Pictures yesterday & today

The first two pictures I took in our garden yesterday.

November

In the November sunshine…

November

The Finnish autumn came for the bougainvillea – for my ‘mini Spain’ long ago…

The next five pictures I took in our garden today.

November

It has been snowing a bit, just a little bit.

November

A common poppy pod.

November

So this is ‘the second snow’ for this season…

November

Leaves of a rose bush.

It’s -3 degrees Celsius right now, at around 14.15 pm.

November

November

And these last two pictures I took today as well. I’ve been watching cross-country skiing again. The Cross Country World Cup has began in Ruka, Kuusamo, here in Finland this weekend.

November

And I’ve been watching this competition and making this blog post at the same time – combining two hobbies. 🙂

-Leena

October colours and some of the flowers in the garden

Last year it was like we didn’t actually have Virginia creeper at all – but we did have it a year ago as well. It was the second year for this creeper in our garden last year, and it didn’t grow that much, and it had no autumn colour whatsoever then.

This year our Virginia creeper has grown fairly big and it already has… some colour red, too. So nice! 🙂

Gladiolus, the surprise bloomer.

calendula, marigold

Still pot marigold or calendula flowers…

sunflower

The already bloomed sunflowers just hanging…

sunflower

…hanging around…

sunflower

common poppy

And still common poppy flowers…

pear tree

The pear tree with some autumn colours now as well.

pear tree

-Leena

Flowers in September

There are even some new summer flowers for this year in autumn, and some perennials flowering as well.

common poppy & friends

To begin with… there are still common poppy flowers in the garden. Friends are loving it.

calendula/marigold & friends

There is no autumn without pot marigolds or calendulas… 😉

calendula, marigold

My personal little autumn sun…

calendula, marigold

calendula, marigold

calendula, marigold

clematis

Clematis growing and blooming as well. Our first ever clematis plants, planted in summer this year. Yet another new favourite… now I would love to have many different types of clematis flowers.

clematis

clematis

Our clematis is growing by an oak tree.

clematis

annual mallow

And there are still many annual mallow flowers at their prime…

cosmos

There is no summe… yeah well, I planted cosmos seeds this year as well, but there’s been only few flowers – all the green parts of the plant have grown, but not much blooming this year. I think it’s the a bit strange summer and the spot where I planted them, both. I planted them by the ditch by the woods – that was the only place I could squeeze them in this year. 😀

shrubby cinquefoil

Shrubby cinquefoil is flowering this autumn as well.

sunflower

This year we have finally succeeded in growing sunflowers! We’ve tried to grow sunflowers already in the summers of 2015 and 2016, and last year we thought that we should start the pre-growing earlier. But… we didn’t pre-grow them this year at all, just planted the seeds directly into the ground. We think it’s the soil – this year we used both fresh soil and the fertile soil in the places where we put our grass clippings and some leaves. Worked like a charm. 🙂

sunflower

clarkia amoena, godetia

Candies… There is no autumn without clarkia amoena or godetia flowers.

clarkia amoena, godetia

peony poppy

And there is still at least one peony poppy flower.

peony poppy

dahlia

Dahlias growing and blooming. Our first ones ever these, too. Planted in spring this year, and new favourites again…

dahlia

Mellow…

dahlia

Cactus dahlia. How charming!

-Leena

About some of the food growing in the garden & more flowers

First about some of the food growing in our garden. We had some strawberries to eat still in August – a bit different summer indeed, usually the strawberry season has ended well before the end of July in our garden. Peas, potatoes, carrots and onions all grow easily. The pea season is at its end now and we’ve been harvesting our potatoes, too, for some time now, but there are still many potatoes underground, that’s for sure.

Homegrown food is always just so delicious, and sweet… 🙂

love carrots

We’ve been harvesting our carrots, too. I took a pic yesterday evening when I was about to make soup.

growing onions

One of the most delicious things you can grow in your garden! This actually is the first time ever that we’re growing onions. – I wonder why we haven’t done it earlier! Here in Finland, in the north, we usually grow onions from onion sets, not from seeds. And onions indeed are easy to grow from sets.

blackcurrant

Come out, come out! This year we have more blackcurrant berries than ever before (-during the three previous summers that we’ve lived here). And it’s so nice! Our redcurrant bushes have been loaded with berries every summer, but our blackcurrant berries have been hiding somewhere. (?) 🙂

common poppy

More common poppy flowers. Other names for common poppy: corn poppy, field poppy, Flanders poppy, red poppy, corn rose.

common poppy

common poppy

common poppy

common poppy

fly honeysuckle berries

Our fly honeysuckle has berries now. Not edible, poisonous.

phlox paniculata, fall phlox

Phlox paniculata or fall phlox ‘early red’, in the middle of our garden. We planted it a bit over a week ago.

phlox paniculata, fall phlox

strawflower

And there is no summer without strawflower flowers… 🙂

-Leena

Summer flowers in August

This year everything is a little late, so also the summer flowers are at their prime only now in August.

peony poppy

Peony poppy. There is no summer without peony poppy flowers…

peony poppy

peony poppy

Dutch iris

Iris hollandica or Dutch iris. Siberian iris and German iris flowers in July… and this year I have also Dutch iris flowers now in August! 🙂 They are grown from bulbs that I planted in spring this year. My first ones ever.

annual mallow

And there is no summer without annual mallow flowers…

viper's bugloss

Viper’s bugloss, a bit wild now – I planted the seeds last summer.

cornflower

More cornflower flowers…

cornflower

cornflower

cornflower

A busy friend.

schizanthus, butterfly flower, poor man's orchid

And more schizanthus or butterfly flower or poor man’s orchid flowers…

schizanthus, butterfly flower, poor man's orchid

Maltese cross, burning love

Maltese cross or burning love, a perennial, flowering this year as well.

tropaeolum majus, garden nasturtium, Indian cress

Tropaeolum majus or garden nasturtium or Indian cress flowering. The taste is good as well – a bit peppery. 🙂

tropaeolum minus, dwarf nasturtium

And my first ever tropaeolum minus or dwarf nasturtium flowering.

tropaeolum minus, dwarf nasturtium

And the Ibiza lizard lurking… 🙂

common poppy

This summer I have common poppy flowers, too! My first ones ever.

common poppy

common poppy

I love all the colours… Another new favourite…

common poppy

common poppy

You tell me yours and I’ll tell you mine…

common poppy

With the shadow of a peony poppy…

common poppy

A nice skirt…? 🙂

common poppies & peony poppies

-Leena