Flowers for sale

We went to the cottage today and I picked a lot of flowers. I'll put them for sale in tomorrow's flea market. And if they aren't sold I'll just put them in vases around my own garden.

Short visit to the cottage

All was well at the cottage yesterday. There was some snow when there was none at Vårkulla. The snow is good news as the plants will survive the winter better. Let's just hope the snow will not melt again - the worst thing for the plants is a wet winter! Its been a couple of difficult years already, now I'd like a normal Finnish winter.

Midsummer magic

If you pick a bouquet of wild flowers in the midsummer night, magic things happen, right? Well, I picked a couple of bouquets and nothing happened...nobody even ironed the curtains...must be because I picked the flowers during the day and the flowers are from the garden, not from the meadow.

Lazy days

I just wonder why I have slaved away in the garden for the last ten years. This year I did almost nothing - just raked the old and dried away on one spring day and now cleaned the gravel areas for two days. And the result can be seen below...looks at least as good as when I have worked in the garden for hours a day for months.

Green and even greener

I love hostas (kuunlilja in Finnish). The flowers are not so impressive but the leaves even more so. And after a summer rain shower they are at their very best.

Morning in cottage garden

We are celebrating midsummer at the cottage. I do what I love doing: gardening. I started at 7.30 and will continue until my back can't take it any more. The men sit on the terrace and discuss what men do (cars?).

By the way, there aren't a lot of mosquitos and what little there are, my hair takes care of...best mosquito net ever is to have long hair hanging down and protecting your neck and throat.

Not so social climbers

Aristolochia macrophylla (piippuköynnös in Finnish) and Virginia creeper (villiviini) are at war. They are both very strong  and fill the rockery as widely as they can. The creeper is an original at our cottage - when we dug it out from the front of the houses I saved a little piece which is now several meters long and wide. I'd love to move both to Vårkulla but I don't yet have a  place for them. The creeper will be easy to move...I just need to cut a piece and plant it somewhere suitable. I am not sure how to move the other one, I think it doesn't start as easily from a cutting as the creeper. Well, the plants cost about 5 euros each so maybe I'll just buy a new one.

Change is for good

My dear old suffering rhododendrons...they almost died (again) at the cottage when the spring sunlight dried them out. We moved four of them to Vårkulla last week. I hope they'll do better here! There are still about ten to be moved but as these were not in the hottest sunny places they can wait till autumn.

Spring at the cottage

We went to to the cottage yesterday to mown the lawn and to clean up the garden. It was a perfect spring day, the sun shone and it was rather warm (not like today...). At the cottage the spring is not as far ahead as here at Vårkulla, but some of the blue-eyed Marys (kevätkaihonkukka in Finnish), rhododendrons, primulas and anemones were in flower.

Out with the old

We went to the cottage today to rake the leaves from the perennial borders. I used to clean up the borders sitting down on a low bench and working with a small handheld rake. This was when I had about two big borders but now as the whole yard is full of flowers it is no use to even try this. So I just grab the largest rake we have and clean the borders with it. And I confess, I leave most of the borders as they are, I only clean the borders you see first when entering the garden. I did this first time last year and to my surprise, most of the plants seemed to like this - they get more nourishment, the old stems hold the new ones up and the soil doesn't get so cold during the colder nights in spring. And most important, I have time to do more at Vårkulla, where there is so much to do that no time in the world is enough.

Keep calm

All is well at the cottage. There has been a couple of storms but luckily only one fir tree had dropped its top into the garden. Most of it was on the lawn, so we didn't need to do anything right away.

I don't have time

Life is too short to eat from ugly tableware!

At home:
Black and white Taika by Klaus Haapaniemi for Iittala

At Vårkulla:

Korento by Klaus Haapaniemi for Iittala

At the cottage:
Black and white Paratiisi by Birger Kaipiainen for Iittala

I am still trying to find the perfect glassware and cutlery, which is not as easy as finding tableware. For glasses we have green Ote glasses, Gaissa by Sarpaneva and Taika by Haapaniemi (all by Iittala). In addition we have French crystal glasses, Stockmann Villa wine glasses, Ikea wine glasses, old glasses bought from flea markets, cheap brandy glasses from super market etc. I would love to have only Finnish glasses but I want to have wine glasses that can be washed in the dish washer and the only one's by Iittala I like are too big for our small washer. And to be hones, I don't much like the ones I claim to like...I like the French glasses, old glasses from the 40's and Villa Stockman glasses much more..

For cutlery we have Hackman's Carelia at home (which I love as the serie is very large - everything from small spoons to cake servers), Hackman's Memory at Vårkulla and then a Spanish design cutlery at the cottage (don't remember the name, the only thing I remember is that the forks are useless when eating new boiled potatoes..).

Memory would have been a perfect choice also for home as for cottage as I love the old fashioned design but Hackman discontinued the production and I didn't manage to buy the whole serie even for Vårkulla before the prodcut vanished from the stores. In addition the line didn't have scoops and other serving cutlery, so it is would have not been so perfect after all. Well, the search continues...

Cheap tricks

Rice paper lanterns are a cheap way to decorate your terrace. I bought three green and three turquoise ones from Indiska a couple of summers ago and they cost around 2 euros each. If you keep the lanterns under a roof and take them inside for the worst of weather they will delight you for many years. I haven´t put any lamps in these, I think they are decorative enough just as they are. And in any case it is so light in summer evenings it would be more trouble than use to provide the lanterns with electricity. If you like more subtle decoration, choose the classic white ones.

Made in USA

The American preria flowers are lovely autumn plants. Here are some asters and cone flowers. The pink cone flowers (punahattu) are more usual but these white ones look great too. I need to move at least some of these to Vårkulla to colour our autumn garden.

Take it easy

I don't get people who don't like bergenias (vuorenkilpi in Finnish). They are easy, look good and green in both summer and winter. The only thing you need to do is to take off any damaged leaves in the spring and the plant looks great for the rest of the year. It spreads easly but is not invasive, its flowers are a delight in spring and it might flower again if the conditions are right. If something is easy, it is not bad - get over it and start using bergenias in your garden immediately!

Greener pasture

It was incredibly green in the beginning of the summer. Something good came with the continuous rain and cold weather.

Best things in life (of a gardener) are free

You gotta love ferns. When the garden is in the middle of a forest ferns just appear here and there. Remember to never clean them away - they look amazing when just starting out. The new leaves curl out from a tight ball and in the end of the summer the leaves get large and look like something from a rainforest. I need to transfer some ferns to Vårkulla and hope they will thrive. At the cottage they live where they choose and that must be the reason they survive even the hottest summers (like this one).

Picking up gold

No wonder these are called golden balls in Finland - they look golden in the August evening. I picked these up from the cottage, I just had to take some with me even though I only got to enjoy them for one day - they will be dead when we come back to Vårkulla on Friday.

Little maidens

We call columbines (akileija in Finnish) as maiden flowers (neitikukka in Finnish) because - well because they look like little maidens; delicate, colourful and fragile.

Optimistic thoughts

We are going to go mushroom hunting on Saturday! You know, when it rains there is hope. The photo is from a couple of years back, lets see if I can show something like this on Sunday.