Arboretum Kalmthout

Yesterday we visited the plants day in the arboretum of Kalmthout.

The kenderman got some tickets from a colleague member of the fern association.

one large Epimedium...

Besides trees, (espaliered) fruit trees and shrubs...

a wide variety of (wild)flowers and (forgotten) vegetables seed...

and lots of bulbs for sale...

Garden Days

10-11-12 may Beervelde Garden Days

Like every year we visited the Garden Days at Beervelde yesterday.
We brought home "just a few" plants so you can guess what we will be doing today :-)

Result

This is the end result.

 This morning we stil had a couple of fencing poles left....

 The kenderman is trying to spare the plants while he's removing the last pole :-)

Just a reminder how it looked like yesterday morning.

Tear Down

We have always disliked the garden fence in our garden.

We have been planting hedges and stacking wooded banks to hide this ugly fence.

But at the end of our backyard we wanted something else........ 

Until a few weeks ago we had to think of Sil.

Sil was only allowed to stroll through our backyard so we needed the fence.

No more wire netting....

Usually you will see us building instead of demolishing. 

But trust me, it's for the greater good!

I'll show you tomorrow.

Garden Day

Yesterday was the first day for a long time, we worked in the garden together .

The kenderman was pruning the last two willows.

I have been tidying in the borders.

Done

After we had been working in the garden for a couple of hours, it was time to stop.

Time to eat and drink :-)

Trimming

 Our hedge was in desperate need of a trimming.

I started this job just using my secateurs and some twine a few days ago.

This is how it looks now.

The job isn't finished yet but it looks better already.

Gardening

Our reward after a day of hard labour in the garden.

Baptisia australis

Wild or false Indigo (horse fly weed, indigo weed, rattleweed, rattlebush, Baptisia australis)

Here is a reminder:

4-5

28-4

18-04

Mother's Day

To all mothers:

Happy Mother's Day!

Weekend

Erigeron karvinskianus Profusion

(latin American fleabane daisy, Mexican daisy, seaside daisy, dancing daisy)

Enjoy your weekend!

Thistle

Cirsium rivulare atropurpureum 

Some thistles are still small.

I think it is incredible beautiful! 

Star of Bethlehem

And again....... some pics of the garden :-)

Star of Bethlehem (Ornithogalum umbellatum)

Green Dream

Yesterday we had some nice weather so we worked in our garden.

I just had to make some photos.

This is Mathiasella bupleuroides 'Green Dream'.

We have this plant for 3-4 years in our garden and it's flowering at last!

Wonderful (Green) World

Our world turned green!

Last week we had a lot of rain and it was good for all plants and trees.

Saturday the temperature was really nice so at last I could go outside without a coat.

Little sunshine but perfect weather for doing some gardening.

This weekend I was too busy for gardening but this morning that's the first thing to do.

Here you can see our Hornbeam (Carpinus betulus) hedge we planted.
We started planting in dec 2009 and due to the frost we didn't finish until april 2010.

We choose this species because it's much more tolerant to wet conditions then Beech (Fagus sylvatica).

9th april 2011

29th april 2012

Now we have just one more hedge to plant.
We wil be planting 25 mtrs of Hornbeam again.
 This job is scheduled for october-november and hopefully in another 2 years
we will have, due to the hedges, much more privacy in our backgarden.

Stand Up Comedian

This is Sanguisorba "Stand Up Comedian".
It's a tall white flowering plant with nice toothed leaflets and it wil grow 1.80 mtrs high.

Dandelion

Yellow isn't my colour but I must admit a Dandelion (Taraxacum officinale)

aka Lion's tooth, Priest's crown and Swine's snout can be beautiful.

Many people think of the Dandelion as a pesky weed but herbalist think of it as a valuable herb
that can be used as a medicine and food. Insects love it as well.

Yesterday I saw some grass fields packed with Dandelions.

It looked stunning.

Wild Indigo

Wild or false Indigo (horse fly weed, indigo weed, rattleweed, rattlebush, Baptisia australis)

To give you any idea about this plant, it's the plant in front and in the middle.
The plant is growing quite bushy and it has beautiful purple-blue flowers.
Right now it's just above the ground but it will grow quickly.
Things Can Only Get Better.