• Kitchen garden,  winter

    The First Thing to Sow

    Even though some of the snow piles are more than 2 meter high, an optimistic gardener can still imagine what’s going to flower and grow during the coming summer. For most of us, me included this year, the first thing on the agenda are the globe artichokes. They aren’t hard to get to germinate; the only thing with them is then to repot them into fairly large, or at least deep, pots for further cultivation shortly after they’ve germinated. Globe artichokes have a pole root and need a deep pot with good compost in order to grow fast enough and large enough to produce crop the first year. This is…

  • autumn,  winter

    What Would the Hardcore Enthusiast Do? Part 1

    A seedling I raised, no points for autumn colour. Kasvattamani taimi, syysväri on hiukan laimea. En egen fröplanta, inte mycket till höstfärg. The gardening year starts early if you want to raise plants from seed. In case I had been planning to raise some woody plants I might have sown them in November and placed them somewhere cold for a cold period.  A lot of woody plants need this in order to germinate. If I hadn’t done that in November, then just about now (and perhaps a few weeks onward) would be the right time to do it. I collected a lot of seeds from Magnolias and maples and some other…

  • books,  winter

    On the Subject of Winter Gardening

    Not surprisingly, considering my 200+ library on gardening books, I have a few on the subject of winter gardening. An old favorite is “Rimfrost och trädgårdsdrömmar” by the wonderful Hannu Sarenström (1997, 2003), which is more about dreaming away during winter time, than winter gardening per se, but it’s brilliant and there are plenty of  stunning pictures, some of which have been taken indoors. I also have one British book, which is kind of the “mama’s boy” of the bunch, I mean there aren’t serious winters in the UK so it is kind of tame in comparison to the others. But, it features nice winter gardening for a warmer climate,…

  • winter

    Roses in Winter

    Roses are a joy in summer when they bloom their hearts out and their leaves can be pretty in their autumn glory, but they offer some interest in winter as well. Mostly it’s the hips that catch your eye, but occasionally they keep their leaves for a long time and they can look nice against an otherwise wintery background. Ruusut ovat suureksi iloksi kesäisin kun ne kukkivat sydämensä kyllyydestä ja lehdet ovat usein iloisia väriläikkiä syysväreissään. Ilo ei kuitenkaan lopu siihen, talvisin kiulukat taas kiinnostavat. Joskus myös lehdet säilyvät kauan pensaissa ja ne muodostavat kiinnostavan kontrastin muuten talviseen maisemaan. Rosor är till en stor glädje när de på sommaren blommar…

  • winter

    Stripped to their Bones

    There hasn’t been a lot of opportunities to view the stark beauty of flowers in silhouette this winter – mainly because they are buried beneath a meter of snow this year. A few, by the sea where it has been windier have survived burial. In the picture above and beneath is a Sedum kamtschaticum with my dog. Tänä talvena sää eivät ole suosineet talven törröttäjien ihailemista, lähinnä sen takia että ne ovat enimmäkseen haudattuna metrisen lumikerroksen alle. Muutamat kasvit, kuten kuvien meren lähellä tuulisimmissa olosuhteissa kasvava kamtšatkanmaksaruoho näkyvät vielä. Ylemmässä kuvassa myös koirani. Den här vinter har man inte blivit bortskämd med att kunna beundra växter i vackra siluettformer, mest för att…