• spring,  stonescaping,  woodland

    Border Building

    http://i78.photobucket.com/albums/j100/HenrikaGardening/borderbuilding1.jpg Almost the whole border Time flies when you have a lot to do… Work, renovating more than half my home and tackling this beast of a border that I started on last fall. The border is going fairly well. I’ve improved the soil in the shade curve with lots of peat based compost and I’m doing the same with the rest of it. Last fall I bought garden soil (around 20 tonnes) and it has been good in the sense that it is weed free (not counting all the maple seeds that since landed in it and then germinated) and it seems to be nicely fertilized. What I’m not…

  • autumn,  greenhouse,  Kitchen garden

    Tomato Time

    This is the harvest from a day last week. I’ve never had a crop like this! Really tying up the plants and for once taking good care of them has paid off. In the picture is “my” tomato ‘Malinowy Henrika’ (Henrika is my first name, the tomato was a find in Graines Baumaux’s catalogue), ‘Choclate Cherry’, ‘Sungold’, ‘Galina’, ‘Tomatoberry’, ‘Sweet 100’, ‘Stupice’ and probably a few more. The last picture shows today’s harvest; some ‘Chocolate Cherry’, ‘Galina’, ‘Sungold’, ‘Golden Cherry’, ‘Whippersnapper’ (with the funny spur) and ‘Tomatoberry’  with a few ‘Malinowy Henrika’ and ‘Stupice’ underneath and just showing. This is more or less clockwise starting with ‘Chocolate Cherry’ which is…

  • Kitchen garden,  media,  video

    Oops, I’m on Video

    I can’t seem to embed this, but on the magazine Koti ja Keittiös homepage, I’m talking about growing herbs and vegetables (in Finnish) on balconies and in small places. My part starts at 2:19. Hyötyviljely on kesän hitti – Edit: THE VIDEO CAN NO LONGER BE SEEN En saa tätä video sisennettyä tänne, mutta Koti ja Keittiön saitilla puhun yrttien ja vihannesten vilejystä parvekkeilla ja pienissä paikoissa. Osuuteni alkaa 2:19. Taisin ihan oikeasti välttyä “niinkun”-ilmaisuilta, tai sitten videota on vain leikattu hyvin 😉 Hyötyviljely on kesän hitti – Edit: VIDEO EI OLE ENÄÄ NÄHTÄVISSÄ Jag lyckas inte lägga in videon här, men på tidningen Koti ja Keittiös hemsida talar jag om odling på balkong och i…

  • Kitchen garden

    Waiting for the Growing Season

    I have on today’s agenda to talk about the joys of kitchen gardening and organic growing with members of the media. That is now hardship for me since it is something I really enjoy. I’ve learned to “grow my own” mostly with my mother (pictured transplanting lettuce seedlings) and gardening school of course helped a bit.. Still, I share a kitchen garden with my mother (it is situated between our gardens) and it is with her that we browse the vegetable section of Graines Baumaux’s catalogue while our mouths are watering , and imagine what type of wonderful broccoli or tasty Asian veggies that we are going to try that…

  • shopping

    Seed Catalogues 2011

    I’m trying to keep my seed sowing within a reasonable range this year. I’ve made an inventory of old seeds that should still be viable, and I’m only ordering a sensible (in my mind) amount this year. I’m also trying to weed out (pun intended) the frugal and in the long run not so smart purchases, i.e. I’m going to buy plants or bulbs of certain plants that would be difficult and slow to raise from seed anyway. To keep things within limits this year, I’m only getting seeds from commercial sources as seed exchanges and seed lists from garden societies have the ability to make anyone go over the…