Back in the garden...

This is impossible! Is it really more than two months ago that I was here? Time flies, that I know for sure!!

It was never the intention; it just happened. Spend some extra days in the office, dedicated time to some nice, new & challenging projects (will come back on that when the time is right!), holidays... Add the normal daily routine to it 'et volià', two months are gone before you know it!

 

But I hope to be back on a regular basis again.

 

Today I start with some garden pictures. Although it has been too cold lately, the last weeks there has been rain & sunshine... Perfect combination for the plants & flowers (and weeds!).

 

I actually only started working in the garden 2 weeks ago, before our holiday. Haven't been to the garden center nor any nursery yet... that is really exceptional! Never happened before :)

Last weekend I tried to clean the winter mess up... succeeded partly, still a lot of work to do.

But for now, I can show you some pictures:

 Tulips that I bought last year during my visit of the Keukenhof and
which I planted only end of January...

 

And what a coincidence... will be visiting the Keukenhof again this week. Very much looking forward to seeing all the beautiful flowers and colours.

 

Might be posting about it next week :)

 

Have a happy week & 'see' you soon again!

Flower Power

 

Although I did say good bye to Summer...

I could not resist picking this bunch of

late Summer Flower Power from the garden.

Zinnias, a variety of Dahlias, Sedum, Aster Dumosus & Gladiolus.

 

 

Wishing you all a lovely week full of colour!!

 

 

 

End of summer garden

 

Wow... hasn't September weather been good for us so far?

Sunshine, blue skies, crisp air during the day and cool night to sleep well.

If you ask me, it can go on like this till next Spring!

 

 

The garden is still full of flowers thanks to the Dahlias and huge Zinnias. The  Aster (novi-belgii) produces a rainfall of soft pink flowers.

 

 

I must admit that I'm pretty surprised by all the flowers that are still in bloom. And, that the rest of the garden doesn't look too worn out after the summer. Still quite some fresh green around!

 

 

 

Lots of pinkish flowers,

so I need to remember to add some flashy colour to the borders next year,

some bright red or orange will add a bit more 'fire' to it, don't you think?

Could you give me some advice?

That's it for now, gonna enjoy the gorgeous weather outside and
later to the tennis court to watch the boys play their competition matches!

 

Thanks for stopping by here,

this one's for you (fresh from the garden!)

 

 

Wishing you a good start of the new week!

P.S. Remember what our garden looked like last year?

Click here

A tiny garden bouquet from me to you to wish you all a

happy Wednesday!!

See you soon!



Beautiful nurseries in the south of the Netherlands

I had promised you some pictures of my visit to 2 beautiful nurseries in the south of the Netherlands.

Together with my mom and aunt, we first visited Marnis nursery (sorry, only in Dutch).

Iris 'superstition'; a gorgeous nightblue variety!

Papaver orientale 'Indian Chief'

Papaver orientale 'Türkenlouis'; fringed... & in real life even brighter

Rose 'Scharlachgut'

The actual reason to go to this nursery was this rose. I bought one about 9 years ago, just before we left the Netherlands to go & live abroad for a while. So I never actually saw the rose in bloom in my garden. Now that we're back, I couldn't find the rose anymore (guessed that one of the renters didn't really see the beauty of it). So I went back to Marnis & bought a new one. It's a single rose and it looks very fragile in a very, almost neon-like, pinkish red colour.

I planted it last week & all of a sudden, I saw another rose making it's appearance.. it looked a bit neglected with ugly branches. I decided to let it stay there and waiting for the buds to open before deciding to take it out or not. And guess what? When the buds opened, it was the same rose!!

I have 2 now and I don't mind at all :)

After lunch we went to another nursery,  Bastin

Bastin is well-known for its mediterranean plants like many different kinds of salvia & lavender.

I didn't take any pictures there (it started raining and I had my hands, of course,  filled with plants!!), but I'll show you some of what I bought that is in my garden now:

 

Salvia 'Hot Lips'

Cistus x purpureus 'Betty Taudevin'

Campanula La Belle

Verbascum Linda

Verbascum Chaixii Album

I hope you liked the little tour & if you're in the neighbourhood, these nurseries are well worth a visit!

Very dedicated and well-informed people, with a heart for their work!

Sunny garden

Finally, the weather has turnt bad again (after 2 amazing weeks full of warmth & sunshine), the garden definitely needs this break, me too, if only to update my blog!! Although I must admit that the rainy Sunday was already enough for me... it can stop now :)

Rainy & grey it is today, so I decided to cheer you up with some sunny pictures of our garden. What do you think? Sounds like a good idea?? Ok, here we go then:

The (very late planted bulbs of) tulips did a good job this year! 

 Lots of pink & purple in the back yard but...

 lots of blue, yellow and white in the front yard :)

An overview of our back yard
Remember what it looked like before winter? Have a look: here

 As you can see, working in the garden is a tough job...

Last week I also visited 2 beautiful nurseries in the south.

Made some pictures, but somehow, I don't manage to upload them.

Will keep on trying & write a post about them later!

And now let's keep our fingers crossed that the beautiful sunshine will return very soon!!

Have a great week!