Our home and garden once upon a time

Once upon a time we bought a house in Sweden. A very special building, a school build around 1897. Nowadays it's looking like the picture above. The house is nearly totally painted outside. Around the building, it's a green oasis now. Very well maintained, the gras is looking like a lawn and there are lot of flowers areas. We brought a lot of plants form my garden in the Netherlands and a got a lot of special plants form my late father. Also we found a lot of plants from former days, when the old lady was gardening (from the sixties till 2006). They had some difficulties because they were overgrown but managed after being in the nursery. 

But we bought it like you see it on the picture below. We started with cutting a lot of trees. There were too much, sometimes not planned but just growing. Creating a lot of shade and moss. And the place you see before the house, they planned to have that awful avlopp. Just in front of your doorstep because there was no other option within the rules. We really hated it but made the best out of it. Only the Midsummer Roses are still there!

Above you see the picture made in 2015. The ground around was totally overgrown, you could mow the grass around the house where once was a path. Two Thuja's were growing too close to the house. We cut both the trees and recreated borders around the house. We took away the wild grass and reconstructed the gravel path around the house. We painted the a lot of red and white, also the iron pilasters and balconies. Right now we are recreating the grass in front. Actually, we are trying to make a wild dry meadow. 

The barn (totally in the left) was taken away already in 2016. The barn at the right, build around 1897. was painted and repaired again. Inside you can still can see the traces from former days. Once is was the home for the horse of the teacher who lived here in Sjöbygget but also needed to teach in Dörärp. Maybe there was even a sort of housekeeper for the school who had his "office" in the barn. The sculptures are still there, in good shape. Created by the old lady in the sixties. 

Above you see a picture for 2015. We think the old lady got a lot of Christmas trees for free. She planted them everywhere in the garden and started shaping them. Maybe to keep them small. But in the years when the house became a holdidayhome they started growing very fast. In the years we have been living here they just speeded up. That's why we cut down 4 of 5. Below you can see the one who's still remaining. Already 4-5 meters high. 

The biggest difference is the painting but there is more. We renewed the total wall at this side and painted all the stairs in a lighter color. In front here was growing a climbing plant "Blue rain" for some years but never flowering. We replaced it to a more sunny place. And the good news is, it flowered this year for the first time since 10 years. 

The lake side didn't change so much. It is still a very quit place. It's always there. A very nice small lake where you can fish, swim, walk along or take a swim. 

Same for the udden in Flyxen. The half isle where you can enjoy the private view, or your swim in summer time. There is a stone picknick table and a grilling place you even can enjoy while ice fishing in winter time. 

 Do you want to read more about the school and the garden some years ago? Try the articles I already wrote about this special place. 

May and Junes gardening life

There happened a lot since the beginning of May. It was a very big rush. Lot of things happening at the same time or needed to be done next day, it just to follow nature. When we walk around the garden with our morning coffee, you will always find a "job to do". But I think also that's all inclusive, when you take care of a garden, it will always call you. 

In the beginning of the month is stayed very cold, specially in the nights. Later on in June it went little warmer but finally around Midsommar we really had the first Swedish summer days. For the plants it was good weather anyway. not too warm, not too cold and heavy rain showers now and then. So everything is growing very very very fast. So much I can't keep up with the weeds. The bad thing is it will be more difficult to get rid of it because it will take even more time. But we will see. I have to split my time anyway. 

Of course I opened my plantmarket beginning of June. I collected a lot of plants while weeding and I had been sawing so enough to sell. And the weather hasn't been too dry (so it takes a lot of time to water all) or too wet (so we have so save the plants from drowning) until now so it goes with the flow. It only took some time before the people really bought some plants but now every now and then some payment is coming in digitally. 

A mole decided to make new routes and big buildings in our garden and destroyed a lot of the grass in front of the livingroom, near the apples trees. We started to discourage by removing his buildings daily and putting garlic water in his routes for some days. But when it didn't work we decided to try to catch it. We succeeded in only two days. Actually they are quit good looking guys. Next time they should dig in the 60 hectares around us. 

Again we managed, we chased away the Maqpies, they have a nest but not in our garden. We made a very long stave to reach the building of the nest and tried to destroy it several times. In the end they got tired of rebuilding. So now the other young small birds in our garden were not eaten and had more chance to survive. 

We got special visitors last weeks anyway. The Cranes with their youngster, very early in the morning (around 5) they just walking around our neighbors house, while we were sleeping just some meters aside. Looking for some nice frogs or pads....

Just found some smultrons in my garden, de small strawberries (around 1 cm, growing in the wild. I like to eat them when I passing by, they are very healthy. I saw also the first Cantharellen, very early this year. Mostly the appear end of July or even August. It must be the weather, high temperatures and lost of rain sometimes. Let's hope we get some Scandinavian high pressure area around soon, which will deliver a stabile weather period for some weeks. For now we had some very hot days suddenly. From cold weather to 34 degrees..... You can not do that much when it is so warm, nice to go swimming in the lake of course. I'v been there now more often then last year in a summerseason 😄. 

Thanks for now, nice to see you next time!

Visiting Botaniska Trädgården Göteborg (GBG)

 

It is always a pleasure visiting the Botaniska in GBG. There is always something to see and it is a very nice park in the middle of the city center. A lot of citizens use the park to go outside for a walk or fika. You can also start your walk in the Botaniska and walk out of this park to nature in direction of Mölndal of visit the higher parts and enjoy the view on GBG. At the moment the Botaniska is renovating the glasshouses, so it is a little bit a mess, nevertheless worth visiting. They finished already building a new glasshouse on top nearby the entrance. 

Porcelin klocka

Not snowdrops but Springbells

Under a glass roof you will find very rare sorts of bulbs from al over the world. They are flowering now!

