The Gone By October Month

Dear Family & Friends

October has just gone, but I still want to post these memories in before November comes in full swing! Then, I will start posting to share with you about our recent holiday trip to Germany next:)

From www.nipponnin.com/2014/10/waffled.html, we learned how to use our wafflemaker to make simple but fantastic looking sandwich! This is just two slices of bread with cheese and jam fillings which my two girls snapped into the waffle maker machine for a minute or two! No sandwich maker?...a waffle maker will work just as well!! 

After lending a hand to our neighbour, we ended up with a bag of big apples!..This is probably the biggest apple we had for this year! There's always kindness going around in our village.

Clay pots are my preference for planters but they are pricey! There's lots of cheap plastic planters but they are not really ideal as they get brittle under the sun in no time! Recently, I found an olive shop whom I offered to buy some of their emptied olive tin cans to make planters...although they will rust in time but they would look natural with a Mediterranean  feel about them for our garden...

So here goes, I bang some nail holes at the bottom of the olive cans, filled it up with compost, and planted my pelargoniums/geranium in! These plants will not survive winter outside the garden, so they have to be potted up and brought indoors for the coming few months.

This is our autumn flower garden... There's still a lot of flowers: chrysanthemums, marigolds, lavender, cosmos to name a few. Butterflies and bees are having their last go gathering flower nectar. I'm glad this year's garden flowers have been so generous and abundant for them.

Very soon I have to tidy up our garden...it's getting cold and most plants will die down for the winter...some will come back up as soon as weather warms up again, while others have already produced their seeds for next year's new plants. I always don't know when to start tidying up the garden...I always battle with saying goodbyes to these plants that gave us lots of pleasure... autumn sometimes is a sad season for me...

Hoping for a better and cheerful sunny autumn days! Wishing you a nice day:)

Yours

Flowers in September Garden

Dear Family & Friends

It seems cooler these days...I think autumn has arrived a few weeks earlier compared to last year. Nonetheless, there are still many flowers around to enjoy in the garden. As sun shines, we can see lots of butterflies and bees swarming around these flowers.

fascinating globe artichoke flower, one in it's full glory and the other one on it's way out

In the garden this year, we planted globe artichoke...the young flower bud can be eaten, but we never tried it because we were just so mersmerized with the beautiful and very showy purple flower. We let them all bloom because it's our first time to have these unusual flower. Next year's bloom or flower bud, we will definitely try eating them.

globe artichoke in 3 stages: bud, full bloom and dried up flower

For now, the bees and butterflies are all enjoying the artichoke flower till they turn old and brown. I'm curious at this point to see if I could get any seeds from the dried flowers.

lavender giving us  it's second bloom for the year

The lavender had given us a lot of flowers for potpouri in early summer time, but it has started to bloom again, it's second round! Although not as many flowers spikes as the first bloom.

purple & green basil in bloom

Another purple flower that the bees loves at this time of the year is the tiny flowers of the green and purple leaves basil plant. I'm not sure about the exact name of this basil but it does taste a bit of liquorice.

colourful and cheerful Zinnias

Some of the Zinnia flowers have ran out of steam...but a lot of them are still carrying on with their colourful blooms here and there.

Aster and French marigolds

The french marigold are tough...they are everywhere. I wanted to pull them out because they are just taking over every space...but most of them were left to their own device because I see hundreds of bees getting their nectar...I didn't have the heart to tidy them up for the sake of tidiness. Other flowers I see coming up with lots of promising buds is this aster and the chrysanthemums too. Yes, autumn is on us:)

Well, if we could, we like to stay outside, do outside jobs, just to be amongst all these lovely flowers, fluttering butterflies and humming bees of all sort.

Hope you are having the same autumn fun as we have. Enjoy your day:)

Yours

Somethings To Look Forward To

Dear Family & Friends

We find ourselves with so many projects to work on here and there.... everything needs to be done....but of course we have to take one project at a time, amazingly...it will all get done in time.

