Mother Nature's mood swings

I wish I was just about to share pictures of the progress with the new greenhouse, but apparently, the few comfortable sunny days we had last week were just a tease. Mother Nature decided to share her mood swings with us and paint everything white again for a little while. Temperatures dropped again just under freezing point, and our greenhouse project came to a temporary halt.

Winter is back

So that was a little bit disappointing and surprising. I do not remember ever seeing snow in March in Denmark! Oh well, I've waited this long to have my greenhouse, I'm sure I can wait a couple more weeks. ;)

In the meantime, nothing is stopping me from starting the season indoors by the windows. A few weeks ago, I sowed cape gooseberry and 3 kinds of chili peppers They need to be sowed early as they take a long time to get to maturity. Some of the chili sprouted about a week ago and are growing nicely. I'm always so excited to see the young plants in the early season!

Chili "apache" 10/03/2013

This weekend, I sowed a few kinds of tomato and 5 kinds of herbs: Green and red basil, thyme, oregano and parsley. According to the little packets, they can all be sowed at this time of the year. I just hope the seeds I had leftover from last year were still usable and will sprout. I am not 100% sure that they were kept in the best conditions. I guess I will know soon enough. If nothing comes up, I'll have learned something!

herb tray

For sowing my things, I use mostly small plastic pots that I've kept over time when buying small plants or whatnot. I place them into plastic trays that are recycled from the kitchen. Ground meat plastic packs, for exemple, make perfect trays, as long as they are very well cleaned. I'm also always very interested by any transparent packaging. My herbs are sowed into empty grape packs. I find them perfect, as they already have small openings both on the bottom and top, and I can close them to create mini greenhouses! I've used them last year and found that I got good results. They are placed into the bottom part of a mini greenhouse, which transparent top broke last year.

Next time I go into a sowing round, though, I will probably use paper pots made of newspaper, since I now have used all my plastic ones. However, I'm still trying to figure out where I will place them, as I am also running out of windowsill space! Oh well, it's part of the charm of very early Spring. :)

Opinion Needed

 Hello to each of you who take the time to read my blog, and thank you! :)

Today, I have a favour to ask of you. I need your opinion regarding the location of our new greenhouse. Note that its dimensions are 309 cm in width, 457 in length and 201 in height at the lowest point, and 272 cm in height at the highest point. It is a fairly big one!

As shown 2 entries ago, the first location idea would be by the first terrace, close to the house, easy access, full sun and where we would always see it from our dining room. It involves, among other things, removing a couple of shrubs, which we were going to remove anyway (growing into the house and such issues). It also involves opening up the terrace (removing the fence) and eventually adding tiles to make the greenhouse and terrace work as a whole. However, my husband is a little afraid it would come to look quite cluttered. However, it would be close to the garden area and very easy to just step in the greenhouse to water some plants or sit with a cup of tea in the early season.

First location idea

The greenhouse would be right in front of the photograph there, with the door facing the terrace as soon on the plan above

Idea of how it would be placed. The fence would be gone. The proportions may be off

The second location would be by the second terrace, away from the house, still easy access and pretty much full sun. I like the idea as the greenhouse would be more out of the way and we wouldn't have to look at it in the winter when it doesn't actually look that good and that charming! However, it involves removing a plum tree that I really like, and I admit it hurts a bit to think about it. Then again, it pains me every time we have to cut down a tree. :(  But I admit the location would actually be ideal for a greenhouse, and as you can see on the drawing, this tree is actually placed very close to the edge of our garden. Perhaps it would need to be removed at some point anyway.

Second location idea

The greenhouse would go pretty much where that tree is. Our actual house is to my left on this picture

Again, proportions may be off, and of course the tree would be gone

What would you do? Is it silly to avoid a location just because of a tree? Should I get over it and just be happy about getting that greenhouse up? 

Thank you in advance for your input. Both my husband and I need this little help in taking the right decision, and we are curious to hear what you think about it. :)

Spring Signs

Despite being very busy with school work these days, I managed to take a round in the garden to see if anything is going on. I was so happy to see that some things are starting to grow again. So it has started! Spring is trying to get through, and it is about to win!

