Last garden season

The leaves are falling. We have been cleaing the grass for some days now. I think around 50 wheelbarrows (So no need for the gym this week again). Temperature is still upp and down, doesn't know really what to decide but it is mostly up to 7. So the last flowers showing their best, also those who never had the change because of early frost. We only had a little touch of frost last weeks. The grass is still growing, I still have to cut. But I'm nearly ready for winter. All the pots are in, as the furniture is. Some plants I want to keep over so they went inside the house. Making my last round for picking weeds because they are rooting very well in wet relatively warm weather. It will give me disadvantage on weeds in spring. 

The leafs turn bright before they fall, in the last sunny hours. Nature is stepping back. It's autumn again. Soon it will be dark, foggy and grey for weeks, no sun at all. They call it "Smålansk dimma". Today it is very dark and raining constantly. Time to overthink. To refresh. To charge the battery and collect some power again for next season. I feel it is the season of the soul now. Go back inside and enjoy a warm yogi tea, take a blanket, stare into the wood fire and relax. 

Looking back to the summer season of 2023 I had been open very weekend in summertime. Unfortunately it wasn't worth efforts, time and costs. It brought to less visitors, though I spent very much time on social media to get peoples attention. So this season my focus was on the big national events of gardening (Tusentradgarden in June en Tidningen Land garden Event) and the regional events of Lingonställen in Västra Småland. In between I would open up spontaneous when it was good garden weather. Looking back on this last season, this was a though cookie, a real difficult one. The weather was totally unreliable. When you have to go with the nature flow it was very nearly impossible to follow up and down.

This one crashed in a storm

In the beginning of the season we were "blessed" with several downpours what flushed away everything. It damaged a lot of stuff. Several times my garden turned out to be a swimmingpool. A lot of plants had difficulties growing and flowering because of too much water and too less sun. Suddenly it could also happen that the temperatures did rise extremely and we had to run and water them daily for saving the falling down and die. Later in summer it stayed unstable and wet, though we got more summer feeling in August. But then the holidays time in Sweden was over already.

The humidity was (actually the total year) extremely high for Sweden, around 70% on the average. In former years we were always very happy with the dry circumstances, around 40-50%. So it feels more and more we are living in a worldwide greenhouse. A lot of plants reacted on this weather by getting diseases, so they needed special treatments. The tomato's and chilis had a disastrous season, mostly rotten nearly no harvest at all. The weeds grew unbelievable fast, it was hard to keep upp with them so they would not over grow my plants. But I still was lucky because we had no snails here (yet). I heard many people complaining because they were so many and ate everything in their garden.

On the most important day of this year, the Tusentradgarden (a very big garden event in Sweden, once in two years) it was a total disaster. it was sooo much rain, one big downpour (very heavy rainfall for hours),  the whole day. It was around 30mm. I had to close the garden because otherwise the grass and robotlines would be ruined. The years before I had around 60 visitors. Now I have to wait another two years for next time. 

The spontaneous openings were difficult too. Often the weather in the "summertime" weekends were too wet or to cold to sit outside. Sometimes it was even stormy. When it finally was a nice day people choose not to come and visit us. After lots of rain people in the beginning of the Swedish holidays they were so happy to enjoy the final sunshine that they went to the beach. Which I can understand of course. But at the same I was disappointed they didn't come and visite me. Lots of work, costs and time for nothing, very much demotivating. It feels like blowing away lots of energy what I could have used for a lot of other things.

The only good garden day was the Tidningen Lands Event in the middle of July 2024. Like it should be normally. Nice summer weather and around 55 visitors. We sold coffee, cakes and plants. We had a lot of garden talks and it gave energy back. 

So now -in autumn time- I need to think about the future. It is such a pity. I have been following my heart. Build up my dream in some years. I was happy baking cakes. I should like to meet people, share my love and knowledge for gardening. I keep hoping every time, but I have to be hones. t. It is not worth the efforts and I haven't got the energy anymore to keep on trying. So with pain in my heart I know I have to stop with the open garden with fika. 

At the same time is the garden my energy for living. For me it's like emptying my overstimulated head and finding my soul again. So next year I will keep it for myself and make it my hobby again. Only the plant market will continue next year. The rest of the summertime I'm free to do whatever is on my bucketlist. I need to find something new. But most important is feel free and enjoy life now!

