This week we were graced here in The Netherlands with a Thursday holiday. Not a holiday when you have garden to catch up on still from three weeks of vacation and a Hubby that works on the holiday!
At least the weather felt a bit more like holiday weather with sun beating down on my face and neck as I tackled the weeds.
I finally finished this morning and now can spend the weekend relaxing.😂🤣 Anyone of you who has ever had a garden is now laughing at that last statement, very well, I will try to do less this weekend in the garden.
Here are a few photos and videos of how it looks right now. Enjoy!
From the back of my garden towards the front.One of two Aalsmeer climbing beans. I got these last year from my volunteer job at the Historic Garden, Aalsmeer. The other one doesn’t look great as the slugs have been busy eating it!Best of my broccoli plants. Again slugs have been eating everything…From my strawberry plants to the front of my garden.Curb appeal? More curb appeal.🌱My irises in full bloom.😊
Now back from vacation and back “to work”. Yes, I know it is only volunteer work but still it is work with awesome benefits. Like the flowers in bloom.
One of my favorites at the Historic Garden, Aalsmeer. A bright orange rhododendron.
Now, if orange is not your color then perhaps purple/blue is. This is called blue rain (English translation of what the Dutch commonly call this following plant). A wisteria in full bloom.
Wisteria in full bloom, Historic Garden, Aalsmeer.
With the return of Spring, babies try to make the gardens a safe place. I saw two clutches of ducklings this morning. Just in time for Mother’s Day.😊🐣
Mama duck was not happy that so many Human workers were at the garden. She was “yelling” at her children and they were not listening to her! Had to laugh as her “children” were in about the safest place they could be, plus they stuck together.
I got a total work out weeding the roses. As our manager mentioned to me this morning “You can hear all the weeds popping out of the garden as you walk pass.” As the day went by I really think the weeds were laughing at our efforts.
Boat full of plants ready for the annual geranium sale.
As if I didn’t get enough of weed pulling or flowers I went directly to my garden to pull weeds and to plant my now late to start garden (darn vacation…😂). Tomorrow is “work day” at the garden where I must help care for the common areas so had to get going on my area today.
Iris in bloom. Rows of seeds planted, mulch done. Protection on the tender plants to keep (hopefully the very hungry slugs from eating my plants.😬One patch of weeds still to be done… then we start all over again.🙄My straw bales don’t need to be weeded but the garden rules say I must keep all my garden weed free. So the never ending process continues…My rye grain is NOT weeds! Not sure the other gardeners agree, but they will see…The last of the Friday Flowers.
Enjoy your weekend everyone! Give your Mom a hug if she is still around, if not, plant a flower in your garden in her memory this weekend.
Most my blog followers know that I volunteer at the Historical Garden in Aalsmeer, that I also worked at the largest bulb garden in the World, the Keukenhof in Lisse. I have something in my core relationship with nature that gives me strength, provides me with energy and heals me in difficult times.
In Aalsmeer
This week was finally warm enough and sunny enough to make the bulb flowers pop into full bloom.
The bulbs in some fields are in full bloom near Lisse.
From my volunteer day at the Historical Garden (where I got plenty of exercise hauling wheel barrows of worm compost), to working in my straw bale garden, to hopping on the bike for a long ride through the bulb fields, the following pictures capture it all.
Worm compost that was delivered to the Historical Garden Aalsmeer has to be hand hauled over the canals into the gardens via wheel barrows by staff and volunteers.
Writing this, I am flat on my back! Yup…it was a bit too much for my old back injury so I will be enjoying (not really) some pain killers and doing nothing for a couple of days.
This year is the year of the Lilacs at the Historical Gardens. The garden forces some of the Lilacs to bloom early by placing them in the warm greenhouses.More show of color inside the greenhouse at Aalsmeer.A view of the lilacs that are in the garden from the inside of the garden shed. Shhhh…don’t tell the boss I was resting after hauling the wheel barrows.🤫😊
Then there is my garden… weeds, slugs, new shoots, new community, just trying to find my place. So I tried an American thing, pumpkin bread (for free) stop by my garden for a chat. First time…no one came, second time…two people came…
Trying to be Minnesota Nice in my own garden.I took joy in this lady bug instead.My tulips nearly blooming.The straw bales are now starting to fill up with what will be a summer harvest. Planted spinach, carrots, onions, basil this week. Pulled weeds and tilled dirt. It is a constant work in progress.
Then it was on my electric bike and out for a ride in the sun around the bulb fields of Lisse.
This display I stop at every year in Lisse was popping with color. More color on display in this small front garden.A stop for coffee, I noted how many tourist bikes were sitting outside. This restaurant is in the old Lisse train station and is a favorite for tourist snd locals alike who are out viewing the fields by bike.My bike ride finished with a stop at my long time favorite places.
I placed my two bouquets of tulips into my bicycle bag and headed for home. My back was in pain as I entered the house but my heart was full of the joy that Spring brings, blooms of nature.
Thank You, my dearest blog followers!!!! It worked! Mother Nature heard me and each of you and granted me here in The Netherlands some wonderful sunshine on this first Sunday of April.
To all my Minnesota readers who just received more snow and to any of my readers that were in the destructive path of the most recent tornados, I will keep asking Mother Nature to stop this extreme crazy!
Until that happens maybe a few pictures of our garden will help ease the pain for your bad weather.
When I wrote my blog on Friday it was buckets rain falling from the sky! I went to the garden anyway to lift the black clouds of my soul. As I entered the garden I could hear laughter in the rain! There was an entire level 6 (9-12 year olds) planting this garden. It lifted the black clouds as the rain continued to fall. “Thanks Mother Nature!”Alfalfa with a garlic that are doing just fine in the rain and cold.Can anyone ID this plant? New sprout coming up in a fellow community gardeners plot.Even with the sun out today the wind was cold and biting off the North Sea. Tonight they are calling for a freeze. This cotton cloth cover will hopefully protect my young carrot seeds that are peeking through the soil of the straw bale.NOT WEEDS! This is rye grain that I planted last fall. You can tell that the plants closer to the bales are getting more heat and protection. I will most likely get a staggered harvest. That is perfect for my needs.Bird control in my oat field.These young plants all have glass covers for tonights freeze, the homemade wind screen needed to be on the other side of the bale today. “🙄🙄 Oh well, that is gardening”
What is growing or not growing where you live? Lets us know in our comment section.
The Cedar Journal 