Chives has started to grow, as well as parsley.

chives (I can't get the picture to rotate!)

Fresh parsley

Parsley just starting

I was very surprised to find out that my rhubarb is still alive and starting to peak. It was in a pot last year, all summer (and then all winter!). I neglected to put it in ground, as I never really came to a decision as to where it would be the happiest. I thought I had lost the plant, but nope! It's still there, and this year, it will come in ground as soon as possible! (Oops, forgot to take a picture of that one!)

Another nice surprise was garlic! Last year, I read that garlic can grow again if you plant the top back in soil after cutting it. So I tried that. I put some garlic tops in pots on the terrace and honestly forgot about them during winter. But today, I noticed they are growing! It worked!

Garlic growing from "recycled" garlic tops!

It is so fun to start seeing some life in the garden again. It only gets better and better from now on. Mmmmm, my taste buds are already looking forward to all the delicious fresh herbs and vegetables!

Big Project!!

Last year, my husband and I started planning a big project for the garden, but unfortunately had to set it all aside for a while. A few weeks ago, we put the project back on the table and after much researching and shopping around, I am extremely happy and excited to announce that we will soon be putting up a greenhouse in our garden!!! I've dreamed about one since a good while before we moved to Denmark, and I can't believe it will finally happen! We placed the order a few days ago, and in less than 2 weeks from now, it should be delivered at our door. Needless to say, I can't WAIT to prepare the place, put it all together and finally be able to use my new greenhouse!

Last time we went to the greenhouse showroom, I came back with my first related accessories.

A sowing/replanting tray, a PH reader and a couple of seed envelopes

Here's a rough drawing of our lot and an idea of where we want to place the greenhouse.

The plan is to remove everything that is to the left of "terrace 1", to open the way. There are bushes and plants that need to be removed or moved. There's also a fence on that side of the terrace that needs to come down. When that is all done, we will start preparing the actual spot for the greenhouse itself. We need to remove grass and dig and a few steps that I won't explain now. This location is very sunny, so it should be very good for the purpose. :)

Eventually, we will also patch the old garden patch and sow grass again, and make a new garden area next to the house. It's brighter than one might imagine as there's sun on that spot many hours a day in the warm season. I'm hoping that both the greenhouse and our house will offer extra protection on windy days. I think this year, we'll make it a garden patch, but eventually, the idea is to have high beds in stead. But we'll come back to that at a later time.

At some point in the future, we would like to redo the paving on both terraces. When that happens, we will make the terrace go all the way to the greenhouse door, and a little bit on the side of the house, so it will all be part of one big area. That, too, is a thing of the future. But if we can just get the greenhouse up this year, that will already be a big accomplishment (and expense, I must say).

I will share and explain every step of the process on here. So stay tuned! :)

Happy Early Spring!

Winter Weeks

Well, I have been quiet on here lately, but I have not forgotten you guys! January has been busy around here in other things than arts, crafts and gardening, and I can't believe we're already nearing February. The days are already getting longer and that always makes me feel so happy! I absolutely love this first half of the year where daylight stays a bit longer every day and where Nature works its magic on all the plants and creatures, and Life just springs again. I think I probably say "I just love this part of the year" To pretty much any part of the year, mind you. ;)  I just find there's something enjoyable all year round. There's always something beautiful to observe, or something nice to look forward to.

Despite the fact that I was so busy in January, I did manage to find some time for hobbies. I started 3 different projects with 3 different mediums... but none of them is ready for "presentation" yet. However, here are a few samples, just to pique your curiosity... ;)

Acrylics... 

Paper maché...

Crochet... 

