God Jul & Gott Nytt år

 

We wish every one reading this blog a very nice Christmas Time, where ever you are or with whom. I wish you all the warmth you need 💖, with all you're nearest and dearest in the the neighborhood. I will burn some candles for all those who can't be close just now.... We only can hope for better times 🙏

See you next year! With love Brun 😘

Take your chance for special Christmas presents

Last time to go out and visit one of the Lingonställen in your surroundings this year. I've been looking at some of these places, they really offer nice and special presents. Take your chance!

Stegaryd Sjöbygget is closed this time of the year but we warmly recommend the places who have opened this time. You can find places of your interest here: Lingonrundan Jul 26-27-11 & 17/12/2022

It's really worth your visit! 

But next year we like to welcome you again in our garden for a coffee, a cake or some plants. All homemade of course! Depending on the weather we will open soner or later in spring, Vi ses!

First of Advent again

Start of the Christmas Time in Sweden. And I can say: It is beginning to look a lot like Christmas...

In the shops it's totally Christmas, as well on the streets in the city and the private houses along the road. Only some weeks to go. Hoping for some snow to come.

I've been very creatieve last time (I was inside anyway 😜) and I have been working on Christmas decorations to create a real Christmas house. I like working with natural materials of course. I like them very much (the ferns, the mossa and pine cones) but it's also so difficult to buy suitable natural decorating stuff and very expensive too, when it is possible to buy it at all. Beside of that the assortment on the countryside in Sweden is very small, in the cities it is much better. 

For me it's always the best time of year. I like to decorate, to make new creations, to use new colors. It's like party time packing out all boxes with Christmas stuff. With a good herbs tea (filled up with pomorans, kardemomma, cinnamom and fresh ginger). a fresh baked almonds cake and a warm fireplace the ideal start of this time. When you need some inspiration, have a look on my earlier posts about Christmas decorations. And of course Pinterest is a good source to find extra inspiration. You can find me there too!

Meanwhile we take the time to visit some Lingonställer in the neighborhood, worth recommendation. Late Sunday afternoon there's the yearly Julskyltning in Ljungby. It's sort of partytime, with Christmas market, opened shops, Santa Claus and time to put on the lights of the enormous Christmas tree. 

We wish you lot's of luck next weeks. I know in working times it is always the most busy time of the year. We try to keep busy in the dark, starting to count down for Christmas....only 4 weeks to go.

By the way, we got just a little sun last week (just before going down again). I saw it on the perfect spot, at lake Flyxen. See you soon....😏

Typical november days?

Strange times, every thing keeps growing... So I have been cutting the gras again by hand, the robot was already in wintersleep so I did it myself. It is the beginning of november.... some years we already had snow. Or we had very grey days, below 7 degrees. But til half of November it was daytime 10-12 degrees. 

The birds start singing again, we even saw some flying around with nesting materials 😂. We are lucky too.... we have been sowing gras , its already growing. It looks totally green right now. We still could plant, also on the new empty places. 

Later it got a little more cold, no sun at all anymore and very grey, misty and wet as usual in November. Real Småland colors. Must difficult time of the year for us. It feels like being dark whole day, getting a little light late and very early dark again. Your body doesn't wake up anymore and wants to sleep all day. We tried to be outside as possible to get more light but we still needed our blue light again, to keep fit. We fixed all the before winter jobs, like closing the watertaps, empty the rain barrels and protect some special plants. I was very happy i could place them in one of my neighbors places for winter time. We also spread a lot of compost around the whole garden, covered by a leaf deck. It protects the plants for the frost and it creates a mulch layer for next year, so the ground won't dry out that quick. One of the last jobs was to clean the gras form leaves,which we managed, just in time.

Suddenly winter came and we got some very cold nights and snow. Beautiful, it really lights the days here in Småland. I really enjoyed the days outside, cleaning the paths (no more fitnesstraining needed now 😅) and making pictures from the snow, sending to friends and family. It is so beautiful, it filled my heart with so much warmth. And you know what? The good thing is, less then 5 weeks to go and the days will get longer and lighter again.

Time to start with Christmas decorations soon, let's put the music on....

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow....

Advents Time is coming closer

Nearly time to go out and visit one of the Lingonställen in your surroundings. We are closed this time of the year but we recommend the places who have opened this time. You can find places of your interest here: Lingonrundan Jul 26-27-11 & 17/12/2022

It's really worth your visit! 

