Blue arrow

Where did this come from? Was it here last year? Look also in the back: the new Azalea and of course the weeds!

Dianthus

I had seen a special on Dianthus on the BBC, and it is indeed a wonderful plant in a sunny spot. It is still a bit overtaken by the Alchemilla, but that will change next year!!

Sage Cassis

Sage Cassis (2)

It is impossible to make a decent picture of this Sage Cassis. It looked dead after this cold winter, and cut it back a little bit. Well, it trippled in size with respect to last year! Just don't hold a camera close!

It is perhaps my most favourite plant, as it is so delicate and abundant.

Red Echidna

It will be an annual no doubt, but a beautiful one anyhow. Bought in Switzerland, in the Coop. Bright, isn't it?!

The red rose

The Roses are splendid this year - the cold winter?? In the background the farmer's jasmine and the hydrangea.

Registration of weed: the little purple flowers

This is the little purple flower. Look well at he leaves, and perhaps next year it won't grow so abundantly!!

My biggest frustration this year: I don't recognize the weeds from the valueable flowers. I may already have removed some nice ones by mistake....

Garden with the BBC

Another Friday night with BBC Gardening world. Some good advise:
- leave a rock with the name of the plant where they are.
- Astrantia: likes edges of forest.
- Calendula Officiales

White Rose

The white Rose was burried under the red berries and weed last year. But this year we have uncovered it, and it has beautiful white roses, rather a wild rose look. Cute.

Chestnut bush?

Not sure what this is called. I think I have seen it in one of my books, but where? The leaves are a spitting image of a chestnut, although rather large. But the flowers are cheery, somehow. They later fell over....

And what is the purple stuff????

Alchemilla - flower heavy

The flowers of the Alchemilla are so heavy, the stems bend. It gives a nice yellow glow over the garden, and I want to put some in the border under the trees. It won't like it so much, but it will do fine anyway, no doubt. Is it a weed? A nice weed! And it reminds me of the Swiss mountains, where I first saw Alchemilla in the mountain forests - a bit smaller than this variety ;)

Garden in June

This is the garden in June. It has been a warm, but also normal-wet spring. But a very cold winter.

Pelargomium

You can't say it isn't abundant!! And somehow I managed to tie it up cleverly this year and it is even manageable.....

Peony

I never knew that we have a Peony?!? It is gorgeous, but unfortunately rather hidden. Perhaps I ought to cut them and put them in a vase? It would be a pity. Funny, I always thought that Peony's were just like Roses, but it completely disappeared last winter - unlike Roses.

Jasmine

We bought a Jasmine the day before going on holiday for two weeks. It looked rather dry when we return, but we are remediing here....

The roses up front

The pink roses in our front'garden' are doing splendid this year: a pink cloud. The yellow ones are not so impressive, somehow.

The rock garden

The 'rock garden' is not as nice as last year, http://gardensonnie.blogspot.com/2008/05/stunning-effect.html. The blue flowers are not there, and I have weeded too much of the white flowers away. The canary seed has taken over too much as well. A lesson for next year.

The Passion tree

For once I made a 'before' picture, even inadvertently. I am picturing the cloud of little muskitoes over the gold fish pond.

Even so, the passion fuite was climbing against the shed, but didn't survive the winter we think and removed it. I thought it was too big for the location and I don't particularly like the flower either.

A few little twigs are still growing in the ground; we'll see what comes off them.

But the main stem is out and one of my five little grape seedlings (well, twigs) is in.

The Banana tree!!

Aaaahh! And the famous Banana tree. It is rising!

A spring day

It has been another balmy day, only interrupted by a thunder and tiny shower around lunch time (pack up the plates!! quick!). But the water was very welcome. Even Ces wants to be in the garden, and for the first time this year we can leave the coats inside. By now we have quite some colour in the garden: the rodondendrons (3 of them), the heart flowers (I will look up the name later), tulips, the rijsenbrij (bought), the blue druifjes, the dotterbloem, the hulst, daffodils, and the violets we got from Brian and Frances everywhere. The Magnolia is magnificent, but rather out of view, unfortunately. I hope it grows tall so we can see it over the shed. And not to forget: we lunch under the blossoming cherry tree!



The lawn in the sitting area seems to be holding fine, I hope the rain is just enough to keep it going. Too wet is probably not good, as the roots would become lazy.



Ces plays 'scheppen' in the sandpit, and I can't resist taking out the daisy's and madeliefjes, even though I wanted to keep them until after flowering. Well, it is not the abundance of the Vechtoever, but I still have enough to do for a while.