 

Lingonställen Skördetid 31th of August / 1st of September 2024

 

The last chance to visit us this season. Today, Saturday the 31th of August and tomorrow Sunday the 1st of September 2024 (10-15). Please take this opportunity to look around in the late summer garden, enjoy a homemade fika or buy some perennials for next year. I personally baked a very nice apple pecan nut cake with a touch of autumn yesterday. I have still a lot of plants for sale in the plant market. They can already rote and grow before winter so, I'm sure you will have flowers next season. 

It is already two o'clock now, after 4 hours of waiting really nobody showed up today. So I'm very sad and disappointed now. I need to think what to do tomorrow. I don't want to wait for hours anymore. But everything is ready and prepared just now so it doesn't make any difference, it doesn't matter anymore. Can't save any money. So I will go on tomorrow anyway, though it hurts so much. 

It is such a pity. I have been following my heart, finding my soul. I should like like to meet people, share my love and knowledge for gardening, but no one is interested. 

So now - coming autumn time- I really need to think about next season. An open garden with coffee and cakes is not just pushing a button. It is not a pop up store what's always ready, you can open and close spontaneous whenever you want. There is a lot of work behind. To take care of a garden is a fulltime jobb. I takes investments, time and lots of energy. I stayed at home the whole summer to have a garden to visit. But when there is nothing coming back it's not worth it. I need to let it go...

It's time for the Loppis Rally Vittaryd now

Now it's time again, we will join the Loppis Rally in Vittaryd on the 17th of August. Don't miss it!

We found a lot of stuff we can sell, beside of plants, coffee and a very fresh homebaked fika of course. So when you din't have the opportunity earlier this season -or you don't like plants- this is the moment for visiting us. Maybe you will find a treasure...

By the way the last change for visiting us: Last time for opening this season will be with Lingonställen, on the 31th of August and the 1st of September 2024. See you soon....👍

What's next summertime

Land Oppen Trädgård

Next time Open Garden will be the weekend of the 20th and 21th of July 2024. The Land event is on the 21th of July. Because were are open already on Sunday (10-18), we will also open up on Saturday the 20th too (10-18). The preparing work is the same 😜. Of course we will fix the homemade cakes and fill upp the plantmarket. 

Spontaneous opening

Maybe there is a spontaneous opening before. When we have time to bake a cake and we are working in the garden anyway, we can easy open the garden at the same time. But of course, the difficult part seems to be the unstable weather this year. Would be nice, just no more endless rain and finally time to enjoy the summer weather to fill up the energy. 

Tusentradgarden 2024

It has been a really good experience the years before. It's so nice to meet people with the same interest and to talk about gardening with people you don't know. That's why we joined this time too. We had very high expectations, because it's only once in two years, despite of some discussions every year. It should be very nice to join every year. 

The garden was tip top. No more weeds, old flowers taken out, all the grass was cut and even the sides were trimmed. We planned our trips around this date months before and shortened our family visit because the garden needed to be ready in time. We had been working for weeks before the event of the year. We were so happy we managed all, though everything was growing fast and the unstable weather was a challenge (sometimes very hot sometimes very cold and wet). But in the end we were ready too.

The deception couldn't be bigger. It was very nice weather before and the day after. But on the the 30th of June, the day it was open garden day heaven opened and send us heavy rains from early in the morning till late in the afternoon. We even got an orange varning because of al the rain falling down in very short time. Despite of this some very brave people came to visit me. Actually, they didn't meet a very happy garden owner, I'm sorry. I was too disappointed and sad. I wasn't making sense to sit inside, waiting for visitors and run out with an umbrella getting totally wet anyway (despite of the good clothes), walking in a lot of water showing muddy plants who had fallen down. I had to close the garden because it was like a swimmingpool, the water in the garden was too high to walk (it would damage), beside of that I only had a small cold shelter for the visitors. Most of the sitting places you could enjoy your coffee and cakes were outdoor. The day was totally lost, all the work and planning for nothing. And like you all know, not only the plants will grow, also the weeds and the grass. So we will have to keep on going maintaining. Hopefully it will be better next time, in 2026. But it is so far in future. Maybe I will join again, maybe will meet again.

But for sure, at least this season the garden is opened. After a short break we will pick up the garden work again. Next chance to come and visit us is the weekend of 20 and 21th of July 2024. Maybe we can meet this time? We will send a mail to heaven for some summer sun and a rain stop 😇. 

Can't wait to see you...😎

 

Tusen Trädgårdar 2024

As a lot of gardens in Sweden we will join and open up again. Next time is 30th of June 2024 (10-15). You will find us and more information on the website of Tusentradgardar 2024. 

