My potager garden is a small garden on the island of Resarö, Resarö is situated in the inner part of the archipelago outside of Stockholm. Tyra´s Garden is mostly an ornamental vegetable garden, potager. But flowers are of course an important ingredience, for beauty and pollination.
Tyra's Garden is a small garden on the island of Resarö situated in the inner part of the archipelago near the small town Vaxholm, outside Stockholm. Tyra's Garden is mostly an ornamental vegetable garden, my potager. But flowers are of course an important ingredience, for beauty and pollination. The climate in these parts is quite demanding as the northerly winds can be strong and cold. THIS BLOG 'Tyra's Garden' is not entirely a gardenblog it contains much more. About me: Enthusiastic amateur gardener and photographer from Vaxholm, Sweden. Designed and built my Greenhouse and Potager in Tyra's Garden 2003. Love the outdoor life, gardening and sailing especially. View my profile

Thursday

I Bought the Crown Jewels




Chia - Crown Jewels


What little did I know?…

and when I entered the world of Chia.



I have just received a few seed packets from Baker Creek Heirlooms Seeds for my potager. I always want to know a little about the plant I’m going to grow, consequently I looked up my Chia - Crown Jewels and entered a new world, most fascinating. I landed in American history, health, ancient food and future ‘super’ food. Amazing, do you know... I’ve bought a miracle! Perhaps that is why they are called just Crown Jewels or it could be because the flower in its simplicity yet beauty look like a small crown with precious blue-purple stones in it.

Wikipedia Salvia columbariae



Chia - Crown Jewels

(Salvia columbariae ) A different Salvia species with a long history, this heirloom Salvia was grown as a staple food crop by Native Americans years ago. It has a high nutrition value. In cultivation, it needs good drainage, sun and dry weather to grow to its fullest potential. Called Chia in Mexico and other Central American countries, it is also a special ornamental plant with decorative grey-green leaves and pretty colourful light purplish blue flowers.

Chia as Health Food

Chia seeds are now a popular natural health product. William Anderson writes about it


This amazing picture is from EOL Encyclopedia of Life.
The beautiful seeds of Salvia columbariae.


Interesting? Want to try it out?


Chia Seeds - The RAW Food World
Chia Seeds - My SEEDS


Here you can buy Chia seeds and a lot of other interesting food.




Anthropology – about Chia Salvia columbariae


NCBI* Writes about the Chia seeds, how it has been used as food and continues to be used as such, how you can still buy the seeds in stores. Read the interesting story about the Chumash messenger who ran 30 km or perhaps more in a day to deliver messages between the villages. Consuming Chia seeds to maintain the energy right through the run. Read more about the Chumash and Chia “ How the plant was used to ‘wake the dead’ is unknown. However, it may have been the root that was used. Probably the people who were treated with this plant had suffered from strokes or heart attacks and appeared to be nearly dead.” NCBI




Books about Chia (Salvia columbariae)





Another book that awoke my curiosity as I browsed the net was this +300 pages book
The New Book of SALVIAS, hm...I would love to read it.





Common Sage Salvia officinalis in my potager.





That's All Folks!

It is Blooming Friday at Katarinas place
I wish you all a great weekend/ Tyra


*NCBI - National Center for Biotechnology Information


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Tuesday

And the winner is...Fröken Knopp

This post 'Fröken Knopp'... was originally uploaded by Tyra in the blog Tyra's Garden


The result from the Ceasar Collection Florist competition.


and the winner is...






No this is not the winner, this is Ester just a pretty girl I found at the Formex Fair, isn't she just adorable?


Vinnaren i Ceasar Collections Florist tävling på Formex mässan är ...



”Som formgivare, blomsterkonstnär och florist med gesäll- och mästarbrev har jag i över 18 år skapat blomstrande miljöer för hem, familjehögtider och företag. Min stora passion är att förverkliga kundens önskemål och visioner. Det är blommor som är mina penslar och min paletts färgklickar. Inget uppdrag är för litet eller för stort för mig.” Marianne Walldén









Detalj från Mariannes arrangemang, se hela 'arret'





Ett stort grattis till Marianne och en eloge vill jag också ge Ceasar Collection, mässans häftigaste monter! Ett bokstavligt himmelrike med 3cm tjocka ljuvligt rosa heltäckningsmattan som golv, de fluffiga vattenfallen av vita fjädrar likt molnskyar och naturligtvis fantastiskt massa sagolika dekorationsdetaljer. Snyggt jobbat!








