What a perfect day! Me and Simon went to Kristiansand botanical garden to have cake & coffee. They have a big rose collection, especially older varieties. I brought the camera, so here are some shots from the trip.

What a beautiful time! Most of the flowers blooms simultaneously and yet there’s more to come. Glory days I tell you! In about a month we live in Copenhagen.  A month ago the thought scared me to death, but now it’s more exciting than scary. I don’t belive it’s healthy to stay at one place for too long. We’ve lived 5 years in Kristiansand and now it’s time to let go. I see a rootless life as a good life. Leaving almost all our material goods behind and have a fresh start.

Cosmos double-click rose from seed.

Cucumber we’ve sown.

Cucumber.

Tomatoes from seed.

Wilma tomatoes from seed.

Helenium from last year.

Malva moschata buds.

White peony.

Apple mint and chocolate Mint.

Can’t get enough.

Crop of mixes salad leaves.

Peony.

Spinage in front, and carrot and salad crop.

Delphinium grandiflorum, also known as siberian larkspur.

Carrot crop.

Squash.

Unable to get a good picture of the peony at daytime, I took my camera outside last night. Simon (the man of the house) didn’t like the pictures, but I like them. They have a nice melancholic feel.

First harvest found place in the middle of june, radish, rucola and salad leaves. The flowers are finally blooming and the vegetable plants are growing bigger as we speak. The green house will be devoted to the cucumbers and tomatoes. The garden still has some secrets to reveal, therefor  the garden posts are not yet done.

Haha, so much for a style blog.  And the proofread function doesn’t work, so if this look dyslectic, it probably is.

I need a drink.

Two different varieties of tomatoes and cucmber.

I’ve been waiting a year and a half for this beauty! Himalayan blue poppy.

Huge paeonia plant. Had to wait until they bloomed this week to see the color, and they turned out to be white. Thank god they’re not red!

A pink lupin I brought home from a walk last summer.

Green house packed with tomatoes and cucumbers.

It’s a shame that I can’t bring this beauty with me to copenhagen. It would take up an entire backseat.

Cucumbers in the back, tomatoes in front.

Fuzzy apple mint leaves.

Astilbe about to bloom.

Rucola crop.

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This is the vegetable bed I made in a previous post. Salad leaves in the middle and carrots on both sides. Spinage, salad, cosmos and sweet pea, runner beans and nasturtium in the pots between the two

vegetable beds.

Robin.

Herbs bed.

Herb bed.

Robin and Anakin.

Lupin leaves.

A red paeoina.

Currently the highlight of the garden.

Still many buds to go.

Almost transparent blue.

As a bud.

First harvets this year. Radishes for sandwiches or salads.

Small and delicious. Really spicy taste.

Delphinium grandiflorum. Hopefully a ‘summer blues’, but looks like a dark shade of blue.

Salad, cosmos and sweet pea, side by side in a pot.

Spinage.

Radish crop.

We planted a squash plant in the middle of the radish crop, that is empty now.

Lupin as a youngster.

Aquilegia vulgaris.

Pansies form last summer and a cosmos.

Himalayan blue poppy with several buds.

Happy summer to you all!  I’m finally done with my exams and have had a few days off before working fulltime this summer. This means I’m able to blog more, take more pictures and spend more time tending my vegetables and flowers.  Hopefully we will meet some interesting people through couch surfing during the summer, as we have started to host again. A friend gave me some vegetable seeds last week, which grows in a rapid pace. The only downside is that I haven’t labeled them so I can’t tell them apart. From what I remember he gave me squash, spinach, runner beans and broccoli, and a few more. So if you recognize some of the seedlings, I would appreciate if you left me a comment so I can give them the proper care.

I wish I could post some more vintage treasure photos, I have so great finds in my wardrobe. It’s just that I feel so incredibly stupid taking pictures of myself. I just have to swallow my pride, and get to the case. Since we’re moving to Copenhagen in august we need to save money. I will not allow myself  to spend money on clothes, so I have to be creative with what I got.

Peach and purple pansies

Aquilegia vulgaris from last year. All of the perennials have doubled their size except for this one.

Bleeding heart blooming in their final week.

