The garden is waking up

The last two weeks were cold, chilly and rainy, so we didn't go to the garden every day.  We figured the garden would have enough water from the rain and it would be too muddy to walk about.  But the last two days have been very warm and sunny and there hasn't been any rain.  I guess from now on, we would have to visit the garden every day to at least water the plants.

So, even though we were busy yesterday (I accompanied Pete to town for his meeting) we still headed to the garden afterwards.  We walked in the warm, bright sunshine but the wind cooled us down.  This is the time I am glad I live here where it's windy.

It's great going to the garden every day, there's always something new to be discovered.  Yesterday, we found the pea shoots growing taller and the leaves are starting to open.  We counted and found seven shoots growing.  I know I've planted more so hopefully the sun would give them a warm wake up call.

The beans have surprised me.  At first there was nothing growing there apart from some weeds.  There's a dandelion growing in the middle of the bed (grrr), but no beans.  The past few days, we could see them sprouting and finally yesterday, they have grown taller.  The best part is that there are now many more sprouts.  At the last visit, we counted maybe nine sprouting beans.  Yesterday, we found 25!  And all look healthy and strong.

The petunias are also recovering.  Maybe we could have lost one or two plants.  There doesn't seem to be any flowers growing there.  But on other plants, the flowers are blooming well.  The cute thing is that the flowers are much bigger than the leaves so, from afar, it looks like a row of flowers on the ground.  You can hardly see the leaves.

The squash are also beginning to grow bigger.  I hope they will survive and thrive in the summer's heat.  The potatoes are also growing well.  We burried them under soil two days ago and they have already grown above the new layer.  They are certainly growing bigger every day.

The garden is waking up.  Sadly, it also means that the weeds are also growing.  Actually, they are thriving.  The poor petunias are surrounded by tall, thin grass and there are other big plants that we could not identify growing all over the area.  That means there'll be more work for me at the garden.  More weeding, watering and tilling.  With the encouraging signs of growth, my plans for more sowing and planting looks promising.

Hope springs

On Saturday, when we were on our walk, we stopped by the garden.  We didn't bring any tools with us since we figured the rain would have watered the soil.  Also, I was feeling a bit disappointed that the garden was not flourishing.  Heck, it was hardly even alive, except for the weeds.

And sure enough, as we walked towards it, I could only see the potato plants and whatever that's left of the petunias.  I walked to the potato bed to check them out and they are doing well, really strong and hardy.  Soon, it'll be time to bury them to encourage more growth.

Then Pete called me over excitedly.  He was standing by the bed where we planted peas.  He pointed out a tiny green speck.  "Look, honey, it's growing!" he said and sure enough, I could make out what I think are baby leaves.  We counted more tiny green specks.  Nine in all!  Phew.  I guess although we couldn't see anything, underneath, those peas are fighting the chilly days and nights and clayey (is that even a word? but I don't care, it's my blog and I can use any word I want!) soil to finally sprout. 

finally, a sprouting pea

And the onion that has sprouted a few days ago is looking healthy as well.  The squash and petunias are not looking good.  The carrots and beans are still not showing anything yet.  But I'm hopeful.  It has only been a bit more than a week since I planted the seeds.  Also the weather has been a bit too chilly the last week so maybe the seeds are waiting for better weather to sprout.

I think that's what they will get soon.  More sun and gentle rain.  I am hopeful.

this onion looks like it's growing well

another onion sprouting

Garden talk

 I try to visit my garden every day if possible, if not to do work on it, I am happy to just go there and celebrate what has grown with a happy dance, or to encourage the rest to grow.  Yes, I talk to my plants.  Even if they can't hear me, the small talk makes me happy.

Yesterday, Pete and I took a walk and we stopped by our little patch.  More stuff are growing, including the weeds, unfortunately.  But we are happy with the growth of our plants.

We discovered more potato leaves budding.  The first one we discovered the day before has grown bigger.  Soon, when the plants are a bit taller, we will do 'hilling', which means we will cover the whole plant with soil again to encourage more growth.  It's supposed to result in more potatoes.

The petunias are also growing well.  The plants look bigger and whatever flowers that are not destroyed by the raindrops are growing big and strong.  I love their colours.  So vibrant!

