EDIBLES IN MY GARDEN

Posted on June 12, 2014 by gwenniesworld

Going into the garden or the greenhouse and pick some fruit or veg to eat instantly, I love it ! I don’t have a big garden but I have figs, grapes and several sorts of berries in the garden and veggies of course.

Cos of the soft Winter we had my figs are doing remarkably well, they are not ripe yet but they get bigger and bigger and there are lots of them so I think I’ll have to make jam apart from eating lots and lots of them and of course I’ll share them with friend and family.

HERE YOU CAN SEE MY FIG TREE TRAINED TO A WALL, I CUT MANY LEAFS AND NEW BRANCHES OFF SO THE SUN CAN GET TO THE FIGS, I SO WISH I HAD THE SPACE FOR A FULL GROWN FIG TREE !!! BUT THEY GROW SO FAST AND BECOME REALLY TOO BIG FOR A SMALL GARDEN, THIS FIG IS CALLED : WHITE OF MARSEILLE , THE FIGS ARE NOT AS HUGE AS THE PURPLE ONES, THEY STAY GREEN AND WHEN RIPE THEY TURN A LITTLE BIT YELLOW AND WHEN YOU SEE A LITTLE CRACK IN THE PEEL IT IS RIPE AND READY TO EAT !

The grapes are doing well too this year, my grapevine (vitis muscat bleu) is still very young, I planted it 2 years ago, last year I had about 5 tiny bunches of grapes, this year there are about 50 large ones I think !!! It grows in the greenhouse but it can grow outside here too and you don’t have to cut away some of the grapes in order to let the other ones grow bigger.

And tomatoes, I have tomatoes too but they still have a long way to g(r)o(w) cos we went to Barcelona at the beginning of May I didn’t want to plant tomatoes before we were back home. But they grow very fast in the greenhouse and you can see the first green baby tomatoes and lots of flowers.

I PLANTED NEW VARIETY’S THIS YEAR SO I WONDER HOW THEY’LL TASTE

Thanks for stopping by and have fun in your garden !

END OF THE SUMMER HOLLIDAYS

Posted on August 31, 2012 by gwenniesworld

Today is the end of the summer holiday and the end of the school vacation. Children have 2 full month’s of summer vacation here, July and August. Normaly schools start on September 1st but that is a saturday this year so schools start next monday. This marks officially the end of Summer although real Autumn starts on September 21st ofcourse. But as of September 1st everything changes, new tv programation, more traffic on the roads, more people everywhere and all of a sudden life is back to normal. The days are already a lot shorter, the sun lost a lot of it’s power and the garden starts looking tired…

A BUNCH OF AFRICANS (TAGESTES) IN A POT BETWEEN THE TIRED LOOKING GERANIUM MACRORHIZUM

A CLOSE UP OF THE TAGETES, YOU CAN SEE HOW MANY BUTTONS IT STILL HAS, IT WILL BLOOM UNTILL THE FIRST FROST, I LIKE THE COLOUR OF THIS ONE, SOFT YELLOW WITH A BIT OF BRIGHTER YELLOW IN THE MIDDLE, THEY LOOK A BIT LIKE ZINNIA’S TO ME

ONE OF MY SEDUMS

THIS CLEMATIS HAS BEEN BLOOMING SINCE MAY AND IT STILL HAS NEW BUDS

ANEMONE JAPONICA HONORINE JOBERT, MY FAVORITE ANEMONE

THIS IS THE AUTUMN COLOUR OF MY LILAC COLOURED HYDRANGEA

A CLOSER LOOK

I THINK THIS TAGETES LOOKS PRETTY AMONGST THE PURPLE GERANIUM ANNE THOMSON

I’M ALLWAYS ON THE LOOKOUT FOR GARDEN DECORATIONS, I FOUND THESE 2 IN AN ORDINARY SHOP

THIS BIRD I FOUND IN THE SAME SHOP LAST YEAR, NONE OF OUR VISITORS CAN RESIST TO TOUCH HIS HEAD AS HE STARTS TO NOD THEN, AT EASTER HE GETS AN EASTER EGG ARROUND HIS NECK AND FOR CHRISTMAS I DECORATE HIM WITH CHRISTMASDECORATION

THESE ARE SOME OF THE VEGGY’S FROM THE GREENHOUSE, THE COLOUR OF THE TOMATO’S IS RED AND GREEN SO THEY LOOK A BIT BROWN BUT THEY TASTE REALLY GOOD

THIS WAS TAKEN IN THE GREENHOUSE, AS YOU CAN SEE THEY’LL NEED MORE TIME TO RIPEN

I hope you are all well and happy, have a great weekend and enjoy your garden !