Very recently I saw already a glimpse of the Santa Claus office somewhere....Did you see it too?

The Warmth of Autumn

Lots of tomatoes, even more appels and beautiful swamps on every corner of the street. All are so colorful and tasty. I already made a box with pickled tomatoes for winter, just to have aside of a meal. The rest of the tomatoes are (cut in peaces) in the fridge. I still need to make some apple juice with ginger on a rainy day soon. I already cooked some cantharellen, fresh picked from the woods. It's time to harvest 😀.

We saw the cranes leaving, with hundreds at the same time, special last weekend of september. How do they know what time they have to leave? They always leave with blue skies and little wind from the north west. It makes me wonder about natures strength and knowledge. But it always makes me little sad. But saying goodbye is always hurting, isn't it? I'm sure they will be back in march next year. 

The moose yacht already started here, we see the people wearing their orange suits and we hear the dogs barking early in the morning. And the leafs, they started falling now. In only two weeks it changed from friendly September weather (it can be soft and friendly with some sun and very wet at night - very well for the growing of plants or the preparing for winter) to more challenging October weather (less light, a lot of unexpected heavy rainshowers, sometimes a little sun and much more cold special at nights). Just like autumn. 

In this time of year you can't really make the planning ourselves, nature does. The frost, snow or coldness will come whenever they want. The best is to be prepared in time and take it easy later. The most important jobs (like collecting the seeds, move plants inside for winter, take away the annuals, storing the grasrobot, close the outside running water in time and cover the outside furniture) we fixed it in time, before the frost comes in. By the way, in a garden like this there is always something to do. Specially when you want to take care of your garden. Some jobs (or plans) are left - till next spring. It doesn't mean we don't do anything anymore outside, but it's depending on the weather. Some jobs you can do in wintertime too, except sowing, moving and planting.

So we started cutting the hedge between our neighbors. About 65 pine trees, sawing, cutting small and take away. We did it together with the neighbors. It was a hell of a job for us. We worked a long weekend together to get it away. Same time it was very cosy, with some outside coffee, grilled sausages and a beer in the end. And of course some painful muscles next days but also much more light in our house haha. Now we have to make a fence around the garden next weeks, because also the deer already found the delicatessen in the garden, they didn't come in last months because of the fence. 

The last annuals will go down now (I'm happy I collected the seeds for next year), the first frosty night was already here, it was minus 3 at night last week. The result was a beautiful view at the lakeside in the morning. Enjoy the view below 😉.

Do you need some to tips for your garden? Have a look here. You have still some days to fix it before wintertime is starting. 

 

September moods

Don't you think it's to early to think about autumn? For me it is, I really need some more time to prepare for wintertime.

But you can feel the autumn coming anyway... The appels were ready to harvest, both the yellow as the red ones. The ferns are starting to get brown (I still hope I can make a wreath out of it) , the beech is starting to get yellow leaves (but they don't fall down yet) and we've got a lot of flowers still around us. The moose is bellowing around all night, in the woods around us. Their calendar is telling them, it's time to mate again...They are very close this year, the moose is already been spotted twice by our neighbour just in the back of their house. Peter went out walking, just before sundown, he heart them very close to him (it's a pity he couldn't see). Maybe they were just laughing about Peter 😂. 

From gardening perspective, even in this part of Sweden we have a long winter, nearly 5 months, från november till april. It can be frosty and snowy, plants mostly don't like it and will wait for better times.  The rest of the year it feels like June or September weather, with some hot summer days in between, mostly in July - this year also in August. We were lucky, last weeks (end of August / beginning of September). We had very good summer weeks, blue skies, no wind att all, not too cold and not too warm. Very good for me because I need to collect some more sun and energy for autumn time, it can be dark, grey and misty last months of the year. But of course, I realize, we also need some rain for nature and ourselves, because the lake and the drinkwaterlevel in Sweden is very low. We tried successfully to save some water for watering the plants with the rain barrel. It works perfect as long as we get some rain sometimes. 