All 3 projects are fairly long-term, but I really hope to succeed in completing each of them within a fair period of time. Ideally before the big gardening season starts! If you guys remember well, last year, I did my first vegetable garden ever. It did not go perfectly, but it went anyway and I managed to harvest some good vegetables out of it! I learned many things about gardening and this year is the first time I have to "re-start" a garden. I still have much to learn and I am looking forward to it. I know that soon, I can already start thinking about sowing a couple of things indoors, but as of yet, I only have a faint idea of how to prepare the garden patch again. I'm sure I'll learn... one step at a time. :) I'm excited to see how things will go this year, as I at least know a little more where I'm going regarding what sorts I want to grow and such. 

Anyways, but for now, the snow is covering the ground and it finally looks like winter. I say "finally", because we'd had mild temperatures until about 2 weeks ago, and for a moment I thought we might go straight into Spring after the holidays! But the snow arrived and stayed a while, and is still hanging around. Now, I am not your biggest Winter fan, but I do enjoy how cozy the living room feels in the cold season. Besides, Spring feels even more magical after some snow and cold weather. 

I'm afraid the cats, however, are finding this little Winter visit a little too long! They are staying a lot more indoor and when they do go out, they stay very much around the house. Occasionally, they venture in the back of the garden, but they never stay out very long!

Tiana and Kashew,  bored and wishing the snow would melt already... 

My adventurous Kashew... 

That's it for now! I hope you're all keeping warm and safe... :)

Dried Flowers and Leaves

Do you remember my flower press? (click here) It is about time I let you guys know how this experiment turned out. I let the flowers and leaves dry a few weeks, and when it was finally time to open the press and see the results, I was very exited and curious! But my excitement died a little when I saw that the previously pretty and colourful flowers had been turned into fade, dirty looking and rippled ones. :( I knew they would loose some of their colours, but I didn't know they would become quite that fade, and didn't think the white would become quite that brown!

As you can see, the pretty red poppy flowers are now a dull pink. The pure white flowers became brown and spotted. The rich pink ones and the purple ones became dark fade violet.
However, the tiny blue/purple ones are the ones who survived the drying process the best by keeping both a nice shape and a vibrant colour.
I also made the mistake to use rippled cardboard. It was not rippled on the surface, but once pressed, the texture showed through and as clearly visible on the far right of the picture, printed itself on the delicate flowers. What a sad result. :( Lesson learned!

But all was not lost! The leaves, which are by nature more robust to start with, turned out pretty well! They dried nicely and retained most of their lovely green shades.

These are now stored safely for future use. I'm sure I'll be happy to get a little taste of summer by finding and using them in a project somewhere in the middle of the cold season. We'll see.

I will of course try again with different flowers and with even more leaves. I think some flowers react better to drying than others, so it will be a little quest to find out which ones give good results, and which ones should be avoided.

Seed-a-lee-doo...

This season, I learned a lot about sowing and caring for a garden. I've also come to realize that while it is indeed a lot of work, it is not necessary, unlike what I was led to believe, to be absolutely perfect in the art of gardening in order to enjoy a decent harvest. There are weeds in my garden. Yep... But there are also perfectly fine vegetables which I was able to add to many meals and happily savour. It certainly was successful enough in the end to make me already look forward to next year and a new garden season.

In preparations to that, the next thing I wanted to explore was seed harvesting. How fun would it be if I could eventually harvest all my seeds from my own garden and use them in the following years! Not only would I save a lot of money over time, but I would also ensure the quality of my seeds. I decided to start with the obvious: Everything that grows in pods.

So I am intentionally leaving some peas, green beans and yellow beans on the plants to mature and dry,  whereafter I will be able to crack the dried pods open and save the seeds for next year.

In the meantime, I looked around the yard and garden to find seeds that I could already harvest, and here is the result of my mini-quest.

Zucchini
(Same process for pumpkins)

1- Allow one of the zucchinis to grow and mature on the plant. I learned that they can become really quite huge!

42 x 12 cm (around 16.5" x  4,5") 

2- Cut the zucchini open and scrape the middle out.

Cut and scrape...