GARDEN TALK

Posted on June 20, 2012 by gwenniesworld

I had a few busy days with work, lots of clients to care for and I had to look after my granddaughter who was a bit ill and couldn’t go to school but today is wednesday and I have a free day all to my self and guess what I am going to do today ? Yes ! You all guessed right !

The weather was reasonable the last few days, apart from a few heavy showers. What with the temperatures arround 20 C° it looks as everything is finally growing a bit, the flowers don’t look very happy cos of the rain but the plants are thriving ofcourse. It is only June 20 th today and already it is the wettest June in 30 years !

My plants in the greenhouse are doing well, I have 1 paprika plant and it has about 7 fruits and loads of flowers and buds, it’s the first time I am trying to grow paprika’s, last year I tried hot peppers and I got masses and masses of peppers from 1 plant, they kept flowering and producing till the first frosts. But then my husband got a lot of dried and chopped peppers, he is a buyer and buys (amongst other things ofcourse) a lot of different spices so from time to time he gets spices to take home, this time it were peppers so now I have peppers for a few years I think.

Yesterday I was going through a plant magasine and I read that when you cut off the first flowers of your tomato plants your plants will get bigger, the tomato’s will get bigger and you’ll get more tomato’s, have any of you guys heard or tried this before ? I finally have flowers on my tomato plants and I think it would hurt to cut them off !!!

Here are some pictures I took yesterday.

MY CLEMATIS ETOILE VIOLETTE STARTED FLOWERING AND WILL GO ON TILL THE FIRST FROSTS. IT’S A VITICELLA SO THE FLOWERS ARE SMALLER BUT THE PLANTS ARE STRONGER AND DON’T GET ILLNESSES EASY

THIS IS CLEMATIS DURANDII, IT’S A YOUNG PLANT, I PLANTED IT LAST YEAR AND A WHILE AGO I PLANTED A HONEYSUCKLE AGAINST THE SAME WALL (LONICERA PERICLYMENUM)

A WEEK AGO I TOOK THIS PICTURE AND YESTERDAY IT LOOKED LIKE THIS

SO YOU SEE HOW SLOW EVERYTHING GROWS OVER HERE

THIS IS ONE OF MY WHITE FOXGLOVES IN FRONT OF THE DARK LEAFS OF MY LILAC (SYRINGA VULGARIS BEAUTY OF MOSCOW), WHITE FOXGLOVES ARE MY FAVORITES. AS FOR THE LILAC, IT HAS SOFT PINK BUDS AND THEN THEY OPEN AND YOU HAVE A PURE WHITE LILAC WITH A LOVEY SMELL, EACH YEAR I CUT EVERY FLOWER OFF TO PUT IN MY LIVINGROOM SO WHEN YOU COME IN MY LIVINGROOM YOU GET THE SMELL OF HEAVEN !

Now it’s time to do some work. Have a great day and enjoy your garden as much as you can !!

FINALLY !!!

Posted on June 5, 2012 by gwenniesworld

Finally it stopped raning after more then 48 hours !!! Everything is WET !!! Yesterday the highest daytemperature was 9 C° !!at the end of Spring ! Todays highest temperatures will be 16 C°but showers are always a possibility.

Today I’ll tell you about my greenhouse. We bought it about 2 years ago so I am still experimenting. It is unheated so I can’t put my tropical plants there or my cacti in Winter, but I do put my winterhardy succulents in it to keep them dry. I use it to grow vegetables and fruits. I have tomato’s, they are about 60 cm high at the moment and they have no flowers yet but I grow them from seeds, they don’t look tasty as they have a brown colour with a bit of red, I had this variety before and they taste lovely.I also grow a few tomato plants outside in a big pot but if we get a cool and rainy Summer they will rot before they ripe, but I want to give it a try anyway. Last year I planted a grape in the greenhouse, one with blue grapes,called vitis “muscat bleu”, it is still a baby but it is doing well.Each year I grow pinapple cherry’s (physalis peruviana), a lovely fruit and full of vitamins, it is very easy to sow and to grow, I sow them myself in early Spring and I put them on a windowsill inside, as soon as the frosts are gone by mid May, I plant them in he greenhouse and outside in the sun.

My veggie’s in the greenhouse are just common ones, red onions, challots, sweet corn, a few cabbages, lettuce, sellery’s, leeks, not much cos the tomato’s and the pinapple cherry’s take most of the space.

ONE OF THE ROSES IN MY GARDEN, ROSA YELLOW GRAHAM THOMAS, IT HAS A LOVELY SCENT !SMELL’S MORE LIKE FREESIA’S ACTUALLY

A VIEW Of THE POND, THERE ARE MANY PLANTS IN THE POND, TOO MUCH REALLY, I HAVE TO ASK MY HUSBAND TO REMOVE MOST OF IT, IT GROWS LIKE MAD ! THAT’S BECAUSE WE HAVE KOI CARPS IN THE POND AS WELL