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Thursday

Formex mässan i Älvsjö - The Nordic Design Fair

It is Blooming Friday and today I would like to show you what I found at Formex the largest trade fair for Nordic interior design. The company Ceasar Collection - arrenged a competition for florists. Which one of these five participants do you think have the best designed 'room'.
The five florists are: (all women)
Anna Carlsson, Jenny Söderberg, Anna Berg, Marianne Walldén and Anja Palm.

~~~


Ceasar Collection anordnade en tävling där fem florister hade gjort var sitt ‘blomsterarrangemang’/ bidrag, här skulle man rösta vilken man tyckte var bäst om. Nu skall du utan att besöka FORMEX få se alla bidragen, vilket skulle du välja? Jag vet inte vem som vann eller vinner för att tävlingen är ännu inte avgjord, men jag vet vem som jag röstar på.

Floristerna är:

Anja Palm
Ifrån Växthuset i Kristianstad

Marianne Walldén
Fröken Knopp i Norrtälje

Anna Berg
Häggviks Blommor i Sollentuna

Jenny Söderberg
Etage Blommor i Härnösand

Anna Carlsson
Annas Gröna Rum i Katrineholm












Vote - Rösta!
Which one is your favourite?

Did I mention they flowers are all 'fake'
You find more participants at Katarina Blooming Friday host.


Formex is the largest trade fair for Nordic interior design. The fair is a meeting place for 850 exhibitors, around 24,000 national and international professional visitors and over 700 media representatives.

Trend theme Formex Spring 2010 - Creative Flow

We're turning the page now; anxiety and worry are being replaced with cautious optimism. Change is possible. There's talk of a paradigm shift. It's not just a demand for change; it's also a desire for change. This in turn creates considerable scope for creativity. The trend theme for Formex this spring is "Creative Flow".




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Sunday

Sourdough Bread - Rev. Sylvester Graham

This post 'Sourdough Bread'... was originally uploaded by Tyra in the blog Tyra's Garden

...

It was pit dark when I woke up this morning, still I almost jumped up from the bed as I remember that I had two sourdoughs to bake out this morning. A nice cup of coffee while waiting for the bread to rise (second rise) and for the oven to get warm, hot is a better word I start out with 250C (480F). Two different doughs but both made of a whole-wheat sourdough base. One with Graham flour and one with strong wheat-flour. Neither spices nor any fruit added this time I wanted to get a quite plain bread with a neutral taste just some sea salt was added. Said and done an hour later I had my bread ready and we had a great start of the day…a long breakfast.







En perfekt start på dagen, ett riktigt gott nybakat bröd. Det här gjordes på en surdegsbas och en fördeg - sedan lät jag det jäsa hela natten för att sedan baka ut det i morse.




Graham flour


"Graham flour is a type of whole wheat flour named after the American Presbyterian minister Rev. Sylvester Graham (1794-1851), an early advocate for dietary reform. According to the Larousse Gastronomique, Graham despised processed white flour and believed that bran was the cure-all for the bad eating habits of his compatriots.
Rather than simply grinding the
whole grain wheat kernel (bran, germ, and endosperm), in graham flour the components are ground separately. The endosperm is ground finely, initially creating white flour. The bran and germ are ground coarsely. The two parts are then mixed back together, creating a coarse-textured flour that bakes and keeps well. Graham flour is used to make graham crackers and pie crusts, among other things. " wikipedia

Have a great winter day/ Tyra


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Thursday

No Blooms - Still Bitter Winter

This post 'No blooms -Still Bitter Winter'... was originally uploaded by Tyra in the blog Tyra's Garden


No blooms for Blooming Friday!


Just an iron urn with a frozen heather in it but I find it rather decorative with its white top hat of snow. This was a glorious winter day but frightfully bitter cold. -20 C. A nice walk and some fun in the snow playing with icicles and making snow angels.


Kylan håller ett fast grepp om Sverige, våren känns hemskt avlägsen. Men det är ju underbart vackert så det är bara att passa på att njuta av vintern, kanske dags för lite skidor? Den här dagen var alldeles underbar med både en skön promenad och lite lek i snön, vi gjorde snöänglar och fajtades med istappar ifrån växthuset.


This is the greenhouse at Leustabruk totally covered in icicles...
the spring is still far far away.


Post and you find more participants at Katarina our host.

I wish you all a great winter weekend



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Sunday

Green Ornamental 'Flowers' for the Potager

This post 'Green Ornamental 'Flowers'... was originally uploaded by Tyra in the blog Tyra's Garden


Haha...I did manage to keep my promise
- Not to order any seeds until January







I have just sent in the first order of seeds and I started with the base, the wonderful Brassicas. The Brassica oleraceas are the fundamental plants in my potager I think they are so beautiful. So many different shapes and colour and still the same family, Brassicaceae, amazing. Isn't it a nice family name too, perhaps I could change to Tyra Brassicaceae :-)

I manage to get in 5 cultivar groups of the seven cultivars of Brassica.

Brassica oleracea Acephala Group - kale and collard greens
Brassica oleracea Capitata Group - cabbage
Brassica oleracea Gemmifera Group - brussels sprouts
Brassica oleracea Gongylodes Group - kohlrabi
Brassica oleracea Italica Group – broccoli




I think I was able to find a lovely collection of colours and structures.


Till KÖKSTRÄDGÅRDEN den svenska bloggen
Glöm inte att lägga till den nya länken om du vill läsa om Köksträdgården på svenska.

Brassica oleracea seedlings


Friday

Blooming Friday - January 2010



The guest are gone

the washing up is done

and this year started with a day with sun.


God fortsättning på det nya året!




What a great start of the new year, the sun is shining and it is a gorgeous winter day, it couldn't possibly start in a better way. this the first post of 2010 is a Blooming Friday Post and you find more partisipants at Katarina our host.


~~~


Året började med en fantastiskt vinterdag, sol och fågelkvitter. Det kan knappast bli bättre. Lite trött kanske efter gårdagens festligheter.



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