Unfortunately three branches were destroyed by the wind.

Purple pansies have survived the freezing winter.

One of the unidentified seedlings.

Cucumber seedling.

Tomato seedlings.

Runner beans.

Red currant.

Verbena. I saw this morning that it has red flowers too. Thought it only had pale and dark purple flowers.

Radish in the vegetable garden.

As they only need 2-3 cm apart, you can get plenty of radish in a small vegetable bed. I have also 12 in a flower-pot.

Carrot seedlings.

Mixed salad in the vegetable bed. Carrots on both sides.

The herb bed is growing in a rapid pace.

Our paeonia bush is now 140 cm tall.

Robin having a cat-nap under the red currant bush.

The passion-flower we have declared dead over seven times has started to bloom.

An update from my garden. Some flowers have started to bloom, others are still tiny seedlings.

I had to move the greenhouse to a sunnier location after the red currant bush started to bloom an stole all the sun from the greenhouse beside it. The apple and pear tree are blossoming. When I stretch after our morning jogging routine, I look on up on both trees. What a lovely way to start the day.

2nd floor in the greenhouse.

1st floor in the greenhouse.  Different varieties of sweet pea ready to be planted outdoors next week.

We planted the parsley from seeds last spring and it has survived with an average of -5 to -15 ° minus during the winter months. The thyme in front we bought at a garden center last summer. A bit small to have steady access to thyme. Bushy oregano behind it, a couple of years old.

A cutback salvia, helps prevent sore throats and colds during winter.

Robin eating lemon thyme.

The radish seedlings.

Four rows of rucola and four rows of radish, ideal for an early harvest.

Carrot seedlings.

Salad mix seedlings.

The apple mint finally recovering from last falls cutback. The color,texture, scent and taste are so delicate. My favorite mint!

Bleeding hearts in bloom.

Apple blossoms.

Sunny morning.

Wire totally ruins the idyllic scenery.

Pear tree in bloom.

Pear tree close up.

Clematis. A slow bloomer, I have been waiting for the flowers to open since forever.

Robin and Anakin on the couch.

He’s such a doll.

Moving the greenhouse pt.1

Moving the greenhouse pt.2

Moving the greenhouse pt.3

3rd floor in the green house. The rock is necessary so the wind don’t get the light weighted green house.

Robin chilling on the bench.

Pear tree.

Pansies in the rusty tin can. Left it outside over winter, made drainage holes with a nail and a hammer, and you have the cheapest flower-pot of the season!

Some wild daffodil related plant growing wild in the garden.

]]> http://ihavenoexpensiveclothes.wordpress.com/2010/05/23/early-mornings-and-springtime/feed/ 0 ihavenoexpensiveclothes IMGP6756-1 IMGP6785-1 IMGP6784-1 IMGP6777-2 IMGP6772-1 IMGP6770-1 IMGP6767-1 IMGP6764-1 IMGP6763-1 IMGP6760-1 IMGP6758-1 IMGP6756-1 IMGP6753-1 IMGP6752-1 IMGP6751-1 IMGP6750-1 IMGP6748-1 IMGP6747-1 IMGP6735-1 IMGP6731-1 IMGP6726-1 IMGP6725-1 IMGP6724-1 IMGP6787-1 IMGP6788-1 IMGP6799-1 IMGP6811-1 IMGP6803-1 http://ihavenoexpensiveclothes.wordpress.com/2010/05/12/garden-update/ http://ihavenoexpensiveclothes.wordpress.com/2010/05/12/garden-update/#comments Wed, 12 May 2010 12:21:19 +0000 I HAVE NO EXPENSIVE CLOTHES http://ihavenoexpensiveclothes.wordpress.com/?p=414 Continue reading →]]>

Status quo in my garden. With a low-budget garden you have to realise that you can’t pick from the top shelf, moneywise. I’m not a big fan of petunia, they smell and stick to your fingers. But I had to reconsider them at a visit to the local garden center on monday. I found them on sale, 6 for 8$, and the color was nice. Especially when I fell in love with the light and dark purple verbena, a perfect match.

The assistant gardener called in sick today.

Passion flower in the kitchen window.

Astilbe in the shade.

Rhubarb in great shape.

