Surprise Pods

Admittedly, I’m not a very organised person. In my job I’m doing alright. So far all my students have got their essays back they handed in to me; the registers are diligently kept, my teaching resources are filed intelligently and most of the time even my desk is well-organized.
In private, however, I’m rather lax, particularly when it comes to my gardening stuff. Tools are often left in the places where I used them last (and intend to use them the next day). Usually this is no problem: so far I haven’t lost anything although sometimes I have to search a little longer for a hoe or my trowels. Even if they get rusty because of being left in the rain, there is still my husband who patiently does them up again so that they look even better than before.
Yet when it comes to seeds, I wish I was more diligent. The satchets of bought seeds I stuff into a box, so there is no problem finding them when I need them. But the self-collected ones tend to float around. I do manage to fill some into little boxes or glasses and even write their names on them (old vitamin or pill glasses are quite good for that), but there always remain some that I left out to dry — and then forgot. Sometimes I do remember what they were, but more often than not I don’t. Or I’m quite certain that I took seeds off the spider flowers last year — but can’t find them, possibly because I left the pods lying around until someone thought they were rubbish and put them on the compost. Also, there may be some neat surprises when you do find some forgotten seeds.
Having found those sweet pea pods the other day, I asked our little one to peel out the seeds — only to be alarmed by a shrill yell a moment later: “Mummi, there is something in them!” And so there was: almost every seed had become home to a little bug who was sticking out its feelers, giving the seeds some sort of alien touch.
So what do we learn from this? — Check your seeds regularly to find infestations in time. (This is something I tell myself every season.)

Garden Blogger’s Bloom Day April

Even though it’s almost midnight, I don’t want to be late again for Carol’s Garden Blogger’s Bloomday, particularly because Spring Explosion has almost started. The flowers are only waiting for a few really mild days to show their full beauty, but even what they come up with in this rather cool sunny April weather lets the heart leap. Right now I don’t find the time to work as much in the garden as I would like to; however, I always go my round welcoming every new flower that raises its head — driving my dog mad because she’d rather play or go for a walk with me.

No, I’m not going to rant on about those slugs who have finished off my complete scillas, lots of the daffodils and ruined most of my miniature tulips. I’ll simply show you some that have survived and shine brightly on all visitors who enter the garden.

The first cherry blossoms are starting to open. This is actually a surprise tree because it is a sapling that grew from the roots of my parents’ morella cherries, and which I planted among all the other wild shrubs at the end of my garden. So if it ever carries fruit it probably won’t be morellas.

The Pulsatillas are some of my favourite spring flowers. Unfortunately the wild tulips between them are already gone. I’ve also got a corner with the blue variety, however they haven’t started blooming yet. They love light sandy soil, and when the conditions are right, they self-seed quite easily.

Aside from the white forest variety, I haven’t been too lucky with anemones, although I adore them. They simply seem to vanish after some time. Well, it’s no wonder, if you plant heucheras on top of them in the autumn because you have forgotten that there have ever been some there before like this anemone blanda that keeps on fighting its way up. (Carol, was it you, who went on about having ’senior moments’ the other day? This was certainly one of mine!)

Garden Blogger’s Bloom Day March

It’s been Garden Blogger’s Bloom Day again, so it’s high time for me to come up with my post.

The weather having been unusually mild so far, spring has taken hold of the garden. Compared to other years, plants and flowers are about one month ahead. When I look down into the village where they are not so exposed to the cold winds as we on our hill, they are even two more weeks ahead from us, with tulips and daffodils being in full bloom.

Those of you who have already visited, must have noticed that I’m very fond of hellebores. One reason is that they still look very decorative after blooming. With other flowers blossoms fade, making them look sad and forlorn, but look at what has happened to this helleborus niger: blushing all over the place! Later on the dark green foliage will cover everything up, and thus make a great background for the rose growing in front of it.

The crocuses are almost gone now. I’ve cheated a little: these pictures were taken a week ago, but I simply had to take them in because at the weekend there was not enough sun for the petals to open. These light blue ones are my favourite. My dream is having them spread all over the garden one day. However, they are difficult to find in garden centers because most people seem to prefer the bigger varieties. So I’ll have to propagate them myself. If there is something you learn when you have a garden, it’s patience ….

Most of my daffodils are still trying to grow fast enough to get past the slugs (I have mentioned them already this year, haven’t I?), only the little tete-a-tetes are blooming so far, presenting little bushels of yellow under trees and shrubs. For some reason they only grow half the height from those potted ones you can buy everywhere right now. Maybe it’s because the bulbs are deeper in the earth than they are in a pot — so it’s probably just an optical illusion.Finally some more blue, my favourite colour. The hepaticum still looks somewhat forlorn under the gooseberry shrub, but I’m looking forward to it spreading out in the next years. The violets are doing their best right now, pushing up innumerable blossoms, and thus creating the image of little soft cushions. They are ordinary, but very pretty, wild flowers, that you can see everywhere in the woods right now. I’ve got two more varieties in my garden, however, they bloom later in the year. One with dark leaves and light blue blossoms and the other one with white blossoms.

Where in the world is Giekau?

Well, Giekau is a tiny Village in Schleswig-Holstein, which is the most northern state of Germany. Being located at Lake Selent and close to the Baltic Sea (here’s an article from the Wall Street Journal featuring the region), the climate is rather mild (zone 8 is what I found somewhere, but I’m not too sure if these zones are all the same internationally). Winters usually don’t go below -20°C, summers are rarely hotter than 30°C.

…and what can you do there?

Gardening, of course. In our rich, heavy soil almost anything grows from apple trees to violets as long as it tolerates some frost. As summers tend to be a mixture of sun, wind, rain, warmth and cold some veggies like tomatoes and cucumbers are best grown in a greenhouse (which I don’t have) however, lots of other fruits and vegetables thrive under these conditions with very little help.

Also, the area is great for relaxing. The beaches nearby are not spectacular, but neither are they overcrowded. Some are ideal for collecting fossils or minerals (here a flintstone lined with crystal), as the whole of Schleswig-Holstein is basically the rubbish the glaciers left after the ice ages. Therefore you find rocks that have come all the way from Scandinavia littered on the beaches.
If you don’t like the sea, there are plenty of lakes around too. The landscape is marked by soft hills, making it ideal for easy hiking or cycling tours (if you don’t mind the wind).

And of course bird watchers will find this an interesting region. Right now thousands of wild geese are resting here on their way north. Behind our house herons are crowding up to feed on the little fish that are coming up the creek from the lake. Most spectacular are of course the White Tailed Eagles that breed around the lake and sometimes even have a look into our gardens whether the children have left the rabbits out ….

Those who like more action would have to go to the bigger cities, which are rare in Schleswig-Holstein. The capital, Kiel, is famous for Kiel Week, a great international sailing event. Lübeck with its historic town center is probably more widely known, not least for its marzipan. The next major city is Hamburg, which, of course, is not part of Schleswig-Holstein, but only a one and a half hour drive away from us.

(This is probably one of the last articles that will end up on Jodi’s list. Thanks for starting it, Jodi.)

What Happened to the Crocuses?

That was my horrified thought when I had a look at those presented in my last post. Not one single blossom was to be seen anymore. Vanished. Completely. So much for never having enough crocuses in my garden …

Suspecting them before but without proof, now I’m sure: it was the slugs. As a result of the mild winter, the garden is full of baby slugs that are having a good time on my crocuses, particularly the yellow ones for some reason. Usually I’m rather careful with predictions, but it seems quite likely that this won’t be the last time that I lament about my slug problem this year.