The cucumbers seedlings are also doing well.  Like the squash, the leaves are growing big, thick and green.

Other plants are not showing any activity on the surface yet.   But I'm hoping there's a party down below. 

Have you seen a carrot seed?

It's planting day!  Although it was cold and cloudy, we went to the garden to plant more stuff there.  So far, our sizable garden has not been fully utilized.  We've only used up maybe 15% of the space.

Yesterday, we bought a couple of packets of seeds - carrots, peas and lettuce.  Also, the cucumber seedlings are growing taller.  It is time to replant them.  Pete's mum came by with her large tools.  We've been getting by with my small ones.  But to work on a bigger area, we would certainly need those tools.  The long handles also mean that Pete could help out as well since he wouldn't have to squat or bend.

I've read that to grow carrots, the soil must be loose and free from stones.  If there are stones in the way of the growing carrots, they would sort of split into two or they would not grow.  So, the first thing I did was to get Pete to loosen up the soil.  Of course, I did my part as well and raked it to remove as many stones as I could find.  Then, it was more hard work to dig up the soil to make a raised bed before I started sowing the tiny carrot seeds.

Have you seen a carrot seed?  It is a tiny little thing.  It looks like a spice, sort of like fennel seeds.  I tried to scatter them as far apart as I could.  I know some of the seeds were blown away by the strong winds, but I think I got most of them where I wanted.

The whole thing was a back breaking work out.  I was wearing my jacket at first.  But because of the intense workout I was getting, I took it off.  Luckily I was wearing a long sleeved t-shirt underneath to keep me sort of warm.

Next, we prepared another bed, wider this time, for the cucumbers.  Pete's mum sowed them for us in a pot and now we had 9 seedlings.  We planted them as far apart as we could.  His mum taught me how to plant them.  I had to bury the stem to let just the leaves above the ground.

The work was hard so we stopped to take a break.  I made cheese sandwich with the bread I baked the day before.  It was a simple sandwich with 2 kinds of cheeses and sliced, fresh tomatoes, washed down with juice, kept cold and fresh in the cold spring weather.  Simple but yummy.

The next two beds were a bit faster to build as we sort of fell into a routine.  Along the way, I dug up countless worms - tiny ones, fat ones, short ones, long ones.  I tried to get used to them, telling myself that they are important for the soil and our plants.

The seeds of the peas and beans, which are given to me by his mum, were easy to sow.  I just hope they will be safe from the birds.  Almost to the end of our work, it started to drizzle but we still continued and even watered the new additions to the garden.  I love the tiny raindrops as they fell on my face.  It was cold and windy, but it wasn't too cold to make me feel uncomfortable. 

Oh, yeah.  Every time I step into the garden, I will eagerly check the plants that we have.  The squash plants seem to be growing well.  The leaves are big and green.

The petunias are also showing growth.  They look bigger and the flowers look so big and fresh.


















And finally there's activity at the potato patch.  Pete's mum pointed to us a small tuft of leaves - potato leaves!  And the unidentified plant that was growing by the potato patch is chives.  And I discovered more today.  I'll leave them for now and maybe cut off some to cook with when they are a bit bigger.


The lettuce are not going to be planted in the garden yet.  I'll sow them indoors first and when they're a bit bigger, I will transplant them.  The garden is still bare for now.  Hopefully soon, more leaves will show.

grow, plants, grow

It hasn't rained for days so I was afraid the plants would be thirsty.  Pete and I visited the garden to take a look at our plants.

The petunias still looked like how it was yesterday.  The ones in the middle look like they are growing well, while the rest still look a bit shrivelled up.

The squash plants were also a hit and miss affair.  Some look like they are establishing themselves well.  But others have not looked like they have taken root.  It's been only a day since I planted them so I know I should let them do their thing.  Anyway, it's our first time growing vegetables.  I'm sure we will learn from both success and failures, though I am praying for success, of course.

The potatoes and onions are still not showing any activity.  It will take a while so I must remember to be patient.  In the meantime, I'll weed, till and water my garden, ready to plant more stuff.

