Tuesday Garden Party

Hello dear friends,

 Today's theme is Decorating with yard/garden items. 

 These little fellows reside on my daughter's balcony, together with the red mushroom. Aren't they cute?

And this little guy used to light our backyard. Though the light doesn't work anymore, he makes me smile when I mook for him in the morning.

What makes you smile in the morning? 

Visit more Garden Party goers right here.

See you all next week.

Tuesday Garden Party-Autumn blooms

Hello dear friends,

Today I thought I'd take you for a walk around our autumn garden.

This is a small apple tree growing in out backyard.

The apples are not eatable, but I like to watch the blooms and the fruit. 

There are some blooms that grace the green carpet of grass and leaves.

A bloom of our jasmin.

 

The leaves from our maple treas are falling on the ground.

Red and yellow, the colours of the season.

I would also like to share with you an i-phone application that you may want to check. It is called "Grow your Own" and it is supported by the most prestigious Royal Horticultural Society. It offers information and advice on growing your own fruit and vegetables. 

Thank you for stopping by, and thanks to An Oregon Cottage for hosting!

See you all next week!

MelloW Yellow Monday

Hello dear friends,
Today I am posting a photo of a flower that I bought at the beginning of the Autumn. I don't know its name, but it was so different, upright and cheerful, among the other plants in the nursery, that it really called my name, it sure did:-))

 

I hope you all have a cheerful and mellow week!

With thanks for the Morning cheer to

Tuesday Garden Party-Chrysanthemums

Hello dear friends,
I am so glad you are here, browsing, reading and commenting.
Today I'd like to show you some gardening I did over the weekend. I love flowers and plants. I don't mind getting my hands dirty. Gardening is one of my favorite pass times at home.

This is the time of the year that chrysanthemums are in bloom.
Today, October 26th, is the fete of St. Demetrius of Thessaloniki, a 4th century military Saint. Together with St.George they are among the favorite Saints of the Greeks when it comes to giving children a name. Chrysanthemums, blooming around the Saint's day, are also called of St.Demetrius.

I always like having chrysanthemums around this time of the year.
Sunday we went to a nearby garden center. There were so many beautiful blooms around,

Rows upon rows of flowers, waiting for the people who would admire their beauty and pick them, perhaps with a companion, to bring beauty and colour to their homes.

 Red and crimson, yellow and orange, white and violet, so many colours for your every mood and fancy.

From these three, only one made it home with me!.. Which one would you choose? Such a difficult choice :-)

Then it was time to go to pottery fairyland. I would gladly spend an hour there! I got two pots, simple but nicely worked.

Here we are at home, ready to move to a larger pot.

 And here are my two pythoi. I love the handmade stamp at the bottom.

These pots come from the island of Crete, in the South of Greece. They are the best of their kind. With the influx of foreign super markets, we are being flooded with supposedly cheaper Asian pots, with a clay that is of inferior quality, not fired well, and as a result the pots are peeling off. Cretan pots, however, are affordable, hard working and very beautiful in their details. It is so rare to see Greek products anymore, I am thrilled when I come across them.

While we were hard at work, we welcomed a visitor from the neighborhood. Being hospitable Greeks and all, we offered the guy a plate of delicious cat food which he obligingly tasted with due appreciation..

And before we say au revoir, a song for Nature, in English, from an electro-pop Greek group. Find them on Myspace.



Linking to Tuesday Garden Party with thanks for hosting, and thanks to you for sharing.

Spring Gardening

A "Victory Garden", very much in sync with the hard economic times and the manipulated seeds.