3- Find the healthy looking seeds. They look pretty much like pumpkin seeds. Discard the rest of the gooey stuff. The flesh can be eaten, of course! Lay the seeds on paper towels or on a screen net tray. Set somewhere warm and dry and leave them for a couple of weeks. When the seeds are completely dry, store for next year!

It's not only vegetable seeds that can be harvested. Flowers are fun too, and some of them are quite easy to deal with.

Iris

I spotted my blue irises earlier this year. When the flowers were done, the plant started forming pods in their place. I didn't touch anything and waited through the season for the pods to mature and dry.

1- Wait for the pods to dry and turn brown. They will start opening at the top and they will sound like mini maracas when you shake them.

Dried iris seed pods (featuring a blurry Kashew  in the background)

2- Pick the best looking ones, and crack them open.

3 - Clear residues out and store the seeds away. 

Lavender

Harvesting lavender seeds is a bit of a different process. 

1- Wait until the flowers are done and dry. They will have holes all over.

Dried lavender flower. (Featuring a blurry Tiana in the background)

2- Cut out some of the dried flowers and place them in a container with lid.

Lavender flowers, even at this stage, have such a nice fragrance! 

3- Close and shake the container. The little seeds contained in the flowers will fall out. 

4- Take the flowers out and set the seeds aside. Repeat the process with the same flowers until no more seeds are obtained. 

5 - Clear the residues out and store the small seeds. 

Tiny lavender seeds

I don't actually have any intention of sowing lavender directly in soil. I have a lot of it and one of its way to propagate is to run roots out under the soil in and pop baby plants everywhere. So as nice looking and as beautiful a fragrance it can have, it can be quite a pest at times! However, lavender in pots can also have its charm. :)

That's it for the time being. If any of you also harvest seeds and have tricks to share, please feel free to comment! I would love to hear from you. :)

Oh, the zucchinis... and the other green things

I can safely say that my very first vegetable garden is successful, if not as varied as I had planned at Spring. I've had so much fun harvesting zucchinis, sweet peas, lettuce and yellow and green beans, as well as various fresh herbs. I must say, though, that we have zucchinis coming out of our ears, as even giving some away is not enough to keep our stack down. I have already decided on only 1, maaaybe 2 zucchini plants next year, in stead of 4. (What was I thinking growing 4 of them, right?)

There's also the issue of mildew on zucchini plants. This is the white'ish layer you see on the leaves on the following image. The fruit is still very safe to eat,  but the plant is less healthy. I am trying to remove / control this powdery mildew with a homemade all-natural remedy (2 teaspoon potassium bicarbonate, 2 teaspoon vegetable oil and 2,5 L water), but it has not been an easy task! The only real solution is to remove all affected plants so it doesn't spread. :( I am still reluctant to revert to that solution at this point!

Garden in August

As it is now, the rest of the vegetable patch does not seem to get affected by the mildew. However, the tomatoes seem to have a hard time turning red. I have a lot of them, but they're all green, even though we are nearly at the end of August. I can't figure out why! 

The pumpkins, on the other hand, have grown quite a bit bigger and in the last couple of weeks, have taken a very lovely pumpkin color! Even though the plant itself is huge, and comes up with tiny baby pumpkins all the time, I only have 3 pumpkins that seem to be developing properly, and here's a picture of the biggest of them, at 2 different times this month. 

pumpkins - August 10, 2012

pumpkins - August 24, 2012

Meanwhile, on the terrace by the shed, my chili in pots are producing cute little chili peppers. Like the tomatoes, they are still green, and I don't know if they'll have time to turn red before the colder season, but it's still fun to see! 

Will they turn red before winter, you think?

I think that's it for the garden update!

I will end this post by saying that there soon will be a new exciting development in our garden, and I CAN'T WAIT to share the whole thing with you guys! So stay tuned for more details in the coming weeks.

Oooh my oh my. :) :) :)

Extending the flower joy

I absolutely love the warmer months, from the moment the first flower blooms, until the fall of the last few leaves in our trees. I enjoy them not only for the warmer temperatures, but also for the palette of colors Spring, Summer and Fall has to offer. It is a delight for the eyes and an inspiration for the artist's mind.