Repairing and painting an old given beehive...another one more to do! 

We have been wanting to keep bees for honey. A neighbour gave us two of their old bee hives...we repaired it and painted it for weather protection. I didn't do it....but I have a very clever and hard working husband who is so keen in this new venture.

Some more propagated fig tree in tiny pot

We also have been planting lots of fruit trees since autumn and early spring this year. It will be too much for our budget to buy plants and trees to fill our garden with....so, I have learned to propagate and grow plants from cuttings...or we approach our neighbours for spare seedlings and we exchange goods because we think it is also fair to give back.

Lavender cuttings rooted in water for propagation

Remember the lavender plants I tried mass propagation with recently? Well, I found out that it is easier and faster to let them root in water....I have planted quite a few lavender plants around the garden by now....but we still have a few rows of garden edgings to dot with some more plants. Lavender is a perennial plant, beautiful and easy to care for...no much attention needed. 

Young trees by the barn, the circle herb garden, the veggie plot, potted plants...all will get there in it's season:)

At this time, we have so many projects at home and in the garden that we are working on...many of them need some time to take on... time to grow and get established, and sometimes we ourselves need some time to get some more/further knowledge on how to finish our projects... somehow, it will get done and everything will get there in time.

Life is about time... Whatever you are working on...hope you enjoy them all:)

Yours

Garden Tour 2013

Dear Family & Friends

Every summer we struggle to keep the lawn green....but being English, my husband insist on " the green green grass of home"....but unlike UK, challenging Bulgaria is very dry and hot in the summer...

Well, well, if one does not give up...it could be possible. This year, God has been so generous with summer rains... very unusual as everyone would agree. So, LooK! We have green lawn at the peak of summer season for a change!! This is the result of plentiful rain plus constant water sprinkler on!

The vegetable Garden is packed too! The row of fruit trees we planted last year facing the barn is doing well...though the trees are still tiny, yet an apple and a peach tree has already started giving us few fruits on it's second year with us:) Our intention is to have the row of fruit trees to shield and shelter the barn from sun and to  improve and hide some of the barn's imperfection without much rennovation.

The Kitchen Garden is planted with assortment of mix match veggies, flowers and herbs...ones that I like to snip frequently for food preparation as it is near the entrance patio door to our kitchen. It even got a grapevine growing and fruiting right on the post of the entrance roof, which we saved from destruction when we added the tiny porch area.

The front garden is planted with flowers. This year, we experimented planting climbing miniature ornamental pumpkin and a Morning Glory Flower Vine.  Both are creating a temporary garden green walls which I like very much as it give some sort of privacy room or partition! I like the idea of a secret garden:) A place where I can go and hide now and again:)

This strip of the garden is facing north...not much sun gets here. For years, this was considered a place not suitable for gardening. Even the soil was full of rubbles...but this year we decided that we should try and experiment to change the concept....surely there are plants that can grow here. So, I threw some seeds of easy going flowering plants...various kinds, as I'm not sure how it will go....I was surprised, they grew and flowered....so this became my tiny meadow garden! Very good for my garden friends, the bees and butterflies.

I'm not a garden expert....in fact, everything is just a learning curb for me since we moved here not too long ago... learning,enjoying and profiting is definitely a win win situation:) I get bolder each year with my gardening activities and I always say....Next year, I will do it even better!

We do enjoy our garden and hope you did enjoy it too:)

Yours

The Vegetable Garden - End of June

Dear Family & Friends

It's now end of June and I'm updating the vegetable garden situation. These kept me really busy with lots of work... sometimes overwhelming work that I get stressed and angry... but I now realized that I really have a bad attitude towards this...silly old me!

I should be grateful that I'm blessed with so much (including work!)...I just have to chill out and do what I can do...if veggies can't be harvested in time, it will still be OK... if weeds are teasing me to no end, well, this is a real garden! I will still get there eventually!!

Everything has just taken on with vigor! and beauty! It's still a perfect garden.... as long as you don't mind watching weeds in every corner of these photos!!

