Finally. Everything needs to be done, nature is in a hurry. Only some months you have the chance to show yourself. Now or never. Really rush hour now....
After the snowdrops, we had Crocus time for a while, followed by White and Blåsippa (Anemone and Liverleaf). After that...? Well it simply exploded. The Pulsatillas started flowering, the Magnolia (for the first time), all sorts of Narcisses and my favorite bulbs: the Fritillaria Meleagris.
Right now, 4 weeks after spring started -end of March- it's nearly all green around us. Except the Beeches. But they are getting green very soon, more and more leaves appear.
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| Pulsatilla |
Some things have been growing 40 cm's already in very short time, like the Aquileias. We still needed to clean some of the borders, they are still covered with leaves to protect the plants. But in the beginning we were little afraid being too early. Because frost is still possible till the end of May. After cleening the next step is to create an extra mulch layer to feed the soil and slow down the weeds. There were also some parts I didn't manage to weed in time last autumn. That's a pity because the roots grow longer in winter so it's a hard jobb to fix it now. So already a lot of wheel barrows transport through the garden. At the same time I've been cutting the grass for two times already. That never happened before in April. I also already installed Herman, the robot, too. I was very lucky the lines were still okay after winter, though Herman is getting a little older and doesn't always know the way back home. Last days we have been busy to clean, composting and replant the old fireplace, it was totally overgrown and the robot crashed each time on the stonewall because it disappeared under the weeds. It was really a very heavy jobb, but we fixed it 💪.
On the average we walk 2-3 km's in the garden every day, without counting our walks in the neighborhood or fitness/yogatimes. Last weeks we didn't need extra fitness actually, only some stretching for the painful muscles 😂.
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| Magnolia |
Meanwhile this is also the moment to reshuffle plants a little, for a better composition. Now it is not to dry and warm yet. Normally it is the ideal time also to split up plants, so you'll get more of your favorite ones. I was just in time for the Sedums, before they start growing. There is only a little problem now. We didn't have rain the last weeks, so it's already dry. And because of the high temperatures last weeks all is happening at the same time, all needs to be done now. Nature is ruling at the moment. So there is little time left to fix all the things in some weeks you normally fix in two months.
My favorit bulbs: Fritillary
We prepared the front side garden to be a flower meadow. we bought 40m2 seeds and good manured soil. But there was soooo much moss in that part, we thought it would be better to take it out as much as possible. We took out nearly 10 wheel barrows to the compost area (We are lucky my brother Alrik made a new compost area one last year) to make new compost. It's mostly garden garbage, because I don not want to attract or feed the wild animals with leftovers from food. I started 8 years ago with composting on the old place. Now it's time to use the compost ground, it contains nutrients and minerals. Normally I mix it with extra manure to better the poor ground around here. I can already experience that the ground is getting better after these years working like that. Never thought I would be happy for my own compost 😄.
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| House made compost |
Last autumn I collected a lot of small plants for selling in summer seasons. They only had to survive the winter, because the best is to stay outside in winter. And ques what? Most of them survived! We even found a small but well growing Clematis, we made last year out of cuttings. We cleaned and refreshed them and now they started growing already very well. In some weeks we can start selling at the street side again, we will open the Växtloppis again.
But I promised also to make time for maintaining the house and for traveling together now. Having less stress because of having a garden cafe - with deadlines whole summer- but experience really quality time together for the time we live our dream on the countryside. So we dried, cleaned and painted the garden gates, the front and kitchen door -nearly finished- and we traveled in between every 3-4 weeks to the city to socialize and see some soccer to Göteborg or Stockholm.
In March I started sowing. First the most difficult plants, how needs a long time to germinate, like Day Lily, Gaura, Crocosmia and a Wisteria (we call it Blue Rain). Later the ones who need to go out when the frost risk is over, in the end of May/beginning of June. In the end we have over hundred seedlings. Most of them are Lathyrus, we like them so much. But also Holyhock, Amarant, Mais, Basilicum, Lavendel and lot's of Snapdragons. All alive and kicking. But not only succes stories. The Passion flower didn't grow, as the Salvia didn't - only one survived. Maybe it was too dark and too cold on the room. In some years you also collect a lot of seeds but you don't use all. This year I started sowing this old ones, getting a last chance to grow. The rest of the seeds I will sow outside directly. Like the Dill, Cosmea, Aquileia, Pumpkins, Beans and Marigolds.
Last week we took out all the seedlings to the outside veranda. It has been very nice weather last weeks, between 8-15 degrees. But suddenly some frost appeared in the weather app 😳. So we needed to (replace some and) protect all the plants again, with preventive fleece. We lost some of them now, it is always a pity when you put so much time in it. But nature is ruling, it can be challenging too. We still love it 😅. It gives energy!
By the way: now it is Tulip season in Sweden, they call these French Tulips, they are very big and flowering wonderful! Even the Appletree starts coloring, at least the early ones. Did you know I also tried to sow a new Jazz apple tree (with seeds from the apples we eat every day). It is our favorite Apple and two of them came out... now already 10 centimeters high. Same I did with our favorite Cherry tomatoes, just for fun.... also growing big now 😂.
PS: The bad news is we think the Maqpies are breeding in the Christmas Tree again. We see them flying around very sneaky. Next days we will try to chase them away again. I will let you know next time....
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