TOO LATE BUT…

Beautiful as always ! My amelanchier in bloom at last, 4 weeks later than usual ! This tree is about 30 years old, we have trimmed it a lot over the years. normally it is a bush but you can easily make a tree of it by cutting the lower branches off. It has never been in bloom so late in Spring, always at the 1st of April and occasionally a few days later but never 4 weeks late ! If you look at my blog I did 4 days ago you can see what the sun did in just 4 days time !

DON’T THEY LOOK CUTE THESE LITTLE FLOWERS !

We had 2 lovely Spring days with temperatures above 20 C°, we had lunch and dinner in the garden. Alas, today is cold and wet, 8 C° !!!! Can you believe this ??!!!! We needed the rain so I am pleased with it as the soil in the garden was so  terribly dry.  And my water barrels are now full again !The weekend will be cold and wet too so no gardening for me except for some jobs in the greenhouse.

I hope you’ll all have a great sunny and warm weekend full of fun in the garden !!!

WHERE IS MY SUN ???!!!

I’ve been in hospital for a week but now I’m back but unable to do some gardening or other work for a while and there is sooooo much to do ! I was amazed to see how much my garden had changed in just a few days, everything looked bigger and greener, less flowers…they all rotted away cos of the heavy rains we are having. I had hoped to come home to a lovely garden where I could sit in the shade, recover from my operation in a pleasant way and enjoy the view, read a book, do some drawing….Alas the weathergods decided differently. I don’t know why but for month’s now the SoutEast part of Europe has warm and sunny weather whereas the Nortwest part (where I live)has cold and very wet weather. And for the next 10 days we’ll get more of the same, this is really depressing me.

Before I left I took some pictures in my garden as we had a few hours of sun in the afternoon.

THIS LITTLE FLOWER IS CALLED ASPERULA, FOR US IT IS AN ANNUAL, I THINK NEXT YEAR I’LL USE THEM TO MIX WITH OTHER ANNUALS, THIS YEAR IT WAS JUST AN EXPERIMENT TO SEE WHAT COLOUR THEY WERE AND WHAT HEIGHT THEY HAD AND HOW LONG THEY BLOOMED, LOOKS LIKE THEY ARE QUITE RAIN RESISTANT

ASTRANTIA MAJOR, A SWEET LITTLE FLOWER THAT DOESN’T ASK FOR MUCH AND BLOOMS FOR A LONG TIME

FIRST BLOOMS THIS YEAR ON MY HYDRANGEA, THE CREAM WILL BECOME PURPLE AS THE FLOWER AGES, WHEN I BOUGHT THIS PLANT THE FLOWERS WERE PINK BUT IT STANDS NEXT TO A CONIFER HEDGE SO IT BECAME PURPLE, IN AUTUMN IT WILL TURN DARK RED AND MOSGREEN , VERY PRETTY WHEN YOU DRY THEM.

A CLOSE UP

I also took some pictures in my greenhouse.

TOMATO SELLERY CABBAGES FENNEL

THIS YEAR I TRIED SWEET CORNS FOR THE FIRST TIME, THEY ARE GROWING LIKE MAD BUT WILL THEY BE RIPE BEFORE THE FIRST FROSTS ? I’LL LET YOU KNOW ! BEHIND THE GREENHOUSE YOU CAN SEE NETTLES GROWING, THESE ARE FOR THE BUTTERFLIES WHO NEED THEM TO LAY THEIR EGG’S ON

MY PAPRIKA’S

MY ONE AND ONLY EGG PLANT.

I’m dying to see what is happening in my greenhouse at the moment but my terrace is slippery when it is wet and I can’t risk a fall right now so I’ll have to wait till it dries again. At the moment it is just pouring !

Have a great weekend all and thanks for stopping by !!

WATER ANYONE ???

I know some of you are desperate for some rain and I do understand, I really do as without water there is no life possible. But here in Belgium we have lack of sun and warmth, a few days ago we got 30 liters of water per m²in a few hours time, that is more than the average for the whole month of June !

IT’S RAINING MEN HALLELUJA !!!

    

Everthing looks lush and green ofcourse but the flowers are not happy, they look scruffy and battered, it’s not a pretty sight. My rosa Guirlande d’amour looks smashing for weeks on end when the sun is shining  and when the weather is dry, now it looks really sad.

SEE WHAT I MEAN ?

STAINED BY THE RAIN

THIS CLEMATIS JUST STARTED TO BLOOM

On the shady side of the house I use a lot of busy lizzy’s, I find it a very rewarding flower for shady places. Last year we were in Costa Rica and there we saw the buzzy lizzy everywhere in the shade as groundcover, such a pretty sight ! I am always amazed when I see the flowers we can buy here,  in their natural habitat especially the plants we keep here in small pots, when you see them in an exotic country they are sometimes huge tree’s or big shrubs and then I feel sorry for my potplants as they will be forever potplants.

I whish I coud say I had a gardening weekend ahead of me but I can’t, I have other obligations much to my regret. But I do hope you will be able to work in your garden or to enjoy and relax between the flowers or under a three.

AND TO END WITH A HAPPIER PICTURE, HERE IS ANOTHER DAYLILLY THAT JUST STARTED TO BLOOM, THIS PICTURE WAS TAKEN BEFOR THE RAIN STARTED

HAVE A GREAT WEEKEND ALL !!!

LOTS AND LOTS OF WATER FROM HEAVEN !

Today is “Sun”day but the sun is nowhere to be seen, it is cold, really cold, we haven’t even 10 C° and it is almost noon ! It has been pouring all night and morning and at the moment it is still raining but softly. I hope it will be dry this afternoon as I have lots to do in the garden. Yesterday was such a lovely day but alas we had to go away for the day. This happens a lot ! and it is very frustraiting !

My garden is looking lush and green and my plants are enjoying the rain after last weeks hot weather. I hear the birds singing and tjirping everywhere as there are many birds living in our garden.  I feed the birds in the garden year round, they have the pond where they can drink and have a bath, they have plenty of tree’s, conifers and shrubs where they can hide for birds of prey, cats and dog’s, they have plenty of food, so I think they are quite happy in my garden. We have sparrows who are allways fighting with eachother and they make a lot of noice, then there’s plenty of blackbirds and all sorts of tits, trushes, pidgeons, we have herons who visit our pond…we don’t like that !!! Then we also have magpies and woodpeckers and others. I like to watch them, it is very relaxing.

HERE’S ONE OF THE BIRDHOUSES COVERED WITH A CLEMATIS MRS BATEMAN

HERE YOU HAVE A BETTER VIEW OF MRS BATEMAN, ISN’T SHE JUST A BEAUTY !!! I THINK SHE IS !

THIS IS MY AMELANCHIER, EACH YEAR WE GET A COUPLE OF CUSHATS WHO MAKE THERE NEST IN THIS TREE,IT’S A VERY SIMPLE NEST MADE FROM A FEW TWIGS

The plants in my greenhouse are doing well so I am pleased. And my figtree, well he’s still a sad view but he’s making progress.

THIS IS HOW HE LOOKED LAST WEEK  !! NORMALLY HE SHOULD BE COVERED IN BIG GREEN LEAFS BUT WINTER WAS VERY HARSH.

HAVE A GREAT SUNDAY ALL ! and thanks for stopping by !

PS: if you click on the photo’s you can see them in a bigger version