When I moved from Canada to Denmark, I lost a bit of heat in the summer months, as temperatures don't go quite as high, and the danish (near constant) wind tends to cool the air down. However, I did gain longer Spring and Fall seasons, and milder winters, which suits me juuuust fine.

But it doesn't matter how short or mild winter can be, it will always be too cold and too grey for my taste. This must be the reason why my motivation to paint usually resurfaces at Fall, after a break during the warmer months. I love colors and can not be long without them!

I got (and still get) so much joy out of my yard / garden this year, that I wondered how I could carry this joy with me through the winter time. I know it's still early, and summer is still here. August and September tend to be really nice here in Denmark, but still... I have to be prepared. And if I want to preserve a bit of summer, it is now that I must act. My solution: Flower pressing.

Like most of us, I have tried pressing leaves here and there between the pages of a book, but this time, I wanted a proper press. So, a new project was born, carried out and completed, and this is how it went:

I took a leftover piece of hardwood floor and cut it in two. I drilled wholes at the 4 corners of each panel, for eventual bolts.

I sanded the backside of the panels, which I then painted and varnished to make them more appealing.  The smooth hard wood becomes the inner sides of the press. There's no real technical reason, I just liked it better that way.  :)

I cut out pieces of cardboard and sheets of papers to fit the press. The layering should be as followed:  "Wood, cardboard, paper, flowers, paper, cardboard, wood". Many layers of cardboard and paper can be added.

 I then went around and clipped pretty flowers and leaves, and placed them in my flower press, which I tighten using bolts and wing nuts.

The bolts I had at my disposal are not quite long enough. They work fine for now, but I will eventually get longer bolts, which will allow me to add many more layers to my press. 

In 2-3 weeks, I should be able to take the dried flowers and leaves out and use them in artistic creations. This will be a first for me, and I am very much looking forward to it, as ideas of what to do with these pieces of nature are already forming in my head. :)

What would you do with dried/pressed flowers?

Veggie Garden After All

Apparently, vacation is not only good for people, it's also good for gardens! Remember my earlier poor attempt at growing lovely vegetables from seeds?  After this first near total fail, I had decided to sow again, but in pots this time, to keep a closer eye on the development. In my last update, I was getting ready to transfer that second round of baby plants onto the garden patch.

I had not set my hopes too high, as it was getting quite late in the season (almost July!) for starting a garden anew! But to my delight, everything survived the transfer and started growing... and producing!

Second attempt at a garden patch, nearly 3 weeks after transfer - July 18, 2012

Tiny little baby pumpkins! They look like small elves. heehee :) - July 18, 2012

My parents and grandmother visited us from Canada in July (hence the lack of entries in that period of time, by the way), and when they arrived, I got a few tricks from the experienced! The tomato plants were the only thing remaining from my original garden attempt, but I couldn't understand why they were growing so big and nicely, yet had so few flower buds. So I learned that it was better to prune the plant, so it could concentrate its energy on producing nice tomatoes. As the plant develops, shoots, commonly called "suckers", form in the axils, and these shoots need to be removed.

The shoots at the axils need to be removed for better development of tomatoes

Within a few days after pruning / cleaning up the plants, I started seeing an increase in the amount of buds, and in the speed in which everything was progressing. By now, about 3 weeks later, my tomato plants are full of buds, flowers and green tomatoes growing by the day!

Fresh tomatoes in the making - July 31st, 2012

I have already made several salads with fresh zucchinis, fresh lettuce and fresh basil and chives. I can't wait to replace store bought tomatoes with fresh tomatoes to go with the rest. No vegetable taste better than the homegrown ones!