Herbs:

Mint, garlic chives, chives, thyme, oregano, anise hyssop, sage, rosemary, marjoram, chamomile,Parsley, basil, Thai basil, cilantro, dill, fennel

Edible marigolds and nasturtiums

zinnias

Vegetables:

Lettuces (green oakleaf, red romaine, butterhead, galactic),spinach,onions,shallots,chard,snap peas, shell peas, carrots,black kale,rhubarb,arugula,collards,fennel,sugar snap peas,broccoli,

butterhead lettuce,tomatoes,tomatillos,radishes ,peppers (sweet and hot),beans,cucumbers,okra, sweet potatoes

Fruits:

Blueberries,blackberries,raspberries

The White House vegetable garden plan

Source: The Victory Gardener

Here are some handy tips for successful sowing:

Eight steps to successful sowing

1. Fill a seed tray to its brim with seed compost, then press it down with a flat board or another seed tray, so the final level is about 1cm below the rim.
2. Scatter small seeds evenly or sow large seeds individually on the surface, covering them to about their own depth with a light scattering of compost.
3. Lightly water the tray with a fine hose, going over the tray's edges to ensure all your seeds have been well watered.
4. Label your plants by writing the details on a tag, or simply fold the seed packet up and push it into the tray's edge.
5. Cover the tray with a piece of clingfilm to keep it moist and even out humidity, but remove this as soon as the first seedlings emerge.
6. Place the trays on a windowsill or in your greenhouse, in a spot that doesn't receive direct sunlight.
7. Before the seed trays become overcrowded, lift each seedling out by the leaf (never the stem) and replant in small pots, continuing to pot them on into increasingly larger pots as your seedlings grow in stature.
8. Harden off your new plants (acclimatise them) by exposing them gradually to the elements in a sheltered spot outside, until they're strong enough to be planted into the open ground.

(This and more on Prima)

Yesterday I planted some potted flowers, moved them around and weeded alot, but I have yet to do the sowing. So, I write it all down here, to remember and follow the advice myself, and I am glad to share!

All the best for Spring!

Gardening in Greece...via Munich

Hello, dear friends,

It is the first day of May, today, a day of fun and celebration of nature.
In times past, people used to ride on horse-drawn carriages and head to the fields to celebrate spring. Then, they'd come home and make wreaths and hung them in the front door.



We used to do that every year. I mean not exactly, but close. You may want to take a look here and here.



This year, it was quite different. J is home bound and he will be for another week to ward off fears of pneumonia. C took that into consideration and he bought a flower wreath from the florist's. I like it, but I'll take a picture tomorrow, as it gets dark now. So, we stayed at home and it so happened that we did some gardening, which is a nature related activity, which is so much related to the month of May, which is great!



We did some weeding and mixing in some new soil (but we soon run out and have to go back and get some more). We planted some flowers and we planted some seeds that we had bought in Germany. I also have some British salad seeds that I can not find here.



What surprises me in Greece (one of the long list of what surprises me in Greece) is that people do not plant in their gardens as the Americans or the British or the Germans do. You'd think that with all the mild weather the gardens would be blooming everywhere as in the garden of Eden. But, no. There is lots of expensive to upkeep grass, and not much more. I know about the upkeep because we have a back patch that needs watering in the summer. Why am I not turning it into a vegetable garden, you ask.



Because the front patch is a strip of grass, really, and there is not space to place a chair and table in the shadow, unless you want to do some extensive people watching. Which leaves us with our own little piece of heaven in the back garden. But I am planting in containers in the living room veranda: tomatoes, cherry tomatoes for the first time, and some salad leaves, which will hopefully carry us through the summer.



I can't tell you how much I wanted a garden! We could have bought an apartment in a more upbeat neighborhood with fancy decor etc. but this was one of the few times in my life that I stumped my feet and asked for a garden. Small? Ok with me. But I can take my shoes off and walk on the just rained upon green carpet: bliss.


Are you blessed with a garden of your own? If you do, you know how great it is to take your shoes off and walk on the land itself. It is so, well, grounding.

If you don't have a patch of land to call garden, do not wait for another minute.
Go to a nice public park (another species that is nearing extinction in this blessed land of Greece), wear flip-flops, and discretely take them off and walk like a light headed film star.



The air d' insouciance is needed, in case a warden wants to ask why you took your shoes off. Which reminds me...oh, I'll leave that for the next post.



Happy 1st of May!

(All pictures Munich, and the Munich vegetable and flower marker, April 2009)