What is this??

He's about 1cm long and is burrowing into the heart of my roses pretending to be a bee. Is he a baddy or a goody?

Gooseberries and blackcurrants, but no apples :(

Gooseberries
Blackcurrants
We have a couple of gooseberries, quite a few blackcurrants, but the cold nights seem to have wrecked the apple blossom and also the Blueberries. Ah well c'est la vie...

Slugs!!

Hungry slugs have been munching our cabbages. Very annoying but hopefully the thrush will get them and we won't have to resort to pellets.

Aren't the roses lovely?

Dark Lady
Heritage
Marie Curie in the Herb Garden
Mary Rose
Winchester Cathedral
They smell so good, I wish we had smelly-blogging. My favourite is still Dark Lady though - the scent is just gorgeous!

The greenhouse arrives!

It's Sunday, the barbeque's on, and what better way to spend it than by cutting up a greenhouse, moving it 5km, and having a good chat over a beer about how to put it back up again. Somehow the need to move the logs etc that are currently where it will be is not getting a mention. Funny that!

Planting the strawberries

The strawberry patch 2 years ago...and after Jennifer and Neil had dug all the rubbish out.
Then they layed the plastic we bought in the village hobby shop for a mere 2 Euro fifty.














And finally the planted strawberries, just as it was getting dark.

Rose Garden May 12 2008

Our roses are really beginning to bloom, and smell lovely.

Sneaky Charlotte Potato

Looks like Charlotte is more persistent than we thought. One of last year's potatoes is making a come-back. I'm sure it will be as tasty as last year, so we'll leave it and move the cucumber before it gets too comfy. We were sure we'd dug them all up too!

Bramble blossom

The Brambles are flowering, and today I saw bees visiting them and the raspberries, so we should hopefully get some fruit in the Autumn.

(I will be removing the weeds, honest.)

Pretty Flanders Poppy

We decided to leave this poppy in the vegetable patch, and I'm so glad because it looks very pretty and is the only colour at this end of the garden.

Weeds!!!

Oh no, we pulled back the floating mulch to be confronted with millions of weeds and not many actual seedlings. Why do weeds grow quicker than seeds you sow? And why don't seed packets have a picture of the seedlings on so that you can recognise them?

Check out the chive flowers

Aren't they pretty?


Also, the big root I dug up. Because what's the point of a blog if not to show off?

Pink rose day

Another glorious May day in Vlijtingen, and two more of the roses are opening.

Dark Lady

Mary Rose
But in case we get too carried away with pride, we stil hav a lot to do. Can you spot where the weed killer spraying stopped?

Sunny Sunday morning

OK, I confess I haven't finished the history of the garden, but hey I can do that when it's raining and I was so excited by the progress this morning, I thought I'd share it with you. Plus I figured that's what you really want to see anyway. I was watering the garden early before the sun got too hot (it was over 30 degrees Celsius yesterday) and I have to do it before I shower because the water stinks. It has been in the tank under the ground for over a year.....
Anyway, as I was watering I saw all these things I want to share with you. First the Celeriac and Cabbage Jennifer planted...
Then the flowering Blueberry, hope they all become berries!





The radishes have germinated and we have first leaves, plus the courgettes are looking good.






Our very first strawberry, and we haven't even planted it yet - this is Jennifer's incentive to keep digging, well it's seems only fair she should have the first strawberry.

And finally this morning, before I go off to complete the dismantling of the greenhouse with Neil and Jennifer, our very first flowering rose in the Rose Garden. It is a Winchester Cathedral. The scent was very faint this morning, but it was early and it was competing with the foul water. I'll sniff again this evening!





Oh, actually, one more thing - have to share with you my new gardening clogs I got in Maastricht on Friday. Aren't they fabby??

The Log pile

The log pile was transformed through hard work in the cold, isn't it neat?

Rose Garden January 2006 to April 2008

From builders yard to lovely rose garden. Actually the credit here is to Grandad for pick-axing the earth, Neil for ordering the earth, and Jennifer and Neil for the expert planting.
Almost all the roses are English varieties, chosen for scent and colour.
The Clematis on the slope should look good next year....

May 2006

This truly will be garden one day.......

Building the walls

March 2006 was a bit chilly and stopped work for a bit...



















but when the sun came out work started again.

Garden views in January 2006

This will one day be the kitchen, terrace and herb garden - hard to believe then.
The whole garden still with some outbuildings awaiting destruction - good to know where the stones and bricks came from!

The future Pergola January 2006

This was the old kitchen...