Grandma's Swedish Early Spring flowers

Early spring it starts in our garden with wild Crocus and some later (Mars/April) with "svenska sippor". That means vit sippa (Forest-Anemone) , blå sippa (Hepatica) och vårlök (Ornithogalum), as you can see above. I'm always very happy to find some Hepatica's in our garden. Because it was so grown over, you wouldn't believe they were still growing. I'm making a little more place for them now, I protect them against the strong spreading and killing Sevenleafs. But it is getting better and better, after some years.

Fritillaria Meleagris

Viola Odorata

Some of my favorites are Fritelaria Meleagris, (Kungsängsliljor in Swedish, Lapwingflower in english) the brown and the white one, I really like them. They are so beautiful and so vulnerable. And they actually are. I think we had a hair hiking around (we live in the Swedish woods) which really liked this ones too. I was lucky I discovered in time, so I could save the other ones from being eaten. But they will flower next year. They need to stand in an wet area, best is in the gras.

Spanish Hyacint

Myosotis - Don't forget me

The spring flowers start every year again, no matter what. It makes me very happy. Nature just going on. No matter what i do or think. I try to create within the nature. A little going by the flow, what is nature bringing me. What is possible here? Which ground, is it sandy or clay? How much light they need? What about moisture? And then try to combinatie with colors, flowering times, leaf sorts, structure... It is like making a painting. In the grandma's style with a special touch of me.

Soon the other Spring flower will come...

DIY Natural Healthy Granola recipe

My favorite natural, very healthy and colorful granola recipe is has been created by doing it very often. It tasted and smells really fantastic! You have to try it yourself...

You need:
5 dl rye and/or oats grains (2,5 dl mix is the best)
3 dl grinded cocos
1 dl pumpkin seeds
1 dl sunflower seeds
2 dl coarsely chopped hazelnuts
4 ts  cinnamon powder
2 ts cardamom powder
1 ts kurkuma
1/2 ts salt
2 dl honey
2 spoons water
3 dl mixed dry fruits (for example my favorites russin, mango and goji berries)

How to fix it:

• Put the oven on 175 degrees
• Mix all dry ingredients except honey, the mixed fruits and the pumpkin seeds
• Add the water and mix the total
• Put the mix on a baking tray and spread half of the honey above it
• Roast it in the middle of the oven for 5 minutes
• Take it out, shuffle the mix and put the other half of the honey on it
• Put it back again for 5 minutes each time and take it out and shuffle again.
• Ready after 5 minutes and mix it
• Take it out of the oven
• Add the dry fruits and the pumpkin seeds
• Let it cool down, some time.

Total baking time is about 15 minutes, it shouldn't be too dark then it gets bitter.
Delicious as a cereal in your morning yoghurt!

After some time you will make your own favorite recipe out of it, bij trying, changing and making it better each time 😋 Good luck!

Dreaming about plants

Today we have the perfect time to dream about gardening. When you have the Corona virus moving around and the weather is not as good as last weeks. T too bad for getting out and do some garden jobs outside. So today I made a small garden design for my neighbors. Just a circle of plants in the middel of a nature garden in Småland Sweden. A beautiful, flowery spot the year around without too much maintenance. With plants who can stand heavy hot sun from the south but also severe winter days in Swedish zon 5, so hardy as well. (oeps Sweden has its own numbers in climate zones, warmest is 1 and coldest is 8)

I love new creations in the garden, like painting with plants. I love to see nature growing, it makes me happy. It is always going on, no matter what happens. Whole my life I felt the connection with gardening and plants. My father told me all the latin plant names, as if they were Dutch common names. I got used to it. But it also filled my heart with pleasure. I can forget everything, working hard to maintain or just dream how to make it look better.

And you know what? We want to make it our future!

DIY Creating a hide away

We have been very busy last months. We got a new sewer. The result was a totally ruined front garden. We got tree concrete reservoirs for the sewer and a infiltration bed. No one could miss it, even if you tried very hard. The must ugly things I have ever seen in my garden. So now we try very hard to hide away this thing. It was a though job to do. But when we see the result of today, maybe the garden is even looking better then before.

What did we do? Actually we changed the ground, so you will not see it is an infiltration bed anymore. We higher-ed up the ground where the concrete sewers were. We created a hat out of willow and birch. And created a oval border with plants around it. We love it!

Do you want to see what happened before in our garden? Take a look here 😃

What are weeds in your garden?