Plantmarket (växtloppis) is always open

 

When I'm working in the garden I will always find small baby plants growing near the bigger ones, the mamma's. Or plants are growing too big so I will have to split them to keep them healthy fur future.I have been collecting a lot of plants now, most of them are perennials. 

In wintertime I will always sow a lot of plants, to keep me busy with growing. I've been busy with surprise climbers (I found the seeds somewhere and planted them), Snapdragons, Solhat, Tobaccoplants (my favorites), Verbenas (very lucky because the old ones outside didn't survive the severe winter), Petunias and more. Just because I like it so much to be busy with growing plants. It gives me lots of energy, something I really need in the long wintertime. It makes me very happy to share them with you. It started beginning of June and a lot a people found their way to the plantmarket (växtloppis) already. The good thing is: It's always open. So when you are driving by, just take a look. 

I didn't tell you last time but in between the last posts I've been very busy outside of course. It turned out to be summer for a while in Sweden at least for some weeks. The garden just exploded in only three weeks. Right now everything is already one meter high. (It helps very much the hare is not getting in anymore). So it's growing weather over here (not really like in the Netherlands, it's too much rain....) for the time being and i will enjoy it fully. I'm outside every day, we have no biting insects yet and I have a goal (open garden and selling plants). Nothing more needed. I was very lucky I already weeded in the cold weeks in april, before this explosions. So the weeds are little behind and -for now- manageable. 

Of course,  the gras cutting for some hours every week will go on whole summer. The good thing is meanwhile I walk 3-4 km's on the average daily only in the garden. I combined it with running with the wheelbarrow filled with ground from the compost through the soft bottom, it were serious training sessions. So no more sports needed this times. Only little yoga to stretch my muscles again. When I need an easier job for a while there is always something to repot again. When you sow a lot of plant they need to be in a new -little bigger- pot soon. It would be easy to sow them in very big pots but it wouldn't work. I have been told plants grow better in smaller pots getter little more space each time. In a big pot they would drunk. In some way they need the sides to warm their roots... 

By the way. In the end, just before we left for a little holiday, mrs & mr. Magpie decided to bread somewhere else. Maybe we were talking to loud or coming to close in the Christmas tree disturbing them to often. Now they only visit us early in the morning, like they try to bully us back because we ruined their plans. But the young birds can grow up more save now, we saw already a lot of them around the house. 

Last weekend it changed, also lots of rain and thunderstorms. We will see how next weeks turn out to be. Will it be the same short summer like we had last year? And autumn after it? I really hope not🙏. You will know next time! 

Finally time to open up for Summer

 

You are invited to visit us this weekend, the first and second of June 2024. We will join the Lingonrundan in Västra Småland (lingonrundan.com). All sort of organisations open their doors. Feel welcome and take a look with some of them. 

We, in Sjöbygget Trädgården, have been working very hard last weeks to create a "balanced natural garden" in the middle of de woods of Småland near the Flyxen sea. It's an inspiration garden filled with grandma's plants. It is incredible how fast plants grow in only three weeks, when it's finally getting little warmer. We had winter till beginning of May.  

On this moment the Midsommarrose is flowering, the Rododendron, lots of Aklejas and some Iris are coming out too. Or do you just want to be outside enjoy the nice weather and relax with coffee and home baked cakes. You are very welcome to visit us and enjoy our place too!

PS: Before I forget to tell you, we have a small plantmarket with seedling and small plants for sale. 

Garden challenges

 

Backsippa (Pulsatilla)

This time I like to take you with me in my garden adventures. About the challenges in gardening, the plants very slowly waking, taking special care for seedlings in a difficult climate and uninvited visitors. In the garden you will have good and bad times. You win some, you loose some. It will never be like you expected. Always new actual jobs coming up spontaneous and it will always workout differently as you thought. 

The unstable climate doesn't make it more easy just now. It's too much water at once, sometimes on a frozen ground. Or too little water in months, so the ground will dry out and get heavy water after a long time. Different seasons within some days. Too warm or too cold at once. Last year it didn't rain from april to June. This springwinter the clematis nearly drunk in the swimmingpool created on the icy bottom (but I managed to higher up a little with some extra sand). Hope they will manage and are not rotten already. Last weeks we had two days of summer with 20 degrees, but after it got winter again. We even had snow within 5 days after. 

