Summer at last

It's finally summer, with the night temperatures staying above +10C too. Things in our garden grow nicely: beans, both planted and wild flowers, strawberries and the midsummer night's rose bloom and we already made our first rocket salad out of our own rucola. 

Today we put our zucchinis, cucumbers and tomatoes to the ground (not pots this time), and basil into big garden boxes. We also planted some thyme and oregano and some more salad too.

Besides the rucola and onions growing for the second year unexpectedly, we also have found a couple real surprises in our garden. A little maple is growing in one of last year's pots, and I found a little yellow violet growing in last year's onion bed. I salvaged it to a pot before turning and cleaning the dirt for the zucchinis and cucumbers.

Garden stuff

Today has been a truly warm sunny day, and I did a whole lot of things in our garden. First off, I raked and cleaned off the patch with the spring onions, and found some rucola growing underneath of all the crap! The I planted a bougainvillea in a pot that I placed in one of my twig bunnies. I also sowed some flower seeds to pots and the clay pot.

Our spinach is growing nicely, and at least one of the aubergines has sprouted. The biggest tulip has opened.

The neighbor's cherry tree is producing flowers, but isn't quite blooming yet.

 

Garden work

Finally we got around to do some garden work. We planted basil, zucchini, aubergines, dill, parsley, beans, rucola, salad and spinach seeds in boxes. A whole lot of herbs, tomato and chili plants etc. are on the shopping list, probably getting some plants instead of seeds again later on. And we were thinking of getting some flower seeds this year too.

 

 

Chives are already growing nicely by the sunny wall, but I cleaned the pot and added some new seeds there today. I also cleaned and turned the dirt in the bean pots, and planted those beans where they were growing last summer too. Otherwise the sunny wall is still all old pots waiting to be cleaned out and re-planted. And the bunnies are waiting for some of those flower seeds ;)

 

Spring onions will be ready for harvest here soon!

 

Snowy yard

We have a couple centimeters of snow on the ground now, with a temperature of a few degrees below zero (Celsius). It's nice, makes the world a little less dark (despite the grayness again today). This snow won't last for too long, but makes the world slightly brighter for a little while.

Rucola covered with snow

 

 

Flowers and mushrooms

The red clover is blooming now, as are the hosta undulata and our rucola too. Mushrooms are growing through our patio, in the cracks between the planks.

 

Butterfly

I haven't seen too many butterflies fluttering about in our garden, except for white ones like this sitting on our potted rucola.

 

First cucumbers

The first cucumbers were ready to be picked yesterday. Every other day there's a new ripe tomato. Sugar peas are ready to be harvested.

 

Zucchini keeps making flowers, and fruits too.

 

Salads and rocket are pretty perfect.

 

Oh, and there a tiny 1-2cm long baby beans on the bean bushes!

 

Garden update

Both green pepper and the bhut jolokia have been growing a lot lately. Jolokia has a whole lot of flowers, green pepper is getting ready to bloom too. Cucumber plants have grown very tall, our bamboo poles aren't even tall enough for them anymore! And little cucumbers are growing on both plants.

Salad, rucola and spring onions continue to prosper on the hilltop, despite the continuous invasion of red clover (which I weeded out again today, after taking the picture). Rucola in the pot has gone wild, and parsley is growing nicely.

Only sad ones on our sunny wall are those chives, for some reason or other.

 

Zucchinis are growing by the day, soon we'll be having our first grilled ones! And the first tomato is starting to turn red.

It also seems that our funny scarecrow is actully keeping the birds away, for now for the first time I have seen the strawberries stay intact while ripening.

 

 

The salad bed

The salad bed (with spring onions at the other end) started out with red clover and all sorts of other weeds taking over the whole area where we planted our rucola, salads and spring onions. While they were small, it was impossiböe to be weeding it, but a week ago I was able to do a major clean-up. The salads and onions loved that deed, and have been growing quite well since! Except for those gaps in the rows - don't know if it's been snails or birds or what, messin' up our salad bed.

 

Right side top and middle: a week ago before weeding, bottom: after. left: yesterday after second weeding

 

Rucola in a Pot

The rocket in the clay pot has sprouted nicely during these past rainy and only partly sunny days. No sign of parsley yet...