spring

Bench for contemplating

~ Eva the Gardener ~ 1 Comment

For my inner eye, I could see this special bench long before it was built. The 80 year old pear tree… Hexagonal bench… View towards the lake… Cup of coffee in my hand… Summer leaves trembling in the faint breeze above my head… YES, this bench was a MUST.

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And one day the opportunity was there. A friends husband do carpenter work as a hobby, and today the whole family came over to build my dream bench.

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Really, P was super professional! He started out in the gloomy noon, with the rain hanging in the air.

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One afternoon later  the sun was shining and the bench was there.

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And of course we celebrated with a  Swedish “fika”! Coffee and homemade blackcurrants pie, a taste of summer 🙂

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Now the finishing job is mine: to paint the bench. But until then, I enjoy the view of it. I have a feeling this will be a favourite place of mine! And if you are inspired and want a bench of your own, P told me he would love to go to another country and build his special bench there (“Spain would be wonderful,” said the Swedish hobby carpenter).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

What better way …

~ Eva the Gardener ~ Leave a comment

… to start spring than enjoying the Heart for the World!

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It was a year ago that I started to build and create the Heart for the World, a flower bed in the form of a heart, filled with different kinds of tulips.

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The heart is placed on the slope from our house, which is situated on a small hill. To cover the soil beneath the tulips, I planted lots and lots of strawberries, so when the tulips are out it is time to taste the first berries.

Below you can see what it looked like when newly digged.

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Food for squirrel

~ Eva the Gardener ~ 1 Comment

The “clonk” revealed it.

Some weeks ago I bought a squirrel food feeder (www.vivara.se). The construction is a little box with a windowlike front and a roof or lid that the animal can push up with its’ head to fetch food. I put it up in a birch tree, positioned so I will be able to see the feeder from my window.

Well, the weeks passed and nothing happened. But a friend told me it could take some time before a new feeder is found and accepted by the animal. So I waited. And one day when in the garden I heard the “clonk” sound – wood smashing against wood, the sound the feeder makes when the squirrel drops the lid of the feeder back in place. This was so exciting, finally a squirrel!

I shot a video and extracted some photos from it. Sorry about the quality, but it was shot through the window, so as not to disturb the squirrel.

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Tulips all over the Heart

~ Eva the Gardener ~ Leave a comment

The Grand Finale has come at last, to the Heart for the World. Tulips in different forms and colors are overflowing the heart bed. I managed  to  prolong the poles that hold the chicken net, to give the flowers more room to grow. But now, in full bloom, the tulips struggle to get through the net. And I struggle to decide whether to “let them free” and be afraid every morning to see the tulips all eaten up by the deer. But perhaps I do anyway. People say the deer are more interested in buds, not the full blooming flowers. A heartful greeting from me and my garden 🙂

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Black Hero, still a secret

 

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Pacific Pearl showing off

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Claudia behind bars

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Status: A Heart for the World

~ Eva the Gardener ~ 1 Comment

Some of you have been wondering what the Heart for the World looks like today, in the beginning of spring. For you who have not read about it, go back and read about the construction of this special heart, a flower bed filled with tulip bulbs. The post is called A Heart for the World. As a reminder, here is a photo of how it looked at the end of the autumn 2015.

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This is the heart bed, newly digged in the slope in front of our house, autumn 2015.

Today, april 2016, the heart looks like this. I have protected the tulips against deers with a chicken net across the bed, placed on poles to hold the net up in the air so the tulips have room to grow. Really, I have no idea what to do when these 30 centimeters (12 inches) of room for growing is used up and the tulips need more space.

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On top of every pole I put a plastic bottle or a metal can to make the net move smoothly over the area and not get stuck on the poles. Some extra poles hold the net to the ground all around the bed.

For extra protection I put wads of unwashed sheepwool here and there, and soaked it with the badsmelling liquid I get as a side effect from my Bokashi compost. I dilute it a bit and spray on the wool. I have noticed the deers avoid places where I have sprayed this stuff.

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I will keep you posted on what happens with the Heart for the World. I can tell you all the neighbours are as excited as I am about it.

To be continued…

 

 

 

 

 

Listen to your ants

~ Eva the Gardener ~ Leave a comment

Exactly. Listen to your ants. Have you ever realized it’s impossible to hear the sound of one single ant marching through the forest? But if you bend down over thousands of ants building and repairing their anthill in the warming sunshine of spring – then you can actually HEAR the ants. Try for yourself.

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A royal visit

~ Eva the Gardener ~ Leave a comment

Well, now, look what came by today in my garden! A really royal visit, the “queen of the forest”. This time a mother and her two one year old calves. They banged through my too tiny fence, broke a post on the way, hurried down the slope, missed the roses and the tulips – and were chased away by me so they couldn´t have their usual apple buds meal. But before that I had the chance of taking a picture!

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Crazy about tulips

~ Eva the Gardener ~ Leave a comment
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Combine new buds with tulips nearly faded – makes an abundance of joy!

If the Dutch are famous for growing and knowing everything about tulips – the Swedes are known to be the people buying most tulips in the world. A fact confirmed by statistics.  Right now I am part of all those crazy Swedes, with my mind only tuned in on tulips, tulips, tulips.

Combine tulips with delicate branches from plants in the garden, here flowering quince and willow.
Combine tulips with delicate branches from plants in the garden, here flowering quince and willow.

I see tulips  – and only tulips – everywhere. And buy them. And arrange them in different groups depending on color, form, size, state of ripeness.

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Sometimes I let the tulips stay in the vase, when the decay is setting in. There is a beauty in the changing of color, in the petals falling off and leaving only the pistils on the stem. IMG_0666

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And of course do crazy things like hanging them upside down outside, with the bulbs still there! It was an experiment. It was winter and freezing cold outside, and I let the tulip with its bulb hang from the bird feeder. That was oneIMG_0673 month ago, and it has met wind, snow, ice – and is still alive. Seems like the bud is waiting for spring, because it has not yet started to blossom. So yesterday I bought some company for this courageous flower – six different kinds of tulips, all attached to their bulbs .

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And of course I am waiting with eagerness to see the tulips in my “A heart for the world”, showing themselves. But that will take some weeks still, before they are peeking up through the soil inIMG_0407 the garden. If you are interested, go to the post called “A heart for the world” and read more about how I made a huge heart flowering bed in the garden.