Thank you so much for the wonderful comments and the welcome back! :o) It is so nice to see you all again!
I have another photo of the Ijsbloemen for you today. In this postcard, you see a bit more of the waxy leaves.
MaryE, you had said they are like Gerberas and while they look a bit like them, they are definitely not Gerberas! These flowers grow very low to the ground and are about 2", maybe 3" across. The roots are quite shallow and can be a pain transplanting them because of it. The leaves are thick and waxy and almost look like they have beads of water or ice crystals on them all the time. The colors of the flowers are very vibrant and the flowers only open when it is sunny and close up when the sun is gone. They last pretty much all summer long.
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I spent the day cleaning or planting! Nothing very exciting!
I have quite a few seeds started in the house for my gardens. As some of you know, I have a garden in a town not too far from where I live. 300 sq. meters of pure dirt. lol I have a small shed on the land, a couple of water barrels and nothing else! We are out in the middle of farm land, no running water or power. I use a generator and pump in the canal for my water and if I need power, for a tool usually, then the generator is used.
I start a lot of my seeds inside every year. So far I have 3 different kinds of lettuce, cabbage, cauliflower, beets, basil, parsley, marjoram, oregano and some flowers (Shasta Daisy and Marigolds) started. Everything has already popped up and is growing good! Too good, I am afraid! My field hasn't been plowed yet because we can't seem to get any decent, dry weather! It didn't get plowed in the fall either since it got so cold here so early. Usually the fields are plowed in Nov/Dec but it froze by then so it never got done! Now we are having to wait because it keeps raining day after day. I am getting quite antsy to get my plants and seeds in the ground! Just another week and it's St. Patty's Day and the peas should be going in! I am keeping my fingers crossed the plowing gets done by then! I have so many more seeds that need to get planted soon but my windowsill is full!
I am going to try a bit of square foot gardening this year. Normally, I plant in rows as most do in fields. I am intrigued though by the ease of the square foot method and the amount of food in such a small amount of space. I am not sure if I am going to actually raise the gardens though and create individual beds that are up about 4".
I bought some weed cloth and am thinking about just laying it on the ground and then planting flat like that within the foot squares. We will see! I design my gardens every year and always end up with something different than what I planned! lol
Does anyone else garden? Have you tired the square foot gardening and did it work for you?
Have you started seeds in the house yet or are you in a warm place where your garden is already started? Shout out and let me hear! :o)
Well, that is all for today! Thank you all again for hanging in there while I got things straightened out! It is so good to see you all again! :o)
Have a wonderful Monday!
3 comments:
Thanks for another lovely postcard. I haven't heard from my gardening group yet, but I would love to find out what they're called in English. The climate here isn't too different from The Netherlands, so I'd like to try to grow them here, they're so pretty. I won't be getting into my garden for another couple of months, right now it's -26 C!
Thank you for the beautiful postcard. I so look forward to each day to see what beautiful photo you have for us. I have gardened using the square foot method. We made boxes 8 feet long and 4 feet wide using 1"x12" pieces of wood. The soil in the box is never walked on. You can reach the center of the box from either side. It is a wonderful way to garden. We were able to raise corn in a much smaller space than normal, and we had wonderful yields. We raised everything in the raised boxes: corn, peas, beans, tomatoes, lettuce, herbs, cucumbers, squash of all types, melons, carrots, potatoes, radishes, broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower, beets, onions, chard, garlic, strawberries, and flowers. There is a wonderfrul book called "Postage Stamp Gardening" that was very helpful to us when we started gardening using this method. We were so impressed at how much more we were able to grow in a much smaller area. We had fewer insect problems, and the yields were much better. i think you will really like it.
Thank you for another beautiful photo. I love your pictures, especially the flower ones. I have been using them on my desktop and they are so pretty! I too look forward to your new photos each day. I was so glad to see you back.
Although I don't garden myself, your little garden story reminds me of my mother. I am originally from Germany, and when my mother was young she too had a little garden outside of town. She loved to grow her own vegetables and flowers. Spring was always her favorite time of year. I miss her very much, so it was nice to read about your joy of gardening.
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