Paeonia with homemade plant support.

Cut-back salvia, originally a bush.

Bleeding heart and aquilegia vulgaris.

The pear tree with buds.

Red currant.

Clematis and honeysuckle.

Light and dark purple verbena.

Oregano and lemon thyme growing good.

Bleeding heart about to bloom.

I planted a row of eight petunia for the border. Not because I particularly like them, but because they were on sale and will bloom all summer.  Dark purple is a nice contrast to the light colors that dominate this flower bed.

The cucumber seeds I planted april 27th, is finally showing progress. I have kept them in the greenhouse since day one, but it’s difficult to keep a steady temperature, when it ranges from o° at night to 24° at mid-day outside. The cucumber seed is “burpless tasty green F1 hybrid” and the salad is “herby salad leaf mixed” (a mix with green lettuce, mizuna, salad rocket, greek cress, giant red mustard and chicory puntarelle). With no experience on growing vegetables from seeds, except rucola and radish, I follow the process with zero knowledge but great excitement!

I planted the salad in the vegetable bed I made in a previous post and planted one row between two rows of carrots. I planted them a week ago with plastic film over and secured the edges by digging it under 2″ of soil.

Three tiny cucumber seedlings.

Cucumbers to be.

Salad mix.

Sweet pea ‘chatsworth’ making progress.

Hollyhock ‘appleblossom’.

Sweet pea ‘chatsworth’ and sweet pea ‘appleblossom’,

and cosmos ‘ bipannatus double-click rose bonbon’.

I couldn’t resist a light and dark purple verbena accompanied by dark purple petunia.

Cosmos growing wild, in desperate need of of a bigger pot.

Sweet pea ‘elegant ladies’  and hollyhock ‘peaches ‘n’ dreams’.

]]> http://ihavenoexpensiveclothes.wordpress.com/2010/05/11/grow-your-own-cucumber-salad/feed/ 1 ihavenoexpensiveclothes IMGP6633 IMGP6641-1 IMGP6644 IMGP6652 IMGP6645 IMGP6640 IMGP6637 IMGP6654 IMGP6639 IMGP6638 http://ihavenoexpensiveclothes.wordpress.com/2010/05/01/vegetable-or-flower-bed/ http://ihavenoexpensiveclothes.wordpress.com/2010/05/01/vegetable-or-flower-bed/#comments Sat, 01 May 2010 17:59:40 +0000 I HAVE NO EXPENSIVE CLOTHES http://ihavenoexpensiveclothes.wordpress.com/?p=345 Continue reading →]]>

free, fast and eco-friendly vegetable or flower bed

when I’m gardening,  these are my principles: eco-friendly (reduce, reuse, recycle), fun and low-cost.

and this project is all of the above. it’s not even low-cost, it’s free!

most likely you have everything you need in or around your house already.

YOU WILL NEED:

• a spade

• a saw

• drift wood or other wood scraps lying around

• something to measure with, it can be as simple as a stick.

PLANNING:

find a location in your garden that has the required hours of sun/shade that your plant  need. (just read the packet guidelines.)

measure up where, how big and how deep you want the bed to be. put a stick in every corner of your bed.

EXECUTING:

it’s time get your spade and start digging. start around the edges and move inwards. when you have lifted and turned the soil in the entire bed, you need to remove all the roots and other things you don’t need or want in your bed.

no matter what the original surface are, you need to dig up and turn the soil. also add fertilizer or compost, what ever you use, make sure it’s organic.

the boarders around the bed, can be of any material. for this project I have used old wooden planks.

measure all the sides of your bed and start sawing. one or multiple pieces for each side of the bed.

dig so that the planks fit and support with hard packed soil.

soil is turned. ready to measure the planks.

in the making: bed boarders

done.

I like the rustic look of the wooden planks. it’s a free and natural material, and blends in in most gardens.

made another one. instead of making on big one

I made two small ones, I think smarter to have space to walk and work in between.

