will find a place to make their nest. 

I really hope the water will disappear soon. Because it is too wet at the moment. We will ruin the grass by walking to much on it, it's very weak. The good ting is you can see the very nice mosses all around. Some people think they only grow on sick trees. But in contrary, they only grown in very healthy areas with clean air. I think they are beautiful. I call them trollenmos, but I don't know their real name. 

Do you want to read about last year spring time, please follow this link: Following natures steps last year. Or we will meet next time again, same place same time 😊.