And in the new build glasshouse they show threatened plants by climate change. Specially plants growing in the coldest arias (like Antartica or Himalya) of the world are having more and more problems to survive in a warming up world. 

View on Goteborg

When you want to have an indication what it can be like in summertime, just have a look on the pictures from the Botaniska I made in earlier days. For more information about opening times, what exhibitions or events they offer, when they finish renovation or something else, please visit their website. 

The light is back

Yes, finally. At least the light is back, you can really feel it. It is earlier light, at the end of the day it is much longer light and even during daytime it is getting slowly better. The sun is already climbing much more higher as in winter, so the days are less dark and grey. It has been a long time already. We started already 5 months ago. I used a lot of blue energy light to keep the mood upp. Even my plants got some extra help to get healthy through winter.

On the first of Februari it is Imbolc, the celebration day of the Celts. It is the moment the light is coming back. The godess Birgit stood symbol for the party of light. The sun is coming back and days getting longer for half a year. The Celts lived very close with nature, in the rythm of nature, mostly agricultural. They followed the sun and marked the time of year on a wooden stick. This is was also a to do list. What jobs to do in which season. In winter season (where the days are shorter as the nights), what started beginning of november with the Festival of the light called Samhain, it was mostly keeping busy with handcrafts and slowing down a little. Reload for the activities next half year. The new season started end of April. It is still celebrated in Sweden, being the celebration of the spring. It is called Valborgsafton in Sweden (also known as Walpurgisnacht in Germany). 

Photo de Charlie Sivlér sur Unsplash

Climate wise it is a very short season for gardening in Scandinavia. When you are lucky you can start early in spring but it can be frosty till the beginning of June. I remember a holiday time in the Norwegian mountains. In June the animals and plants come out of winter and have only three months to flower, set seeds as a guaranty for next generation. End of August there can be snow and frost again. 

In The Netherlands they have a much longer season. Of course situated more South and having a sea climate, a big difference. With a little luck you can start in your garden in March and the forst can come till half of May. Here in Sweden we have a land climate. That means it takes longer to wake up because the earth takes longer to warm as sea. 

This season it nearly hasn't been winter att all. Second time, like last year. It's still like having a very long autumn. Suddenly we got a surprise, one week with coldness and snow. We could even have a walk on the lake. We heard the typical sound of the ice, wonderful to experience. 

But it is a pity, it disappeared as suddenly as it arrived. Next day it was the normal grey and around 4 degrees again. Business as usual again. Hope to see you in spring, whenever it will start. Next step is less grey, more sun and above 5 degrees 🙏. 

See you next time!

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...

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). More information about our garden? Just keep on reading 😊. You will see our former web page. You only have to translate it because it's in Swedish 😜. But maybe you only want to enjoy the garden pictures.

Sjöbygget Skola, Vittaryd

Adress: STEGARYD SJOBYGGET 1, 34155 Vittaryd
Webbplats: https://arntzcreations.blogspot.com

Hej välkomna, är du nyfiken? Komma hit och titta in!  Jag har alltid tagit hand om min växter och trädgårdar i Nederländerna. Jag behöver ha lit grönt omkring, gillar att odla, njuta att se det utvecklas och jobba i trädgården. Så jag har börjat om igen. I början var trädgården helt överväxt och försummad (2016), det fanns överallt träd, kirskål och hallon.

Innan det har blivit semesterhus bodde en kvinna med gröna fingrar i Sjöbygget Skola i flera år. Hon fanns alltid ute, var kreativt med betong och hade en blommigt trädgård. Jag hittade flera små mormorsväxter från denna tiden (bland annat Kärlekört, Blåsippa och Ungersk Iris) och har hunnit växa de igen. Flera betong ornamenten finns fortfarande kvar, även om det var mer än 20 år sen. Nu är trädgården under uppbyggnad i några år. Jag har rensad bort ogräs, klippet ner högt gräs, grävt ut gamla rabatter och vår vänner sågade ner några tråd. Sen bli det dags att skapa nya rabatter och plantera nya plantor, träd och Bok häck.

Siste år var skugga lyckligtvis minskat eftersom de jättehöga gran i grannars skogen på baksidan var röjet. Till sist har vi förnyat grus, jobbat med kreativa prosjekt och odlat sticklingor till växtloppisen. För alla som vill följa med från början och står ut med att titta på trädgården, trots att delar behöver tid att växa lit mer. Ständig ska det blir fler växter och skapas nya projekt med minimalt budget och stor glädje. Visst finns fortfarande utmaningar också, som vilddjur, torr sommars och sur sandjord. Drömmen är att bygga upp et gammaldags blommigt torp på landet (som det en gång har varit) med mormorsväxter, hemmagjort fika och trevlig utsikt mot sjön Flyxen. Som ett lantligt och naturligt idyll i Småland. Kryddat med lit prärieträdgården sås. Eftersom jag gillar Piet Oudolf design, en känd Nederländsk trädgårdsmästare i Prärie trädgårdar.

I trädgården finns just nu bland annat: stor Blå Klocka, Plymspirea, Hässelort, Gullviva, Pipört, Rhododendron, Sippor av olika slag, Pioner, Salvia, Iris, Aster, Dagliljor, Borstnejlika, Julrosor, Akleja och naturlig Prästkragen. Dessutom finns också prärieväxter bland annat Aklejruta, Blodtopp, Kungsljus, Jättevallmo, Silverhavre, Tuvtåtel och Stipa Giganteum. Hopas vi ses!

Landskap

Småland

Zon / Odlingsläge

5

Specialitet

Mormorsväxter

Genre

Privata trädgårdar

Always Fika time 😎

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!