Love my tulips - part one

Hi all,

I love tulips. I think they are one of the most beautiful kind of flowers and I can not get enough of them. I have planted bulbs in some containers last fall and was desperately waiting for them the past weeks.
Now the first tulips are out and I want to share some first pictures with you. 

As I might get some more pictures as soon as they are all out I named this entry part one. There will most probably be a second part in a few weeks. 

Now enough of the talking, just enjoy.

Have a great time,
Susann

Garden update

Hi all,

I just want to give you some heads up about the garden.
As you can see below our garlic and radishes are already quiet big. We have a big helper here scanning the bed every day :)

If you do a closer look - like really close, you can see a little bit of what I expect to be a carrot seedling. It is tiny and I only spotted 2 of them so I really hope the others will join. Unfortunately the onion play death, they have not shown up yet. But I am still positive that they just need a little more time.
We will see.

Also inside our plants became quiet big in the past weeks.
You see here different sort of tomatoes, egg plant, chili and bell pepper. In the little green house we started courgette, squash and some salad.

So, that was a short update. I will keep you in the loop.
Next week we will get new garden furniture so I can enjoy the sun even more.

Have a great start in the week,
Susann

Building a new garden bed

Hi all,

we had such a great weather this weekend that we even could enjoy breakfast outside. But first things first. Before that I had a nice morning walk with Floris.

So I decided to work in the garden for a while.
We built a new garden bed. It is bigger then the year before and as we have a small path in between all parts are better to reach for me.
It was so much work. We filled it with 35 25l bags of fresh ground. But it was so worth it. I think is looks amazing. I put already the first seeds in the ground. Onions and Carrots.

I also cleaned out the front year. I want to plant one pumpkin plant this year and needed some space. It was really getting ugly so I made it nice again. I do need to take some pictures in the sunlight tough.
Also I planted 2 more Hydrangea plants.

And look how big my Tulips are already!

So, I hope you liked the few pictures. I surely enjoyed my weekend even though I was exhausted last in the evenings. But I think it was worth it.
Have a great time,
Susann

Gardening 2014 - getting started

Hi all,

I mentioned it before: I stared with the first seeds. YES, I could not wait.
I bought a 2nd green house for the window and this one I use for flowers so far.
Now there are growing - hopefully - pansy, violets, marigold and lupines.

In the one I had before I put some chili, tomato, egg plant and celery.
So - now I need to be patient. Not really a strength of mine hahahaha

But luckily the seeds shoot out the ground. I can nearly watch them grow.
Here is what I have so far:

In the meanwhile I measured the garden and made some drawings on how I want everything.
Probably I will start the remodeling soon. Or better, I will have to start soon :)

I keep you posted.
Many greetings,
Susann

Planting 2014

Hi all,

as you know I can hardly wait until I can start digging in the garden again.
Today I made a plan on what I want to plant. I will build a raised bed in a "u" shape and divide it into 7 pieces. It will have the following plants:

1) beans, small radish
2) tomatoes & onions
3) tomatoes & garlic
4) egg plant & peas
5) zucchini
6) carrots & fennel
7) bell pepper & chili

Besides this I will have corn in the small space and pumpkin in the front yard. I also will try potatoes in a tower.
Maybe I will even try to grow some salad in containers.

I will make a plan on when to start with the seeds. I think I will need one more of the small green houses I have. Like this one:

Also I may not forget to plant a lot of flowers around the garden. Last year we had a little less bees and ladybugs here. The first month will be covered with tulips and stuff but I need to decide what to plant next to it. And I am still thinking about the bug hotel :)

Here some flowers from last year:

Have a nice day all,
Susann

What does a gardener do in January?

Hi all,

I have to tell you, I really cant wait to start the digging in the ground again. Seriously, what are all the gardeners to in the winter? They probably enjoy their winter vegetables.... hahaha
Well, but I don't have any.

So I keep myself busy with planning the garden for the next period.
I still think about getting a raised garden bed. But how would it look like? Should i try to plant some salad this year? How do I keep the snails away from my plants so that at least one pumpkin plant will survive?

I want to try to plant some potatoes this time. I heard you can plant them in containers. I think I am going to try this. Also I am very sure to only get one zucchini plant hahahaha. I still have some in the freezer :)
I think I don't so herbs this time as they did not grow so well in the small containers I got for them. In the meanwhile I will plant flowers there to attract some bees and bugs.

I also cant wait to see the first spring flowers growing. I planted 4 containers full and got new tulips. I am curious how they will turn out. (actually I can hardly remember the color anymore so it will be a total surprise anyway).

We also think about cutting away the 3 huge trees who are still left. Thy just take away too much space and light. And I would really like to have new garden furniture and a small meditation corner. And I thought about building a bug hotel. I really would get rid of the bugs on the mint in a natural way. There were so many this year that we could hardly enjoy any mint.

And now I hope you do understand why I can not wait to get started. :)
First thing to to is probably getting an idea of what to plant. This is a nice project for the next evening on the couch.
I keep you posted!

Many greetings,Susann

Planting flower bulbs in containers

Hi all,

this year I wanted to try something new. I still have plenty of flower bulbs from this spring. I kept them dry on a cool and dark place and now I wanted to use them again.
As from this year on we started our little veggi garden space is something I don't give easily away. But you need flowers of course to bring bees, ladybugs and all the other bugs in your garden. That why I did not want to have no flowers in the garden.

Then I had the idea to plant the bulbs in 2 big containers I still have. And I did.
Unfortunately you and me have to wait until next spring to see if everything works out.

I also cleaned out the garden a little bit. There I found something very funny. I did put some radish seeds in the ground this summer but the snails immediately ate the green when it came out. So I said good bye to the idea of eating fresh radish this year.
Look what I found after cleaning out this piece of the garden:

Surely they are not tasty anymore but for next year I learned to not give up so fast :)

Have a great day,
Susann

Gardening Journal

Hi all!

As you know I started a veggi garden for the first time this year. I had no idea what to get and how to do it, when to plant, what plant next to each other and so on.
So I started a huge research. I bought books, searched for planting calendars and read every article I could found in the internet.
But I had to keep the information I've got somewhere. So I created my gardening journal. I bought a book and did not make it myself but only because I just found the perfect book. See?

I was immediately in love and had to bring it home. Ok, I have a confession to make. I have a thing for note books. I could buy them all. I have one drawer full with them but use them nearly all for all kind of topics.

In my garden journal I write for example important information about plants I have or like to plant. I also keep the seeds package and stick them in it with washi tape because then I already have all information. I also have a small greenhouse for the windowsill (see below). I wrote down what seed I put were :)

For the first year I already gathered a lot of information. I already figured out that some things need to be changed or I found things out my own. I will write a seeding planner as well and show it to you later.

Do you have a gardening journal? 

Today was also more a couch day with a lot of grey and a little rain outside. So: Cuddeling-Time!!!

 

Many greetings,
Susann

Food out of the garden

Hi all,

I already told you that I ate Zucchini the whole summer long. Also my freezer is full of it. But his plants seem never to stop producing even more.
At the moment I have counted 13 more Zucchinis and today I've got some of them in again to prevent them from getting even bigger.

I also harvested some last green beens.

And here is the amount of mint, parsley, basil and salie. I keep them in the freezer as well.

Next year I will go for only one Zucchini plant but more corn. Also I would like to try a little bit of salad and tomatos. The beans I want to let grow up next time and I hope to be able to let at least one pumpkin plant survive next year. But well, I will have to wait anyway, right?


Many greetings,
Susann