While weeding, I found a plant which looks like either spring onions or garlic growing by the edge of my potato bed.  There are 2 tiny purple buds growing at its tip.  I was going to pull it out but I've decided to let it grow a bit and then pull it out to see what comes out of it.  Let's hope it's something edible :)

Squashed and squash

Some of my petunias didn't grow well.  When I visited my garden today, I checked on them and found that the four plants in the middle of the row were sort of thriving but the other plants looked like they were shrivelling.  Pete said they looked like someone has stepped on  them.  But I didn't find any footprints.  Maybe they didn't get enough water.  We didn't water them yesterday.  So Pete watered them while I worked on getting other parts of the garden ready so I could plant some squash and onions.

It was real hard work getting the weeds out, especially the dandelions.  Their roots go so deep into the ground.  I didn't want to just pull out the flowers and leaves.  I wanted to get the whole plant, roots and all.  I don't know if what I'm doing is correct but I don't want to risk them growing again at the same spot.  Anyway, I need the exercise.

As I dug out the roots, I sometimes dug up some worms as well.  My initial reaction was to scream or gasp, cos I am squirmish when it comes to worms.  But I know worms are useful to have in the garden.  I just hope I didn't hurt any when I was digging around the ground.

After I removed as many weeds as I could, I used my garden fork to loosen the soil before I started planting.  That was tiring as well.  The squatting and shovelling and raking gave me a good workout.  Then I planted 2 wide rows of squash since I've been told they would spread out a lot.

Finally, I planted 3 neat rows of onions.  I think I planted 14 baby onions.  Maybe I would get 14 big onions at the end of it, I don't know.  Let's see what happens.

A Spring in my Step

It's spring here in Malmö.  My first spring experience.  Last June, I was there in summer and the weather was perfect.  Sunny but usually a cool and comfortable temperature of around 20C.  On Saturday though, when I first arrived here, it was sunny and bright but the winds were chilly.  I was not prepared for the cold.  I was shivering and my teeth were chattering in that short 100m walk from the car to the main door of the apartment.

Oh dear.  This takes some getting used to.  Or maybe I just need warmer clothes.  Yes! An excuse to go shopping!

Despite the cold, I was excited to visit my garden.  After I tore apart my welcome basket (chocolates and recipe book), a quick breakfast, we set off for the garden.

Friends can tell you that I have been looking forward to working on my garden.  I've been going on and on about it, telling everyone and anyone who was interested that I have a garden, how big it is (10m by 11m) and what I am going to plant there.  Some friends have even gotten me a set of pink gardening tools and matching gloves!  They are so pretty that I couldn't wait to use them.

The walk to the garden was not a short one.  It took about maybe 15 minutes to reach it.  But I welcomed the exercise.  It helped to keep me warm.  The patch of land that greeted me was bare except for some weeds.  The potato patch have not yet shown any activity.  But dandelions and other weeds have claimed some parts of the garden.

Wow.  I have lots to do to make it look like a real garden.  I have never done any planting before. Never ever.  Where do I start?  Pete's mum was going to meet us at the garden.  She is the expert, having had gardens ever since Pete was small.  She used to help her grandmother.  So, yeah, she's the expert.

While waiting for her, I took out the garden fork and dug out some weeds.  The yellow dandelions were so pretty and I gazed at them lovingly.  But Pete said, "You know they are weeds, honey."  Yeah, I guess in a few weeks or so, I will not look at them so kindly if they were to invade my garden.

Pete watered the row of potato plants.  He couldn't help me do the weeding cos his leg is busted.  He can't kneel or squat.  After just 10 minutes, I filled my pail, a pink one with a black handle (another item in my welcome basket - Pete chose that one cos it matched my gardening tools) with weeds.

That was when Pete's mum and Pernilla arrived.  They brought more gifts for me.  His mum has started growing cucumbers and squash for me, ready to be transplanted.  She also gave me a pot of beautiful hydrangeas.  And there were baby petunias from the nursery.  Purple and pink.  Those were from Pete.  So, with their advice, we picked a spot, and I planted a row of these, alternating the pink with the purple.  Pete, the water guy, got water off a tap nearby and watered them.

But the vegetables and hydrangeas had to wait.  Pete's mum had to leave and they dropped him and me off.  The weeding and planting took a bit of work - squatting, bending, digging and pulling.  But I didn't break a sweat.  I know there will be more hard work ahead if I were to get the garden to look like what I want it to be.  But I will not rush it.   I will start by taking baby steps.