Viola Odorata

The most important to know is, that -objectively seen- weeds don not exist at all. Because they are all plants anyway. Actually it is a very subjective view on a certain location where certain plants are not welcome in the view of some one, for exempel a farmer, a florist or a gardenista.

All the plants you can buy in a garden center are found one day long ago somewhere in the world and brought to Europe. They were collected at first, afterwards they tried to breed them to get stronger, bigger or more colored plants in flowering and leafs. Some plants came from warm countries and never got used to the cold in northers Europe. Now they are sold as summer plants for one year or for your greenhouse 😊

The definition of weeds for me are plants who appear growing of other plants, or are killing other plants in my garden. My biggest enemies are Sevenleaf (Umbelliferae) and an invading grass called (Elytrigia). They invade by making underground roots as far as possible, special into the roots of other plants, so it is difficult to take them away. But when they take over, they will kill all your other plants. So I spent a lot of time digging them out. 

Today I'm living in Småland Sweden since 2016 and I want to create a natural garden on the countryside. A little like Piet Oudolf, a very famous dutch garden designer abroad. With a wink of course. Not totally natural and wild or formal but something in between. Something from nature and something from me. Colorful all year, easy to maintain.

It takes time and a lot of money before I realize this beautiful garden with one can visit for fun.
That's why I''m very tolerant for plants coming up spontaneously (because they grow very well on this location) and nice to see as well without being aggressive. Like wild daisies, combines, violets, forget me not, forest anemones and honeysuckle.

forget me not

How to recognize weeds in your garden?

You can learn by looking to small plants and the way they grow as often as possible while maintaining your garden by hand. You will only learn bij trial and error. It takes time of course, but it also brings a lot. Your garden, which you are growing yourself is a gift. With some time and attention it will pay you back with a lot of joy and relaxation. It shows you the natural life, the seasons of the year and how to handle real life. Today i heard a very good quote: to take care of a plant is to take care of yourself 😍

Corona brown in the green garden

Everything you give attention is growing. So its up to you, your choice...

My advice? Go out and get some energy. Go out in your garden and pay attention to the small things you see... See the plants changing, coming out. Starting up for a new season. You will see things you have never seen before, all though they were there. Green is the new energy (as I said before see: green is the new energy).
You will be out of your head after half an hour, having no more worries for a while. Losing the feelings of fear. It works for me. Sometimes a go out with a head full of problems about future. But I know also, I can not influence it right now, maybe later I can. For now a try to be as mindful as possible. On this moment we can not (travel for) work. So we stay at home. We only can wait and see for some weeks or months.



That's why we started gardening fulltime. Every day. It gives a lot of satisfaction.
It's good to see nature is going on as if nothing special has happened. The spring is coming now in Sweden. We see the plants growing. The bulbs we planted last autumn. We see the birds we have never seen before. At the same time we try to create a new garden, our garden. When we go inside, a little tired, feeling the hard physical work in your body. We like to see the results of the work of today. Last weeks the weather has been wonderful, really sunny days. When you are outside whole day, like we, you get a very healthy sun brown face... The so called Corona Brown look 😂




I just started to pick and celebrate each day. Thankful for the things around me right now. I'm sure, there will be better times again. Take care of each other with love where ever you are.

Big hugs from Sweden

Busy times in my Swedish garden in april

This is the busiest time of the year in the gardening world. A lot of jobs in the garden in april. The positive thing about Corona is that we have a lot of time to spent in the garden.  And there is no need to go to the gym anymore because we already had our workout. Being not really used to this habit it hurts a little in our bodies.

There are some special things to do this year. There was a special project called The Swedish Sewer Project last autumn, which ruined half of my garden. A lot of work we could do in wintertime, such as rebuild the entry, equalize the ground and remove the clay and recover the gravel of the driveway. But some jobs were left for springtime. Such as:

• We had to saw lots of new grass for the new lawn
• Plant a beech hedge, to fill the empty spaces after cutting the tree trees and create a more hidden place
• Cover the sewers in some way, so you would not see that ugly concrete things anymore
• Restore the auto movers area

We have some extra jobs:

• It was a very wet winter, there for we have to make some extra drainage because we don not want to have a pool (we are already close to the lake 😊)
• There is a very big dead tree in the garden, before it falls on our barn it has to be cut down by a professional. Afterwards we have to take away the wood and lots of branches.

