Winterstop

We really hope you a nice Christmas Time. Of course we wish you a very good gardening season in 2025. For me it is time to think about next season.

I will quit with the garden cafe. It is a hard decision. Because I did it with all the energy I had. I worked very hard for many years to open a countrygarden who is worth visiting. I did it with my whole heart and love for nature. It is my passion to share my love for gardening with other people. To try to make the distance between people and nature a little smaller. To see the beauty and power of nature. Because actually we are the nature. Without nature no more humanity. We can not rule nature, it rules us. 

For me it is not worth the effort anymore, to less visitors, to high costs and to much hours of work preparing. Sometimes for nothing. Maybe there will be an open garden in future, when I will join the national garden days in 2026, we will see.

This means I will not join the Lingonstallen anymore either. Most of their activities take place out of the gardening and holiday season, which is the most important season for me. So it doesn't make sense anymore. Of course I will continue gardening meanwhile, -I can not imagine a life without gardening- and having a plantmarket with small cuttings or seedlings at the street side. 

Spring is still far away. Winter too. It's looking like a very long autumn without light or sun. It has been grey and dark for a long time now. No snow. No coldness. No winter at all. Very boring weather. We have the lights on in the house, every singel day. We tried to escape form the country and the bad weather to the Netherlands, but the weather over there was even worse. It was the darkest time in 50 years, in 6 weeks we only had 4 days with sun. Though we were living close to the seaside we could hardly see the sea. So when the sun finally appeared for some hours, we really needed to cherish the moment. 

Finally little sun in The Netherlands

Back home in Sweden. The usual grey again. I found out we are living in the region Småland with as less light as in Lapland. Maybe it is even worse. In Lapland they have snow, which make the days more light. No winter yet. Only endless autumn. Time to start some home projects and just keep on moving. Just start counting. Spring is coming soon. We are more then halfway. Only 10 weeks left to go. 

Countdown for Christmas

It is nice to close the door for a while and go inside, waiting for the winter times. Not to be busy with other people or things. But just enjoying your own time. Doing the things you didn't have the time for before or in summer (because there is always something to do in a house on the countryside with a big garden). Time for traveling now and having good times meeting your dearest and nearest. Go out to enjoy a nice winterday with some sun. Go on the frozen ice when possible or making pictures from snowy trees. Or time to travel, having good times with family and friends by the fireplace.

It's also a very good season to clean up your house. Because when you get a bigger house your will get more stuff immediately, specially when you have been living there for some years. Like we, soon nearly 10 years 😏. So last weeks I started to sort out my stuff. It gives a good feeling to get rid of things you do not really need. Maybe I can sell some things in early spring. I want to keep the things what makes my feel happy or keep my busy in a pleasant way.  

For me it means creating nice Christmas decorations by myself. Of course not by buying cheap plastic things from China. I've have got a lot of decoration stuff from the years before. You only need some natural materials for the base. In the Netherlands I used to give workshops flower decorations, all year around but special in Christmas time. 

I love to create a Christmas feeling, to warm yourself with. I started a long time ago. When I would celebrate Christmas at home I started already early in november (when the weather gets dark and boring) with decorating my house, outside and inside. It makes me so happy. Just being busy with your hands. Feeling the creative flow in your body and getting out of your head. Forgetting the time...

I found a lot of traditional Christmas stories in Norway. The start was made when our friends moved to Norway and we had the opportunity to celebrate Christmas in the Norwegian way. The food was cooked in the tradition way, so we had dinner like much Norwegians. We ate pinnekjøtt and svineribbe with beer and aquavit aside. Or like the tradition to take care of your ancestors outside of your house by offering them some rise and a drink. Or to the birds around the house, some food in form of a bun of corn called a Julenek . I really love them. I still think we can learn a lot of this traditions. It's a way of getting through the winter they found out a long time ago. Just go with the flow and be creative. Reflect on the last years experiences. Find some me time, real quality time. Find what feels good for yourself. Never mind the world around you, it will go on turning any way. Better you feel as good as possible. 

That's really me time. No hurry, No worry. Time to slowdown. Like the animals do. Just taking the time to have a very long sleep in wintertime. It would fit me too.

The garden is totally asleep now. Even the weeds stopped growing. I'm lucky I managed to go weeding in autumn for a long time, so nearly the total garden was done. Only the gravelpath needs still some attention, maybe I can fixe it in between partly when we have a single good day (not to cold or wet). The first servere frost arrived last week, only some days. Till that moment, there were some tough guys still flowering but now they are finished. The plants are back in the ground, making new roots for next season to grow and flower again.  For now the garden season is closed. 

Merry Christmas & Happy New Year. 

Lingonrundan Jul

 

Last garden season

The leaves are falling. We have been cleaning 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). 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 😎

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.