Summer Feast in the Garden - July

This post "Summer Feast in the Garden - July" was originally uploaded by Tyra Hallsénius Lindhe in the blog Tyra's Garden

Summer feast in the garden.

 When we now have reached the second part of July we have a lot of birthdays to celebrate in my family. I have my brother, my brother’s son, my sister and my youngest daughter so celebrate all within 3 days!  These pictures are from my daughter Missy M’s birthday.

This week in July is called "Fruntimmersveckan" in Swedish, translated to English it would be something like "Ladies' Week". It is called that because these six ladies has got their Name Day now during this week. Sara, Margareta, Johanna, Magdalena, Emma and Kristina 

Tyra in the garden - Photo: Johan Gadnert

The potager is now filled with vegetables just about ready and ripe. I think it is going to be a great tomato harvest this year, it is really looking good. I have about twenty different varieties of heirloom tomatoes to pick this year. Some are new but most of them are faithful and dependable tomato varieties that I've already tried out before. A new variety and already a favourite is 'Summer Cider' a yellow beef tomato. Very sweet and tasty. I got the seeds from one of my Facebook friends. Thank you Yvonne for sharing!

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 We decided to make a summer buffet with all the veggie goodies we could find.

 For sweet course a very traditional, typical Swedish Strawberry Cake.

  Missy M's Strawberry Cake - photo: Johan Gadnert

 A strawberry cake made of sponge cake, vanilla custard, whipped cream with cardamom and  loads of strawberries.

Collavery -  photo: Johan Gadnert

A nice vine from Aix-En-Provence to go with it all. Very fruity vine with a hint of red currant, orange, rasperry and grass. Just a bit of sweetness but still with a fresh and crisp taste.

Blue Podded Pea - Blauwschokkers

This post 'Blue Podded Pea - Blauwschokkers' was originally uploaded by Tyra Hallsénius Lindhe in the blog Tyra's Garden/ Tyras Trädgård

Peas ready to harvest in my jardin potager.

 Pisum sativum Blue Podded Pea 'Blauwschokkers'

 Isn't it just sweet, my sweet sugarsnap pea!

 It isn't just a pretty pea to look at it is so sweet and delicious too.

This pea is a Dutch heirloom pea and it is from organic seed as well. Both an heirloom and organic, two criteria I really appreciate. This is the first time that I grow this pea and I wonder if it turn green if I cook it? I would think so. Although I don't think any of my blue podded peas will ever reach the kitchen. They are too tasty, I think they all will end up in the gardener's stomach as a snack.

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Peas  Love  & Understanding ;-)

Running out of room for plants? - Fine Gardening

Running out of room for plants?

Isn't this just amazing!

I would love to create something similar. On the other hand it must cost a fortune...

Running out of room for plants? - Fine Gardening

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Paeon 'The Healer'

This post 'PAEON - The Healer' was originally uploaded by Tyra Hallsénius-Lindhe in the blog Tyra's Garden/ Tyras Trädgård

At last!

 

We finally got rain!

 We have haven’t had any for ages. The lawn is severely burnt and looks dreadful. I wouldn’t say anything if it was August but it is just June.  Both April and May was extremely warm and everything exploded, the irises came and went very rapidly and so did the Lilacs and Poppies.

At this very moment all my darling Peonies are ‘in floribus’ and they are quite sensational, truly and utterly noticeable, you cannot just go passed them without saying or thinking -Wow!.  I took this photo in the light of the evening sun and I like it because it looks so pretty inside the flower. Don’t you agree?

I wonder if it has got the name  Paeon ( from greek myth.) 'The Healer' thanks to its healing properties. It is a medicinal plant and has been used as such for thousands of years. The peonies grown for medicinal  use in TCM today comes almost exclusively from China, Korea and Taiwan. It is not the same as I grow in my garden but it is of the same genus - Paeonia.

Peonies in Medicine "Arguably the first use of peonies by people was for their medicinal value. There is evidence that peonies were used extensively in both the Far East and Europe as long as two thousand years ago. Many parts of the plant are purported to have medicinal properties. Roots, bark, seeds and flowers were all believed to be of some medicinal use." read more... La Pivoinerie D'Aoust,  Peony Nursery

 

The Grand Final of May - A Firework in Purple

This post 'The Grand Final of May - A Firework in Purple' was originally uploaded by Tyra Hallsénius Lindhe in the blog Tyra's Garden

MAY - My favourite month of the year has now come to an end. I'm saddened by the thought, but to cheer me up my garden celebrate with a grand final - A firework in purple. Lilacs Syringa vulgaris, Alium, Pansy Violets Viola ×wittrockiana all in purple. The month of May has been really good this year, the weather has been mild and beautiful. If I should complain about something - it has been dry, extremely dry and that means that it takes a lot of time to do the watering each morning. Watering is something I wish someone above could help me with, but naaa, not this month.