Of course we also have a lot of normal yearly jobs:

• To clean up old autumn leaves (every year at least about 100 wheel barrows...) and ferns
• Prune al the shrubs and trees before it starts growing (except the ones which flowers before the longest day of the year. We also have a willow tree we have to prune. 
• Fight the weeds (it is growing very fast with good temperatures and sometimes a bit of rain)
• Divide and change some plants positions, best time to do because it's wet and not too hot for rooting
• Prepair sawing inside: This year I prepared some Verbena Bonariensis, Echinacae White Swan and Mirabilis Jalapa.
• Preparing to grow potatoes in an expirimental way, I read about
• Prepare the grass for cutting (repair the robot lines and collect or take away all the branches from stormy weather) ...)

As you can see, we are very busy this time of the year. But don't worry, we have got all the time (no work now because of Corona) 😉

Signs of spring in Småland Sweden

Sundet, lots of water

Let's hope spring will come soon in Sweden. It has been a very long and wet winter. There is too much water. The corona disease is getting around and causes a lot of fear and pain. Suddenly we feel very vulnerable ... We never thought that's possible. We feel confrontated with ourselves and mother Nature. But we have to believe we will come trough. We can trust ourselves. We are strong people, we will manage. We will find out not every thing is that important as we thought it should be. It will be alright one day. A little more sun and warmth form Nature would help a lot. Just try to see the small signs of nature in the circle of live. Everything will be back after some time. Today I saw the first cranes again, they from Africa and Spain. They are around the corner in my garden at the lake. It means the spring will come soon 😊

Lake side Vidöstern

After the storm last week...

First Crocus this week

Winterblues effects and remedies

Very healthy blue sky

Daylight and blue skys are very important for the well being of humans. Did you know too low light (lux) in a longer time (some months) can have effect on your health? On a cloudy day the light is around 1000 to 2000 lux. This is around the minimum for the body of a human body to work properly.
Inside the light is mostly too low. One lux is the same as one candlelight. In your living room mostly the light (lux) is around 150 lux (if you are lucky) in the office mostly some more (300 to 500). Daylight is much stronger. In summertime with full sun you can receive around 100.000 lux.

Foto: lightexpert

By the way, it is not only sunlight you need, but the light in general. The most important part is the blue sky. Your eyes react on that, they absorb and give information to your brains it is time to wake up. (Be aware of the fact that the light from your computer or tablet have the same effect when you use it late in the evening!)

When it is turning darker your brains get the information to get ready for sleeping. You can already feel the difference when you look at the picture from an inside lamp and a picture of a sunny day with blue sky. Just try it!



Special circumstances:

• It depends per person: Not everyone is as sensitive, so one feels more effect then another person. Youngsters need less light then older people. Women have more problems then men because of the disturbing in the hormonsystem
• The light in wintertime is very low on the average in the northern part of the world. Especially when it is a very dark winter without snow (it lightens) but with a lot of rain. Or when you are living in Northern Europe or Scandinavia.

 Effects:

• Low energy and tired
• Heavy to concentrate
• Bad temper or depressive
• Eat and sleep too much (special interest for sweeties)
• Getting more wight

Remedies for me (to save my healthy biorhythm and energy m in wintertime):

• Go outside as much as possible, even in wintertime. Daylight is the most important ingredient.
• Be sporty, have a walk outside or take your bic to your job. 
• Spent as much time as possible in a room with good lightning, or stay close to the window.
• Buy an energy lamp to get some extra light in wintertime. Each morning some extra blue light for 20 minutes (only use it to wake up). 
• Take care of a healthy sleep and wake up rhythm. Don't use your social media late in the evening.
• Concentrate on green and fruity healthy food and drink a lot of water, avoid alcohol and coffee.
• Take extra vitamin D, B12, zinc or magnesium. 
• Look for food which contains a lot of tryptofaan like milk, pure chocolates and bananas.
• Take a holiday to the sun 😄

You can at least try some of them. It's important to find a remedie who works for you personally. Because it will be back every winter. It makes you happy to feel good anyway. Good luck!

Winter light

Painting old vintage stuff

Last week I painted my vintage furniture, a table and 6 chairs. It was very white, now it is a little more sandy. I took the colors of Jotun matt (skandinavisk ljus) for the wooden table and chairs. But I even painted the textile parts with Annie Sloan Country Grey. We didn't like the grey white stripes, so now it is looking less cold, more warm, let's say sandy.  It was some work but worth it. Take a look yourself.

Old white chairs with one new textile

Old and new style chair

Every thing is ready