Forget me not

A couple of forget me nots appear on the 'forrest trail'. They are a whaft of blue, bright suddenly under the dark trees.

These forget me nots look quite different from the ones I remember from the Vechtoever. I different variety or just different soil?

Easyplant geraniums

Ah! my order arrives: a whole load of geraniums, some begonias and salvias and strawberries. I have to plant them out quickly: they come with tiny roots! There are more geraniums than I have planters. I will have to source those later. And see if Peter wants to make me some supports at the front of our house..... Hmmm, he is suffering from removing the wisdom teeth, so not now.... Some of the geraniums even go in the border in the sitting area, next to the violets.

Daffodil

What a beauty of a daffodil. So heavy it can't keep its head up!

Rodondendrons

The flowering rodondendrons. The abundance of thered is great! Although close up they look a bit withered.

The little pink one stands under the trees, and so is a beauty in the shade. A surprise when you look in that area.

The pelargonium

A reminder for later this year: this is how small the pelargonium started! Last year they were huge purple bushes: great, but after flowering a bit unwieldy.

I dug one out last year and put it in a pot. It even survived the harsh winter and is budding out now as well.
I see lots of little weeds in between the pelargonium. Later I see that it is actually little pelargonium seedlings..... It seeds easily enough as it is, these babies have to go...

It is the little girls birthday and this is her new bike!!

A Beauty springs up!

A beauty springs up, in the rear of the garden, a fragile looking flower. No idea what it is, and it is quite hidden where it stands.

Another weed

Another weed, but this I quite like too: it is cheerfull in our dull lawn at the moment. I must say, that the fun went out of this quite soon after this: it springs up everywhere, even between the tiles and so on.

the new sitting area

This is how it is at 16:30!! We still have lots of sand on the pile, but all the lawn has been put in. Even redundant lawn has been put on the left and in the rear.

We love it!!

Pile of sand

This is the pile of sand we have - I should say I have - ordered. It is ten cubic meter and it is way !!! too much.

the old sitting area

Keep this in mind! We are changing the sitting area!! The wood out, raise it a bit, put lawn over it. Et voila: a new cheerfull area!! Just about ten cubic meter of soil to shovel in. I have mis-estimated the amount a bit, and now we have about 5 cubic too much! Wow, this is terrible. The next picture will show you what a gigantic amount ten cubic is!!!

A purple weed

This is probably just a weed, but a rather cute one. The photo doesn't do it justice. It stands in the winter garden.

Wet hope

This picture gives an accurate impression of the state of nature right now. Cold, wet, but with promises in the air.

Leaves in the pond

This is the pond. It is full of leaves. We are dredging them out bit by bit. So that the salamanders and frogs won't get trapped. This fall we will definitely put a netting up to prevent the leaves from getting into the pond in the first place.

Daffodils

The crocuses have flowered abundantly - because of the severe cold this winter? But now they are withering and the daffodils are starting to take over.

Salamander

Spring is so nice! To see that some of the animals survived the ice.

We see lots of leaves in the pond and are dredging some out. Unfortunately, we dredge out the salamanders too. Next winter we'll definitely use a netting in fall. For now we invent a system with a tray to allow the salamanders to escape back into the water prior to disposing of the rotting leaves.

Lion's Dents?

Lion's Dents? Or Waldsteinia?

Awell, this photo was meant for the other blog, but it shows the early spring garden...

Find the frog

I am cleaning up some leaves, but then suddenly uncover this quietly sitting frog. I quickly close the leave cover again.

Winter Aconite

The Winter Aconite I dug out from the grounds around one of the demolition houses. It was actually a beautiful site, that I forgot to picture: a Magnolia, with Snow Drops and Aconites. They are obviously a bit worse for wear, but hopefully they survive for the next years.

Eranthis hyemalis (Winter Aconite)

I am cycling with my daughter to some houses ready for tear down. And what is there? A lovely spot with a Magnolia and underneath a blanket of snow drops and Winter Aconite. I had just last week seen these on tv, see http://vroegevogels.vara.nl/ or http://en.wikipedia.org/. It is a Ranonculacae bulb flower, that manages to survive in the wild, usually around old estates.

Anyway, I went back, took the spade back and dug out some (without making a picture of the original, of course...). I planted them under the trees, because that is where they stood in the tv program. I hope I have given them a good new home...

The new Anemone survives

I was a bit afraid it wouldn't hold in the open air, but it is obviously thriving. For now...