Decorative Aliums in my potager, they actually do look like a firework. I grow a lot of Chives Allium schoenoprasum  as well in my potager and those flowers are so pretty and delicious! Have you tasted them?

Another pretty and edible flower is the pansy.

This is a small variety of Viola ×wittrockiana. I bought them in April and they are still looking amazingly good. 

You can imagine the marvellous fragrance in the evenings! I often take a late evening walk around they garden, my daily hunt for slugs and snails that are trespassing. I believe in biodiversity but I must admit I do have a war with the Spanish slug*

Good bye dear May!

Tomorrow we say Hello to the first month of summer.

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*"The Spanish slug, scientific name Arion vulgaris, more commonly known in English-speaking countries under the incorrectly applied Latin name, Arion lusitanicus, is a species of air-breathing land slug, a terrestrial pulmonate gastropod mollusk in the family Arionidae, the roundback slugs." wikipedia

Viola nigra 'Bowles Black'

This post Viola nigra 'Black Bowles' was originally uploaded by Tyra Hallsénius-Lindhe in the blog Tyra's Garden

Black Violets

'Bowles Black'

We celebrate Mother's Day here in Sweden today and what could be better for this occation than violets.

This delightful little gem is called 'Bowles Black' isn't just wonderful. Heavenly dark blue like a night sky and almost velvetly smooth petals. I bet they will looks stunning as a cake decoration or floating in one cool summer drink. Last year I scattered out some seeds and violá...here they are in my potager.

By the way...Who is Bowles?

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Happy Faces of May

This post "Happy Faces of May" was originally uploaded by Tyra Hallsénius Lindhe in the blog Tyra's Garden

Today's Pictures - Happy Faces of May.


Viola

This is the time of year my garden luxuriate with pansies. I have them everywhere, I have my "happy faces" in the greenhouse as well as in the potager. I think this one is stunning, very spectacular, almost gross.

After an amazing and truely enchanting April I must say that May has started really bad, for the season, it is frightfully cold. But I'm glad to say that they predict better weather for the coming weekend. Let's hope so!

...and now to a less "vulgar" Viola, a very sofisticated lady in black.

Viola nigra 'Bowles black'



 

Happy Gardening!

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Tyra

Toil the Soil - Kitchen Garden and Fleamarket Gardening

This post Toil the Soil - Kitchen Garden and Fleamarket Gardening was originally uploaded by Tyra Hallsénius-Lindhe in the blog Tyra's Garden / Tyras Trädgård

 

 

TOIL the SOIL

In this issue you meet Charlotta,  Marie and me. Kitchen Garden and Fleamarket Gardening

Rubbish or treasure? Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.  

So very true!

"It was actually rather by chance the whole project started. In 2002 the family found 36 very old windows in an attic, they dated from 1901. My husband thought it would be a great idea to throw the ‘junk’ away but I certainly disagreed with that, I didn’t like that idea at all. Now my resourceful mind started to work intensively. Those window had a history, they were beautiful, single glass windows with a lot of charm and in a fairly good condition too. It didn’t take long until the thought of building greenhouse of them begun to progress"...read more in Toil the Soil

Blooming Friday - This weeks theme On the ground

I'm bending it a bit...I'm thinking ground...earth...dirt...and soil

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Tulip Fun - Andy Warhol Style

This post Tulip Fun -Andy Warhol Style was originally uploaded by Tyra Hallsénius Lindhe in the blog Tyra's Garden/Tyras Trädgård

I've been playing with some pictures in photoshop. The Tulip is one of my favourite spring flower and usually I don't want to mess around with the pictuers in photoshop but this was fun. I was inspired a bit by Mr Andy Warhol. Injoy the parade.

By the way which one is true?

 Can you tell?

First out is the Indigo dream

  

Fuego

...or is it the yellow Tulipa 'Lemon bird'?

or the red drama queen Salsa Queen

Amethyst

Malakhitovaya

 or the pink, pretty, Apple blossom

Paris Hilton



Passionate

Now which one of my 'tulips species is the true one?

Spring has Sprung!

This Post 'Spring has Sprung' was originally uploaded by Tyra Hallsénius Lindhe in the blog Tyra's Garden/ Tyras Trädgård

 'Sprung has Sprung!'

Blooming Friday - this weeks theme - In the Air

Well here Spring is definitely in the air!