Now, in the end of april it's still freezing at night. I think last year springtime was a little earlier? springtime? Though my seedlings are on the way out. I have them on the veranda, I try to cover them every evening and uncover them in the morning. Nevertheless it didn't help enough or it was too cold. Last week freezing -3 at least. So I lost some of the seedlings. I need to start again later, when I just thought this project was finished. Last week I started cutting the grass partly by hand, the robot is not running yet. But I had to look in the future again.... when it start freezing hard it shouldn't be cut too short, then the grass will be damaged....but you'll only know afterwards. I'm happy it went well this time. The first days after there was no frost.

The plants are -very- slowly waking up from wintersleep, for the last weeks. It started, like always with the snowdrops some weeks ago. Some weeks after the Crocus started. Now we are in Narcissus time. And one of my favorites: Vitsippor, Blå sippor & Backsippor. The tulips are starting soon, they haven't been eaten. But most of the trees are still not green at all. Maybe in two weeks? The positive side is that I managed to weed the total garden for the first time, while the weeds are still very small because it's still so wintery. So not growing that quick that you'll soon be behind. While weeding I will often find a lot of baby plants. I collect them now for selling later in spring (in the plantmarket at the roadside), while they can grow in a pot for a while. By the way, this is also the ideal time for replanting and designing the borders. My favorite part of gardening: making nice border combinations. Like painting with different plants, times of flowering or leaves and complimentary colors. 

We even managed to fix already some bigger projects. We cut back the hedge at the barn, so it can grow this season again. It was very old and had a lot of old died branches. Soon it will be fresh and renewed again. We made a watercover under the airco/warmth unit outside. We pruned the willow trees, took away all winter leafs and prepared the compost side, I even carried out compost 💪. As far as possible because it was still a swimmingpool, so it went out to be a sort of mud wrestling. But in the end, gardening is just like in real life. You will meet a lot of challenges. It's up to you how you handle it. At least I got a very good and healthy condition from working outside, because it is like a good physical workout every time. The coldness is challenging too - I don't like to weed when it's under 7 degrees, it is sooo cold. Of course I wear good clothes but I really have to warm my fingers after an hour before I can move on again. Yesterday is was only 3 degrees, snowy and grey (of course 😜)... 

Also the animals are waking up. The first cranes we saw in Mars in the lake nearby, that's really early. A lot of reptiles did come out their wintersleep because we had some summer days. But when the severe forst came in the countryside again, a lot of these animals were found dead in the garden or on the streets. 

Last week I was working in the compost area when I spotted a slow worm for the first time (Snok på Svenska / Hazelworm in the Netherlands). In the two days of summertime I spotted the loving toads (pad - NL), in a very sunny but hidden place at the roses. The man climbed on the back of a female to be sure he's the first to mate. Just waiting to be carried to the water. They are not only ugly, they are lazy too.  Some weeks ago it was totally quiet around us, you couldn't hear anything. It's different now. A lot of birds have been starting nesting, most of the birdhouses in our garden are getting occupied now.  No signs of the hare yet, but we closed the gardenarea in March with a anti hare net. In winter we left the entrance open. It's not that big issue in wintertime because most of the plants disappear temporary into the ground. I forgot actually to protect the young beech trees, planned to be a hedge some day. The hare found them unprotected in winter and has not only been eating them more small again, all the buds with leaves for spring are gone too. I hope they will recover in summer. It's a pity one of them was ment to be the port to the compost area, I will have to change that one for a bigger one, otherwise it will take to many years to grow back. By the way I just took a look back, when you look at the older pictures you can really see what progress we made in the garden 💪. 

We also got some uninvited visitors. Mr and mrs Magpie (Skator/Eksters) decided to stay with us for a while. In the middle of a very big forest, with a lot of very nice and tall trees, they found their ideal nesting area very close to the window of our sleeping room. They build in very stable castle of branches, not easy to disturb. It's very high up in the Christmas tree, we don't dare dont climb that high. In the beginning they flow away when they heard Peter yelling at them. But now, they just think there's that crazy man again 😏. Now we made a very long stick of snow sticks and try to disturb the building and the breading every day, till now without any positiv result haha. But we are afraid they will stay with us for a long time, about next months. Breeding 20 days, feeding the youngsters another 20 days at least before they take there own way out. Mostly you can not mis them because they are very loudly (special early in the morning) and they shit everywhere around the place. And the worst of all: all the young small birds nesting in our garden are not save anymore, the eggs or young birds will be a very nice dinner for mr. & mrs Magpie and their youngsters. When they like this place too much they will be back the next years too.....😳. Let's see what happens.... See you next time!

Lingonrundan Påsk - för tidigt för trädgården

 

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 😊.