A few onions bolted into flower but there are still a lot busy forming their bulb. I think some of them are already getting ready to be harvested...but I will have to wait for them to really wilt out before harvesting.

Oh...now what is this?!...oh yes...this is the potato patch...actually you can't see the potato plants anymore, most of them have disappeared... and weeds -enormous weeds have taken over... I think it is time to harvest them...just waiting for weekend help:)

The corns are forming by now...weeds are growing happy along side them too:)

There's really no pathway in between rows of tomatoes...my fault...Ive planted them too close..one too many...didn't managed to pinch the side shoots...so they are really very bushy!! Fruits are still green...but I wonder how I will manage to harvest them when they turn red...oh well... I just will have to squeeze in and get covered with green tomato sap all over me:)

The two rows of cucumbers and cornichon are just about passable....my girls are complaining that soon they can't get in there to harvest the fruit everyday because if you remember right, I planted one pumpkin plant in between...and they are taking over like crazy..zooming thru the pathway....never do this again!!

The green beans are faithful with their daily harvest offer... I just have to keep visiting them everyday... we prefer eating it crispy-green-and-all, and if I let them mature so much...they will start producing the bean seeds...no...not yet...

Although this is not part of the vegetable garden anymore.....but I really get the joy of looking at these bunches growing by the day...they literally covered the roof edge space allotmented them...well...it isn't much a space...

As you can see...I can't keep up on top of the race when it comes to June gardening...but since I'm not going for the pristine garden award, I've already won for the natural garden look category...yay!

Now I'm off to do more work in the kitchen garden, the herb garden, the flower garden, the mini vineyard, the wild meadow, the berry patch...and I'll try not to get stressed and angry:) afterall, it's suppose to be HAPPY GARDENING!

Yours

The Vegetable Garden -end of May

Dear Family & Friends


This is in the vegetable garden towards end of May this year.

Yes, we already had our first corgette last week...it was delicious! This is a corgette plant too...late comer and as you can see the leaves is still so tiny but already flowering!

We have a lot of ants around and they are very busy farming aphids...but nature takes it's own course...we can also see a lot of ladybirds feeding on those horrible aphids...Hurray!!

These are the more established rows of corgette...lots of flowering fruits...we will have enough for grilled corgette BBQ with friends this weekend :)

It would have been nice to have some pickled cucumber to go with the grill menu, but for the moment cucumbers are not big enough...yet I can see some fruiting flowers...so who knows!! 

A row of cornichon... At one point, I thought I almost lost them when I transplanted the seedlings without keeping the soil moist...but they've forgiven me and recovered well. We will enjoy them as pickled, in a jar, for winter use when there's not many fresh veggies.

My husband doesn't like me planting a lot of pumpkin...but you know...I just can't say no to BIG local pumpkin, then, there's the butternut squash type and the asian pumpkin....I just got to have them all...but these plants like roaming around and they take up space! I told him I will peg them straight on the path where they can go or allowed to go as per order of the Management:) Oh...they better behave...or else, I get into trouble again! 

These are my naughty edible weeds, the Purslane. I shouldn't give them any special place as they just grow everywhere without control....but I did. I have a patch for them and I water them too:) 

Don't you think this is a work of art? My husband copied the idea from the neighbour in stringing intricate triangle patterns between post for the veggie climbers.

Here's the rows of tomatoes...yes, there's a lot of them....I got carried away with one too many...and there's volunteer tomatoes here and there too! I sometimes don't have the heart to pull and throw them away...now, I have no choice as I'm ranning out of garden space!!

Two long rows of green beans....! YUM!  We love green beans and surprisingly, we don't see much green beans sold in the market, even in season...I suppose the locals grow them mostly for the bean seed, not as greens.

The corn seed sown directly seemed to have sprouted sporadically.Next year, I will pre-soak them to sprout a bit before planting them out...but one good thing...I can carry on sowing more seeds. Corn is so tasty and sweet, specially harvested from the garden straight into the cooking pot!