Last week I managed to paint and prepare some outside windows, before it's getting too wet for painting. We have still some windows to fix. Beside of that we still have some jobs in the garden before winter. As long as it will be 8 degrees or more I have to fight the growing of the weeds, the more I can take away the less work in spring. I need to change places of some of the plants and collect seeds for next year of course. Some plants need to go inside before frost. Some parts of the garden needs some extra compost (cut gras and home made compost) for better flowering next year. We have to cover the furniture as well before it gets to wet and put some things inside. But for now we still hope for some sunny days in September/Oktober. Maybe we will have a sort of Britt Sommar? When it stays a little sunny with some rain we maybe can find some Chantarelles?

And last but not least? Maybe the best of all jobs? Be creative and making new plans for autumn and winter ... And maybe then after that all, I'm ready for autumn 😜.

See you!

Seen recently....

Busy & Planning

 

Just now we have some others things to do. We had some visitors from the Netherlands and we are busy with all jobs you need to fix before wintertime. Like painting the house, weed weeding, seeding, maintaining the garden and preparing the garden for winter. Beside of that we are making plans for the future and reflecting about last season. Maybe there will be an opening around Advent, we will see later. You will hear as soon as possible, of course.

Last summer opening

 

Next weekend 6 and 7th of August 2022, it's time for Lingonrundan again. Sjöbygget_Trädgård will open up too (10-15)! Maybe it's the last opportunity this summer (the rest of the program is not clear yet), so take your chance now, come and visit us now. 

Take a look at the beautiful Flyxen lake, buy some self made plants in the växtloppis, taste our home baked cakes or enjoy a coffee in our garden. 

The hare is still around, sometimes he's irritating us a lot. Every day there is something new. For example when he is cutting of the Clematis dead at the bottom (who grew 2,5 meters this year) or biting off the flowers from the Asters and not eating them at all but leaving the rest on our terrace 😬. It's a challenge to live peacefully with nature every day... Come and take a look at it yourself, take your last chance this summer! Where to find us

/Brün

Sjöbygget Trädgård Summer update

It has been so exciting! We started our open garden (or tea garden they say in the Netherlands 😉) beginning of June. Of course it was a challenge to fix everything in time. For me it was the first time to open up, so we needed to organize a basic outfit, such as coffee cups, a water can with communal water, enough chairs and tasty cakes but also a tiptop garden. Which actually ment some extra work. Most of them we managed so we could open.

We had some special events like the Lingonställen in the beginning of June 2022. It's a network of (mostly) small companies in the region of West Småland. The garden was perfect, the weather was too special on those two days. Though it had been raining a lot before (not so nice when you want to prepare). The only challenge left was the hare, who had been eating much more as last year. Last year we had some big Campanula's left (1 meter high) but this time they didn't come up at all because the hare was cutting the flowers like gras, same for all the Asters and Salvias. So we tried to protect a lot of plants with chicken wires and took away this irons just before the weekend. We were so happy we could welcome of a lot of people from the neighborhood as well from the Lingonstallen network.  

The garden was at it best around Midsommar. It was a big oasis of Daisies (Prästkragor), Columbines (Aquileias) and some left over Campanulas (Stor Blå Klockar). But of course, then we didn't open our garden but had nice time with nice food, beautiful summer weather and good friends around us. 

After the first openings we decided to have a växtloppis (sort of selling of small self grown plants) outside of the garden which is opened every day. People can have a look, take the plants they want to buy and pay digital. 

Normally the Tusen Garden event takes place around the last weekend of June. Because of Midsommar had took place a little later, beginning of July. It's an event of opened garden in total Sweden, from north to south. We had very nice garden weather again, not too warm not too rainy. 

The Land Open Garden half of July was successful too. We were very happy surprised so much people found our garden. There were not that much gardens in this area to make a combination, only in the direction of Värnamo. A lot of Swedish families made a day trip to this part of the region in their holiday time.

In between we had several private openings too, without any supporting network. Of course, little less visitors but good days too. I like to meet people and have a talk about gardening, the old school building or the regions history. Some families have been living in this neighborhood for a long time. 

It stays a challenge to manage nature 😜. They often say having a garden, is facing real life. With ups and downs, always something to solve or some extra challenge. It can be too dry, too wet or wild animals kill the plants you nourished for months without flowering this year.

And of course we are very dependent on dry weather, but till now only one weekend was very rainy but the positive side was, I ended up gardening and having fun for myself.

By the way, this summer season isn't over yet....so when you haven't been here, take your chance now!

Hope to see you...

