gardening – GWENNIESGARDENWORLD

November 8, 2025November 8, 2025

UPDATE ON MY SUNFLOWERS

As promised, here’s an update on my sunflowers.

This was the biggest and largest of the six I sowed, they all took quite a battering of heavy rain and storm winds, I don’t expect seeds this time of year but the yellow is a bright spot in the garden. I think I’ll experiment next year with a few types from the shop. But the birds won’t go hungry, we always have a bag of mixed seeds for them and peanutbutter without salt.

We still have nice weather for the time of the year, apart from the few days with high wind and lots of rain. In the past it was normal to have night frosts in November or even earlier when I was a child (a loooong time ago). So 15 to 18 C° is good !

Have a great weekend and take care !

October 20, 2025October 20, 2025

AN EXPERIMENT

Somewhere in September I decided to plant 6 sunflowerseeds (the beginning of Autumn here) As I was feeding the birds outside in the garden I saw a few sunflower seeds among the mixture of seeds. I filled 2 smal pots with potting compost and put 3 seeds in each pot. A few days later I saw the first seed had sprouted and the next few days they were all visible. I put them high up on a table as the slugs love young fresh plants . A few weeks later I planted them out in the garden , all 6 of them so now I have sunflowers in the garden. My husband called me crazy to start with sunflowers so late in the year. I have no clue what breed they are, they all have a different hights, some are in bud others in flower. So now I know I can start early with seeding sunflowers and seed some every 3 months or so, to enjoy them in Spring and Summer and Autumn. And I don’t even have to buy seeds as we always have a mixture of seed for the birds in our garden.

I think the buds are very pretty too.

I will let you know how they evolve. So far the weather is still arround 15 C° and at the moment there is no frost in sight.

I hope you all still enjoy the plants in the garden or on your balcony. Take care !

July 27, 2025

A FEW FLOWERS IN MY GARDEN

I took a few pictures in my garden this week, June and July are the prettiest month’s of the year over here.

A half dubble hibiscus syriacus, the bees love to visit the flowers. The red flowers in the back are crocosmias.

The same flower from another angle.

Hens and chicks are also in bloom at the moment.

Crocosmia lucifer, always performing abundantly every Summer

Hens and chicks with a few visitors; a yellow little violet who selfsowed in this pot.

This beauty is called mirabilis jalapa, always a succes, they have black seeds in the form of a pea, you put a seed in a small pot or straight in the garden and a few weeks later you have a lovely bushy plant with beautiful flowers, there are several colors, in a cold climate they die down in Autumn after the first frost but when they stay alive underground they form a big root who will turn into a bigger plant, you can try to dig up the roots before the first frost and keep them frost free, then plant them in the garden after the frost is gone.

Have a great week ! I hope you all have a lovely Summer. Take care.

May 4, 2025

SILENT SUNDAY

March 16, 2025

THIS LOOKS LIKE SPRING !!!

It’s definitely looks like Spring now !!! It’s getting warmer slowly but surely.

I look forward to the rest of Spring .

Have great week, enjoy your garden or balcony and take care !

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 !

December 21, 2024

MERRY CHRISTMAS

As you may already know I don’t put a Christmastree in my house for Christmas as I feel sorry for the tree’s, they have been growing for several years and all of a sudden they are cut and used inside where it is warm, and they are decorated with all sorts of things, pretty ,yes ofcourse, but then a few weeks later most of them are trown outside in the cold where they die, very few are replanted and used again. When you look at the pictures you can see how I decorate my home for Christmas, what you see is just a small part of the decoration. I try a different setting every year.

I WISH YOU ALL A WONDERFUL CHRISTMAS !!!

ps . I know I have been a bad blogger this year due to all sorts of circumstances, and I hope to be blogging more frequently next year.

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 !!

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.