Sunday, March 22, 2009

They are showing a brittish gardenprogram on swedish television this spring from an ekologikal farm. I like it a lot, but there´s a little problem with it I think as with many other programs like this, they alredy have perfect conditions in every way. For someone totally new in gardening this can be overwelming and they woun´t even try to grow anything after seeing this program. But for us that has been around for a while understands that one doesn´t need an upper class farm in brittain to grow ones own tomatoes :-) But I have to say that I wouldn´t mind having that farm, because it´s fantastic :-)



At least the surface on the pond is ice free now. But this pond was frozen to the bottom so I don´t think that it´s totally free from ice yet.



What I really would like to see is a program showing peoples allotment gardens. I don´t know if You outside Europe knows what that is? It started over hundred years ago, in Brittain I think, when they saw that people in the cities didn´t have enough money to buy enough food and then got deficiency diseases. Then some people got the idea that if people in the cities could rent small pieces af land to grew their own vegetables that would lead to a healthier life and how true that was. Anyway, I would like to se programs about that. Sweeds that have an allotment gaden usually grow more flowers than vegetables today, so I would prefer that they showed our immigrants allotment gardens instead. If any one knows how to grow vegetables it´s them.



This bird is called Kaja in swedish. It´s a close relative to the crow and raven. Nowdays it´s forbidden to have any swedish wild animal as a pet, but before that law I had a Kaja. It´s one of the most funny birds one can have, but they smell awful. Learns to talk almost better than parrots. Have I told You about my Kaja anytime? If You want to know about it just tell me.




When I lived in Gothenburg one of my favourite things was to walk around on the places where they had allotment gardens. In some places they have allowed tiny, tiny cottages, but mostly it´s just a piece of land to grow what ever one wants to grow. The best places were filled with all sorts of vegetables, toamtoes, potatoes, onions..... and when I found such a place it was immigrants that had that garden. I wonder what their secret were to get those hughe harvests. I´m not totally unaware of how to grow vegetables, but I have never even been close to what they got :-)
Some ditches where the sun wount reach still have some ice left on the surface. Teodor just had to test it today :-) All went well even if he is a bit heavy nowdays :-)




My own tomatoe seeds have now become small plants and are ready to get pots of their own now. Every seed germinated and soon I´ll have to decide how many I can keep. This year it´s seeds from cherry tomatoes I bought in the store some weeks ago. I usually don´t want those seeds we can buy in the stores here. They are hybrids and those tomatoes usually don´t taste as good as older sorts. But there is a tomatoe club where we can buy other old sorts from and they taste delicious. Mostly old russian sorts but also some old sorts from north America and Europe.
To get some ourselves from other countries outside the EU is forbidden. There are some tomatoe diseases we still don´t have here You see so thats why it´s not allowed. The same goes for potatoes too and there the rules are even strickter. I´m not allowed to take potatoes (unless they are cooked of course) from Denmark over here because of the same reasons. But to be honest I don´t think people knows that here :-)



The first flowerbuds on the crocuses are now showing above the ground :-)



Well today it´s clody again and some rain is comming they say. Typical! I washed the floors yesterday and wacumed and cleaned the carpets from everything the dogs brings in. I do that quite often otherwise too, but this time it felt like I cleaned out winter so to speak. I even bought a new floor mopp because of that :-)

Remember the ice on this ditch that I showed You a couple of days ago? Now it´s gone :-) But they say that there will be more snow and below freezing point in a couple of days.





Well now it´s time to think of how my little wall greenhouse should look like. In my mind I can se an octagonal one, but I don´t know if I can find the tools I need to do that. I have a special saw that can cut the timber in the right angles for that, but I think only God knows where I put that :-)
Be good!

8 comments:

Wsprsweetly Of Cottages said...

What a nice little pond, Christer. It is hard for me to imagine just going for a walk and seeing that. All I see are front yards and many not so pretty. I will take pictures one day soon so you can see MY walk! Ugh!
I am going to grow my tomoatoes in a few pots this year and see how I do. I love Early Girl tomatoes but I need to get them going...and soon.
It just began to rain and the winds have really kicked up. We have skylights so you can really hear it when it rains.
We have also planted two redwoods in the front yard last fall..and I hope to at least see them get fairly tall. Do you have any redwoods in Sweden? They are HUGE but.. :) They also grow fast.
Of course I have never heard of a Kaja but thought that Parrots were the only birds that talked.
And YES...I want to hear all about your Kaja!! I have five birds and have always owned them. I would love to hear about them.
I have finches...and the female I bought a few years ago is stinky too. She seems better now..so not sure what the problem was.
There should be more gardens. I had one before I returned to Riverside with peppers, tomatoes, cucumbers, zuchini, and green beans. In the summer we were always loading the neighbors down with veggies. :0
Sometimes..they really do make things sound so complicated that a person new to gardening would be discouraged. You are right about that.
And Christer, thanks for the visit!
Mona

The cottage by the Cranelake said...