Greetings from Brün

Välkommen in 16 and 17 July 2022 (11-16)

 

Welcome in our garden again. We have been watering, seeding and weeding and chasing the hare who's challenging. The hare seems to like the small fresh special plants the best. Or the Clematis we were so proud on, who reached the top of the climbing iron of 2,5 meter, totally ruined because he ate the tribe. It's such a pity he doesn't like the ground elder (kirskål). But it's still worth visiting us....

Or may be we can see you next time?

Tusen Trädgården 3 juli 2022

 

Sveriges största trädgårdsvisning!

The 3th of  July 2022 will a lot of garden enthusiastic people in whole Sweden open their gardens for curieus people. A nice day to learn of each other, to inspire or to enlarge the knowledge. Take the chance to visit one of the gardens, even when you are not that big garden enthusiastic yourself.

Here you will find all the gardens in Sweden (Besökstradgardar i Sverige). Please use the filter Tusenträdgården 2022 to find the open gardens this year.

We are very proud to join this event with Sjöbygget Trädgård. You will find our information here: About Sjöbygget Trädgård. We hope to see you soon!

Open Garden 2 & 3 juli 2022

 

Next weekend we will open our garden again. We hope it won't be too warm, that's better for the people and the plants. There are a lot of reasons to visit us this time:

Smålands idylle

Did you see the beauty of our garden? A lot of summerplants start flowering now. Even the Clematis started flowering and climbing the iron sculpture. There is a sort of meadow with a lot of daisies (Prästkragor). We have a nice orange Honeysuckle, deep blue and white Salvias combined with the old fashioned yellow Daylillies. Do you know what a bitch of branches means? Just come and see my winterproject yourself. Or or example Grandma's Peonies, you shouldn't miss their special wonderful fragrance. It's unforgettable!

Delicious homebaked fika

Have you tried our homemade cakes with very nice Swedish coffee? We have Dutch Apple Pie, Swedish Blåbär or a special vanille Tigerkaka with dark chocolate pieces. We you picked up your coffe and cakes you can go and find the nicest place in our garden. We have a lakeview, shadowsides, small places and places for families. I think you always can find a suiting place for you somewhere in our garden. 

Växtloppis

Have you ever heard about a växtloppis? It's a privat place where they sell self grown seedlings and create new small plants by splitting. We want to focus on Grandma's plants, the old fashioned ones, they often have more fragrance and are important for bees (because they are not sterile). Since some weeks we have such a växtloppis, just outside our garden. You will find for example Campanula's, Sedums, Nepeta or Sweetmaiden (Borstnejlikor). But also annuals like Amarathus (Rävsvans), Cosmos, red Sunflowers and a lot of Nicotianas (Prydnadstobak) in Limegreen, White and Rosa.  Last but not least? Do you want to have a quick growing summerplant to fill your border with? You need to buy a Ricin. It has wonderful big leaves and red small flowers but will grow 1,5 meter high. There are also some cherry tomatoes left, they already started flowering and will give tomatoes soon. You know what?  It's always opened!

We hope to see you soon, feel welcome!

/Brün 

Psst: I hope the plants survived the heat last week and the hare has left some Salvias, Phlox and Campanulas 🙈. But anyway, maybe you just need a escape to the country to relax 😄.

Don't you have the opportunity this weekend, there are more possibilities next week. 

Glad Midsommar (and next opening times)

 

We wish you al a very nice Midsommar together. Have fun en enjoy the good times with family and friends. We hope to see you (back) one of the next weekends when it's open garden time again. Just to enjoy a coffee and fika outside or walk around in our garden with a view on the beautiful lake.

We will be open next weeks:

Saturday 2 juli 2022      (11-16)

Sunday 3 juli 2022        (10-17)    (Tusen Trädgårdar Sverige)

Saturday 16 juli 2022    (11-16)

Sonday 17 juli 2022      (12-18)    (Land öppen Trädgård Sverige)

Saturday 6 august 2022 (10-15)    (www.lingonrundan.com)

Sunday 7 august 2022   (10-15)    (www.lingonrundan.com)

And maybe some extra openings in between...

Follow the announcements on weblog, (Facebook) or Instagram.

Of course the "växtloppis" is always opened, please take a look. I have made a lot of annual seedlings (blomstermorot, asters, Solros and Ricin) and perennial cuttings from all sorts of grandma's plants. Like daisy, campanula's and Asters. See it yourself when you visit us or you driving by on the way from Vittaryd to Bolmen 😉.