The potatoes that I planted with special pre-instruction from the husband... of planting 3 rows only... ended up going overboard to 6 rows and a bit! No, I just don't have the heart to throw the rest as usual!! They used to look great all in neat rows...but rain/wind and their statures now plops them everywhere a bit.... OK...a great bit!

These are my onions...yes, there's a lot of them too...but they do keep well. In fact, we are still eating onions that we harvested last year...a few more to finish before these lot are ready!

The green peas are now climbing onto their post.... I've lost a lot of them somewhere...perhaps birds ate some of the seeds??...but there's enough for stir fried fresh young peas in a pod now and again...that's how it's best eaten...me thinks!

This is a bit long posting...but this serves as a record pupose for my gardening venture...perhaps an inspiration to some of you or maybe opportunity for me to learn from you in case there's something I missed or need to know further.

Yours

Drip irrigation

Dear Family & Friends

Even with smaller gardens, you might want to consider drip irrigation. Sometimes life gets busy, and you might not be able to water for a few days. If you had automatic irrigation, you wouldn’t have to worry about losing the garden you had spent months nurturing.

My first year of gardening, I was manualy carrying and pouring buckets of water from the well unto the plants. OH That was very tiring! and I don't thinkI needed more muscle building!

The second year, we bought an electric water pump and use a hose to stand for hours till the garden is watered. In the height of summer, mosquitoes were very keen on feasting me for the duration of the watering chore!! Yikes! 

The third year, we decided to make a deep trench on rows of plants and flood it with water to avoid becoming the party food of the mossies! But this uses up and waste so much water.

This year, we are getting clever, my husband installed a drip irrigation system. We placed a big water reservoir on top of a built-metre tall-pedestal. We pump water from the well into the reservoir and there is a switch for the main dripping pipe that channels to little plastic pipes that's laid onto the plant beds. Water is dripped using gravity and slow watering drips mean, the plant can take in the water into it's roots gradually... and we don't need to be there to do the chore either! Now, do you agree that we are getting clever?!

When life gets tough, there's always means and ways to find some solution. We are not experts here but gradually my husband is becoming quite a handyman...trying this way and that way...watching and learning from others too:) 

OK...I believe there's always hope..and we'll go for it. Be encouraged in whatever good plans you have too:)

Yours,

Blooms

Dear Family & Friends

Tis the season of blooms! Look at this plum tree blosoms....Aren't they gorgeous! They are all potential fruit plums, but it all depend on whether the working bee set the flowers into fruits by pollination.

Right now, my most favourite place to sit in the garden, whenever possible, is under our big cherry tree! It's also in full bloom and what I love the most is the buzzing noise of hundreds of bees gathering nectar from flower to flower! To me, the sound and presence of bees are magical! I love bees!

Bees are friends. Hard working friends who are only interested in blosoms like this ones.

I just can't help writing and photographing this moment in our garden..My wish is to share with you the excitement and joy that we get out from the simple beauty of nature.

I collaged these photos of the tulips which was taken just a few minutes interval of each other. Every morning, they unfold their blooms slowly and by late afternoon, they do the reverse action of closing up once again....I find this fascinating indeed! 

One favourite British dessert is the use of  rhubard leave stem (not the leaves as it's poisonous)...I planted this rhubard from seeds given by my MIL. In UK, we have rhubard in our garden too and they just come up year after year without any care given to it.

I suppose, we have slightly different climate condition here that this rhubard started bolting...it's going to bloom to produce seeds. Now, this is strange phenomenon to me... but I found out that it is because the plant is STRESSED!! Oh! poor plant!... and my husband won't have rhubard pie this year too!! Well, I'll try again next year!

A Rhubard plant bolting into seeds

Life is full of surprises...lots of learning to do along the way....sometimes it's overwhelming, but I'm determined to just focus on the joy of simple things in life... you do the same, and have a blessed day:)

Yours,