Hi Mona!
No we don´t have Redwood trees here, the climat is to tough for them unfourtunally. I´ve heard that someone have some trees in the most south of Sweden, but they have a tough time. But with the climat change it might go better in a couple of years :-)

I think that the idea with allotment garden was a terrific idea. Most people loves them, wether they have one thenselves or just enjoy watching them all summer. They actully have it in the small towns nearby even if they almost already lives in the countryside :-)

Sometimes they have to show how easy it really is to grow ones own vegetables and I think they belive that they really does that. But more often the make it so complicated. I mean, one can grow tomatoes directly in a big sack of soil, give the plant sun, water and some furtuliser and one gets tomatoes :-)


I´ll try to tell You abot my kaja tomorrow. All the big birds related to the crow can actully speak, but more about that tomorrow. Unfortunally I don´t have any picture of my Kaja but perhaps I can take more pictures of the wild ones tomorrow.

have a nice day in thje rain now!
Christer.

Joanne Kennedy said...

Hi,

This is the first time for me coming to visit your blog. I loved hearing about your country. I'm here in the USA and have never been lucky enough to make it to your country. Maybe someday...

Years ago my brother and I rented a little space of land and planted a garden together. It was fun knowing because of all the hard work and time we put into it we had lots of vegetables to eat all summer long.

It was a lot of work too. Our space had not been tended to in some time. So before we could do anything we had to clear it all out, turn the soil over and add good soil to it then smooth it out and plant.

The only thing I didn't like about was having to "go" there to water. When you have a garden in your own yard you just walk outside and water, weed or pick your vegetables. We had to drive about 15 mins, find a parking space (it was land that a school rented out) and then walk about 10 mins to get to our space.

So we didn't do it for more then a year. But I have those memories for a life time.

This year I am going to plant some plants outside in my backyard. There is nothing as good as home grown food.

Your cat is so cute! I'm the biggest animal lover in the world!

I would love to hear more about your talking bird. We have big crows that come to our front yard every day. Most people don't like them but I do. I think they have beautiful shinny black feathers and are just darling. Can crows talk?

Looking forward to getting to know you and your country better.

Hugs,
Joanne

Anonymous said...

Once more I must say You write a fine and interesting blog> I always enjoy your walks and pictures and one can learn many new things about flowers gardening and country life by reading what you share with us there. The bird you had must have been a great joy we had several wild pets one was a male grey squirel that was with us many years. I look forward to hearing more about your bird.

The cottage by the Cranelake said...

Hi Joanne!
Thank You for reading my blog!

It´s a lot of work if noone have tended to the ground for some time. My first allotment garden was exaktly in that way. It was more or less clay instead of good soil too. Don´t think that I ever have worked so hard as when I had to do all that work to be able to grow anything on it :-) :-)

But I have to say that my garden was so much closer to my home and the water pump was just some feet away :-) I can understand why You didn´t have it more than a year.

As You say, home grown vegetables is soo much tastier than those we buy. I have been a bit lazy for a couple of years, but this year I´ll grow toamtoes and have to build a small wall greenhouse if there´s going to be a good crop.


Yes, crows can learn how to talk if one starts early with them. They can be really good at it too. But here crows aren´t black, they are black and grey. Same bird though but with slightly different colour. I´ll try to get a picture of one tomorrow. But they are smart, if they see the camera they fly away :-)

Yes my cat Teodor is really cute, I have his brother too but he´s grey and striped. Brothers but very different in all ways.

Have a really nice day now!
Christer.

The cottage by the Cranelake said...

Hi Woody!

I would love to have a tame squirrel, but not inside of course. I´ve heard that they really can mess up a home :-)

My Kaja "Robert" was really funny to have, probably the meanest bird in the world :-) he espesially loved to be mean to the cats I had then :-) One problem though, they smell awful!
have a nice sunday now!
Christer.

NinaH said...

I would like to see a "living" programs ´bout gardening again!! Allotment is one thing I would like to see more about. And so many more! Gardening- How to do this and that. Visiting gardens of all kinds. Etc, etc, etc.... inspiring gardens of ... Hm... Hm.... Will we ever see that again?!:-)
Well. Now it´s spring. And WE love & do our gardens any way!! ;-)
Have a nice week!

The cottage by the Cranelake said...

Hi Nina!
I really hope that we will get programs like that again soon. They say the trends towards advanced design is going away, people like it yhe way it used to be. To be honest I don´t think anyone but designers and swedish television wanted advanced design at all :-)

Yes, spring is comming, but at the moment it´s rather cold here.
Christer.