garden – Page 2 – GWENNIESGARDENWORLD

January 13, 2025January 13, 2025

WINTER

We are having a bit of Winter, just a bit of frost and a bit of snow, nothing really out of the ordinary compared with what people in other countries get. I hope you are all safe and well.

I took the first pictures of 2025 as the frost made everything look a lot better.

Lonicera nitida, a wintergreen bush with small leafs but it grows really fast.

Euphorbia cariacias looking sad as they don’t like the cold.

My white camelia, already with buds.

Russian vine, taking over the garden, I think we need a professional gardener to remove it, it grows faster than the speed of light !!!! So beware and don’t plant it !!!!

Rhododendron in bud also as we had a soft and very wet Winter so far.

Viburnum tinus,a pretty wintergreen bush that can handle a bit of frost, it will soon bloom with soft white and pink flowers.

And my spineless holly who was already defrosting in the sun.

The frost makes the garden look very pretty and it brings a lot of the birds to our garden as we feed the birds and they have a bath in our pond. It doesn’t matter how cold it is, the birds want their daily bath.

Take care dear people and enjoy your gardens and balconies and keep safe !

November 25, 2024November 25, 2024

BONKERS

The weather is completely bonkers, we went from freezing temperatures with snow, hail, sleet, storms and pouring raining to Spring overnight !!! Yesterday it was such a lovely Spring day with temperatures up to 18 C°, it was the “hottest” 24th of November ever ! It was good enough to sit outside on the patio for lunch or for afternoon tea, alas I do not have a patio yet, the bedding was laid a week ago but ever since it was too wet to lay the tiles. But I did a bit of work in the garden. Cos of the frost and the wind all the leafs came down.

As you can see my fig tree is still full of figs, unripe and not edible.

Here’s another part of the same fig tree.

When the patio is finished we’ll ask the gardener to do a lot of pruning everywhere in the garden, and a few tree’s must go as I want working in the garden to be easier for me, it is just getting too much, as you all know I am not a Spring chicken anymore. Ha !!

I’ll sent pictures of the finished patio and the pruned garden as soon as I can take pictures, when that will be will totally depend on the weather. We used to have 4 seasons, now we still have 4 seasons but they come unpredicted, a Summers day or two, Autumn for a day, then Winter for a few days and then all of a sudden Spring !!!

Have a great week all !!

November 19, 2024

MY CALLICARPA

I have a bush in the garden who gives lovely purple berries in Autumn, it really looks awesome. I couldn’t get a picture of the bush as it didn’t have the right background, every other bush has ugly leafs now and the leafs are falling, so I took a small branch and put it in a small vase.

This is a small branch of the Callicarpa bodinieri.

I hope your Winter will be good ! Take care !

November 1, 2024

THE FIRST OF NOVEMBER

Today we remember our relatives and friends who died, it is a day people over here are free of work. We bring flowers to their graves. Not that we don’t remember them during the rest of the year but it is a custom here. My mother-in-law died a few weeks ago and she loved bold and colorful things so I bought her a plant with big bright yellow flowers to put on her grave. I know she’d love that.

It is a member of the chrysanthemum family.

And they finally started working on my new patio. Cos of all the rainy weather we had this year the work couldn’t get started but now we are getting two whole weeks without a drop (at least that’s what they promised us). Today the workers came and removed the top layer, my husband and son removed the tiles last week. This is how my patio looked this morning after the workers started.

The workers did a good job, they removed all the rubble and next week the groundlayer will be layed and that needs to dry for at least a week before they can start with the tiles.

I am already looking forward to Spring !!!!

Have a great weekend .

October 6, 2024October 6, 2024

A WALK IN A NEARBY ARBORETUM

A while ago I went to the arboretum hoping I could make a few nice photo’s. My garden is still a bit of a mess, a huge “bit” really. We are still waiting for the new patio we ordered in January but cos of the rainy days it wasn’t possible, my husband removed part of the old tiles, hoping we’ll soon get the workers in. So now the garden looks even messier !!

Here are a few of the pictures I took in the Arboretum.

The hydrangea panniculata did really well this year, that’s probably because they love wet soil.

I loved this pine with the silver needles on the outside.

This is a close-up of the pine above.

They had a beautiful banana tree, I always wanted one but it doesn’t really goes with the rest of my garden.

This is one of the two rosebushes who had a few nice flowers on display, and they do have many rosebushes.

This is the 2nd rosebush, also with pink flowers.

This white annual is called cleome hassleriana, over here people call it cat’s whiskers.

And this evergreen bush is absolutely lovely in the garden, with it’s bright yellow patches it always looks like the sun is shining. It also gives bright red shiny berries. It is called Aucuba Japonica. I have 2 of them in my garden.

We already had very cold nights for the time of the year, close to freezing, soft sunny days and warmer days with rain. We have had 12 month’s in a row with more rain than normal for us with only a few warm days here and there, one or 2, never a week . I found it quite frustrating as it was difficult to work in the garden. I hope you all had a lovely Summer.

Take care !!

September 12, 2024September 12, 2024

AUTUMN

The Summer that was no real Summer is gone and Autumn is already visible. It is now the 12th of September and already we have had more rain in these 12 days than we get normally in the whole month, so September is the 12th month in a row that we get more rain than what is normal. And more rain is on the way. Not that I am complaining, I’m just telling what this Summer was like. We had hot days too but never 3 days in a row and the garden suffered, the flowers never stayed pretty for long.

Here are a few Autumn pictures for you.

I hope all is well with you and to those who have Autumn, enjoy it, to those who have Spring, enjoy it !!

Thank you for visiting !!

September 1, 2024

SILENT SUNDAY

August 26, 2024August 26, 2024

HELLO AGAIN

Sorry for the long silence but I haven’t been able to take a lot of new photo’s, it’s not really a good garden year cos of the weather, it was either too hot or too wet, and all the heavy rain ruined a lot of my flowers. I do hope next year will be better. I am also trying to make the garden easier to maintain. I did manage to take a few new pictures though.

Garden geranium, one of my favorites

This hydrangea sits next to the pond, as you can see, some of the leafs are burned from the sun.

Crocosmia lucifer

Dipladenia, also called Mandevilla, a climber I got as a gift, it is in a pot as it is not winterhardy here but it performs well.

My passiflora caerulea performs well as the flowers stay open just for one day. there are new flowers all the time, it grows very fast. This one is one of the most winterhardy passionflowers.