Late spring in the garden

I've been spending a lot of time in the garden recently, and I'm happy to say that it's almost finished for now. We only need to finish the construction of the green house, plant tomato and peppers seedlings, some corn, beetroot, maybe a few more eggplants and I would also like to spread carrot and parsley seeds all around the garden in between other seedlings.

Let me show you the progress!

I don't remember when I planted the sweet peas, but I will be harvesting it soon. It is full of cute white flowers already! It is not as tall as I expected, but I guess it will keep growing. I haven't tried this variety before, so I'm not sure how tall it will get.

I promised you last time to share the progress of the construction with you. Well, we keep building in the evening and as we only have a couple of hours before it gets dark I focus on the work and keep forgetting to take photos.

It's standing now and I love it so much! The green looks much better than the grey on the other one. It's a bit bigger than we expected, and when we built the bottom we realized it wasn't one meter away from our neighbour (as per the rules), so we asked him if it's ok for him when we would be only about 0.85 meters. Luckily, he didn't mind as otherwise I have no idea what we would do. The greenhouse is next to super old roses and it would be such a pity to remove them to make more space.

I broke all the mustard stalks in the greenhouse and cut them to small pieces with scissors. I spread them all over, and will work it in the soil as soon as the greenhouse is finished.

On Saturday morning, we went to a shop to get some things for the construction and I couldn't leave it without buying these potted herbs. As you can see I always take a notebook to the garden for notes. First, I googled information about the herbs before planting them in the garden. Let's see what I did.

First, we have a herb that smells like gyros. It's called Artemisia Caucasica, and it grows well in dry conditions, so I planted it next to my Serpervivums that I don't water at all. It is a tender perennial, so we'll see if it will survive the winter. If we like it a lot then I can remove it and overwinter it inside.

Then we have a herb that smells like olives called Santorina viridis. It's amazing how authentic it is, and I wish that I could transport the smell to you over the screen. It's a hardy perennial and if all goes well it will cover the space and create a green carpet with beautiful yellow summer flowers that bees love.

Do you fancy a lemonade in summer? If yes, then this is the perfect herb for you. It's Agastache Mexicana that smells kind of like anis, and it's great for healthy lemonades. I planted it with mint as they should like each other. In winter, I will try to mulch it and see if it will survive.

The last one is called Cola herb or Artemisia Abrotanum Maritima. It should die back in winter and come again in spring, however it is better to overwinter it inside, so I planted it in the pot as we really want to keep it. It truly smells like coke. My neighbours were wrapping the leaves and smelling them as they couldn't believe it when I told them. Now everyone wants a bit of it when it grows 😊

Before we go to the rest of the garden, let's enjoy some snack as it's been a lot of work already! It took me ages to remove the weeds and plant the herbs.

The chocolate was delicious, but it's time to go back to the garden...

It's my first time ever growing eggplants. So far, I have planted only two as it's a very popular vegetable to grow here, and it's nearly impossible to buy seedlings. It looks great in the morning, but quite sad towards the evening and then great in the next morning again. I wonder if it's just a shock or if the changes of temperatures are a bit too much.

I planted them in between our volunteer garlic plants from last year as they should be great companion plants.

Another first timer is Pak-choi. I've tried it from the seed a few years ago, but it didn't work out, so this time I got some seedlings. I planted them between the bush beans rows for companion planting, so let's see how it goes when the beans start growing.

We love mangolds, so let's hope that they will grow well. They are planted between onion rows to protect them from their pests.

Last year, I managed to have a nice broccoli harvest, so this year we are planting them again. They should work well with garlic.

As soon as I've learned that cucumbers go well with sweet peas I had this great idea to use the construction that we already have and plant the seedlings in each corner. If it works they should climb it and I should be able to easily attach the vines to the construction.

I got one big cucumber as my husband got very excited about it when he saw it. It has a few cucumbers already, and I think that they will be ready in a couple of weeks.

I've been trying to find a true lavender for a long time, but I kept coming across different varieties, just not the one that I needed. I have finally found it last week and I pray that it grows well as it's one of the best plants to have in the garden.

The elderflower started blooming already!

It was quite high, but I managed to reach for it to show you the detail. It smells so good!

One corner of our garden is filled with Sempervivums. I clean them once a year and move the offspring to the main part of the plant. I start to like this arrangement.

Here is a smaller one...

There is a flower called Love in a mist right (Nigella) in the middle of the gooseberry bush. I guess a seed came from one of the gardens. I can't wait to collect the seeds and spread them all over the garden. In a couple of days it will turn into a beautiful blue flower.

I seem to be having Columbines in all colours - I haven't seen this white one before...

And last, but not least...

When I was in the garden to collect the slugs in the morning I noticed this Red and black Froghopper which I found so cute. I thought I would look up if it's a friend or a foe at home and it turns out it is not so friendly. I will check if there are more of them to stop a 'pandemic' before it starts 😊

Happy gardening and see you next time!