I have two varieties of carrots, cucumber and salad leaves

planned for the two beds. both carrots and cucumbers need space, so we might need

to make another one.

every boarder or flower stand in our garden

is made of free and eco-friendly materials.

bed edging for the herbs made of bricks.

entrance to our garden made of bricks and wooden scraps.

you can create patterns of bricks or wood.

one flower bed. a mix of planks and bricks.

this is my favorite flower bed, and the smallest one. I’ve put bicks in a half circle around a beam.

assistant gardener, anakin skywalker.

]]> http://ihavenoexpensiveclothes.wordpress.com/2010/05/01/vegetable-or-flower-bed/feed/ 2 ihavenoexpensiveclothes purple-flower-beds IMGP6590-1 IMGP6592-1 IMGP6597-1 IMGP6595-1 IMGP6625-1 IMGP6616-1 IMGP6632-2 IMGP6604-1 IMGP6606-1 IMGP6630-1 IMGP6611-1 IMGP6599-1 IMGP6588-1 http://ihavenoexpensiveclothes.wordpress.com/2010/04/29/grow-your-own/ http://ihavenoexpensiveclothes.wordpress.com/2010/04/29/grow-your-own/#comments Thu, 29 Apr 2010 15:23:36 +0000 I HAVE NO EXPENSIVE CLOTHES http://ihavenoexpensiveclothes.wordpress.com/?p=250 Continue reading →]]>

first post of my garden series, and I want to document for you and for my self  what will grow, what’s growing and what unfortunately won’t grow in my garden. when the lazy afternoon sun hit I grabbed the camera and this is what I got. the plants from my green house isn’t  hardy enough to be planted out yet, so they stay safely in the greenhouse for at least the next 2-3 weeks. but my biennials from last summer are doing great progress. I will explain as we go.

our kitchen table. campanula of some sort. my closest guess is melton bells. if someone know the exact specie I would be grateful.

yellow viola. a classic. different candle holders and small pots.

last fall I collected tin cans and let them stay outside all winter. I love the rust against the green. cheap and easy diy re-use of tin cans.

soft purple pansy. bought at a gardener’s market.

a transplanted cosmos bipinnatus double click rose bonbon.

viola tricolor planted together with pansies in similar colors.

cosmos seedlings in the front, over wintered heliotrope in the middle, which I suspect is no longer with us. any tips?

pansies planted together in a flowertub.

dead or alive heliotrope.

viola, I love the color combination in this pot.

black cat: “no worries”. white cat: “nah, skeptic”

an over  wintered astilbe europa.

although I suspect the garden center of labeling it wrong,  it looks more like a astilbe arendsii when it blooms, the color is dark pink, not soft pink as the europa.

ivy against our rusty fence,

which reminds me of a concentration camp fence and it used to have barbed wire on top.

when we moved here last fall I discovered a paeonia under layers of weed, I saw one apricot colored flower, but I can’t identify the sort. does anybody know?

a big rhubarb that I separated last fall and grows in two places.

a lonícera caprifólium (honeysuckle) in the front and clematis in the background.

a clematis flower bud. grows in the sunniest location in the garden.

lemon thyme. thyme is my favorite spice. here you see part of our herb bed. the edges are put together by old bricks and drift wood. all of our herbs and spices are gathered here, unfortunately the others haven’t grown yet after the winter.

cosmos, hollyhocks, various sweet peas and heliotrope.

hollyhocks and chatsworths sweet pea.

in front, campanula dwarf double melton bells. sweet pea, elegant ladies and blue ripple. in the back heliotrope and viola blue shades.

our gigantic red currant bush in front and our tiny green house in the back.

ahaha, this is anakin skywalker (one of my two cats) and this looks like a prom picture.

what a poser..

one of my favorite perennials, the aquilegia vulgaris . (columbine)  a bit embarrassing to admit that I can’t remember which sort because we planted two and only one have grown and I can’t remember which this is.

my other favorite perennial, meconopsis betonicifolia

or himalayan blue poppy. hopefully it will grow as tall and beautiful as it should,

but I think it looks a little weak.

delphinium(right)  and bleeding heart(left)

he is not shaved for aesthetic reasons.

blue snowdrops.

muscari, also known as grape hyacinths.

thank you for looking at the pictures.  If you have any tips, tricks or comments, just leave a comment and make my day.

I’ve used is a pentax k100d camera with a pentacon electric multi coating. I don’t understand any of that.

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