Second attempt at a garden patch - July 31st, 2012

This project may not have worked exactly as I expected from the start, but in the end, some of it worked out and I come out of it with a little more experience than I had when the season started. Hands on trial and errors... and some good advice from experience gardeners. There is no best way to learn. :) I'm afraid I've been stung by the gardening bug. I wonder if the symptoms are contagious? ;)

Miscellaneous updates

Ok, no more excuses. I'm overdue for an update here! I will start by saying that I have passed with a very good grade my final exam at the language center! Woohoo!! This reminds me that I also need to update my personal information... ... ... Oh well, that's another story. For now, it's to you guys I want to talk. 


My next student step is to take an extra course in Danish to further develop my writing and communication skills in that language.  In addition to this, I will be taking two subjects at the adult education center: "Society" and "Psychology". I was accepted at both and start mid-august. :) It won't be easy in the start to sit in classes with all-danes for the first time, as they do speak way faster than the teachers at the language center. However, I strongly believe I can follow and succeed. On top of the subjects themselves, the two courses will be an excellent way to take my danish to a higher level. It goes great with the extra danish course. ;)


Ok, now that the schooling update is done, let me take you back into my garden. Remember my garden patch? Well, it is not going too well over there. Nearly nothing sprouted. :( I think one of the problems was that I sowed right before a warm, dry spell, and even tho I tried to water a lot, it just wasn't enough. Also, I had to remove the cucumber plants, as they were having a really hard time in the wind. It is so windy in Denmark. However, my tomato plants are doing quite well. There will be tomatoes in not too long I believe. :)


In order to try to "save" the patch a little bit, I sowed again, but in pots this time. I will be attempting to transfer the baby plants in the garden after I have cleaned it again. I'm not sure they will grow and produce in time, but at least I am learning a few things in the process! Oh well, better luck next year... hopefully. 
As for my plants and flowers in pots, they are all doing well. My chili and gooseberry plants are not so big, but they are producing, so that's got to be at least half good, right? 

The corner of our second terrace. Mint, decorative squash, chili, herbs and  diverse flowers. 

I do have one huge problem in the garden at the moment. Most of my plants are being overtaken by pests. I think they are called aphids. :(  A good friend of mine gave me some tricks to get rid of them, but am yet to try them out. I hope I can get some control over that issue before it is too late... Maybe it is already too late. :(


My husband and I have been talking about getting a greenhouse. I've been dreaming of one since even before we moved to Denmark and now perhaps that dream will come true just a little later this year! :) If possible, we'll get one and install it before winter, so that I can use it early in the Spring. I can't wait to be able to do "greenhouse updates"!


In the meantime, school is out and summer is here... well... Not really here in Denmark, as it's not been that warm lately, but I'm sure it's summer somewhere in the world! ;)

Fairy Garden

I've just had a wonderfully sunny 5-day weekend, where I did a lot of things in the yard like taking care of keeping the vegetable garden watered, buying and planting flowers in ground and in pots and weeding a little bit. After a very satisfying few days, I decided to use today's time to focus on a little project I've had in mind for a long time.

I've always liked faerie folks and miniatures, and the two interests happen to go very well together. I had a lot of fun making, and am very excited to present this little fairy garden, complete with hut and fairy!

The hut is made of a clay flower pot and its under plate. I carved out the hole / door using my Dremel tool. It is decorated with small gems, mini pine cones and a couple of the snail shells I cleaned and varnished a few weeks ago (click here) The little fairy is made of polymer clay and is sitting on a small piece of drift wood I found in Denmark during one of my first visits back in early 2000's. I decorated with a few mini baskets filled with greens or mini gems. I used mini glass bottles as "ingredients" bottles, and used some sort of dried and varnished shell as water container. ( I wish I knew from what plant it came... it's a very woody shell, and I got it in the craft section of a store around Christmas time). 

It is my plan to ask my husband (who has knowledge in electronics)  to help me bring lighting to this little garden. My idea is to light up the inside of the hut as well as a couple of mini garden lamps using LED and a battery, which will draw its power from a mini solar panel. I hope he will have time to help me complete this fairy garden. 

I always enjoy doing that sort of projects. I find it relaxing and it makes me feel so happy and joyful... I guess there's still a little girl in me. ;)