First two tomatoes!

Went down to the greenhouse full of anticipation this morning. Yesterday one of the tomato flowers had started wilting... yay...

And when I got there, there were not one, but TWO wilted flowers. :D However, they were still attached :( Booo!

So, unable to wait... he he he... I gently tugged them off, only to reveal... two TINY TINY TINY cherry tomato babies. Here's a pickie of one of them and a few pics of the rest of the greenhouse.

Ok, so it's not exactly HUGE, but still...
May I proudly present... this year's first tomato!!

This one, which just said yellow cherry tomatoes on the packet,
has an incredible number of buds on each bunch.
Adorable bell flowers... and they're reaaally hairy too...

Greenhouse pickie. Toms on the left, chillies on the right.

Lots growing in the kitchen garden

Finally!! Lots of activity in the kitchen garden:

Spinach, which we've already started eating in salads.

Lots of early carrots, guarded by lots of red onions.

Red onions and garlic.

Teeny tiny turnips.

The remaining radishes - we've already eaten lots of thinnings.

Early potatoes - left over supermarket potatoes.

Baby lettuce - the lettuces haven't done at all well this year :(

Woohoo! We ate these last night wrapped in Parma ham :)

Parsley & rocket.

Broccoli. I've also sown two rows of radishes in the middle
and mixed lettuces & stir fry veg round the edge of the bed.

Pretty colours

Pretty flowers

I've been really busy, both at work and in the garden so I haven't had time to transfer photos over to the computer until now. Here are a few pickies of this year's GORGEOUSNESS to date.

Super Parrot tulips

Super Parrot tulips

Mount Tacoma tulips

Our new breakfast spot, kindly donated by the in-laws

The magnolia was glorious this year - until last night's
cold spell (SNOW!!) put an end to that :(

Carpets of wood anemones

Lily of the valley

Lily of the valley behind the gazebo

Lettuces, visitors, chillies and nice neat rows of veg

Been out to take a few photos of the stuff that's growing at the moment. Found lots of rocket and mixed salad leaves, and the carrots and stir fry veg I sowed the other week have turned up in nice neat rows. I do like nice neat rows :)

Mixed salad leaves - spicy & spicy oriental.

Lots of rocket (we like rocket), and other mixed salad leaves.
Check out the cheeky pak choi on the left.

Neat rows :)
Beetroot, Radishes, Stir fry veg, spinach, turnips & carrots.
Behind that are a mix of different onions (spring, red, garlic, leek & chives).

It wasn't until I was right up close, taking these pickies, that I saw this little fella...!!! Grrrrr.

Apart from all this activity outdoors, there's plenty going on in the greenhouse now. With Easter this weekend, the pressure was on to get the house looking purdy. So all (well almost all of) the chilies, and the cucumbers, have now moved down to the greenhouse. I upped the temp on the fan heater just to be on the safe side from 5oC to 12oC. And they seem fine with that, so far...

Lots of funny looking little square Purple Tiger chillies.

Aji Colorado.

The Serrano is almost buckling under the
weight of all the chillies!

Hot Paper Lantern.

And here's a few pickies of the plants still indoors. I didn't want to risk losing all the plants, so I kept four behind as a back-up.

The Thai chillies should be ready to eat soon :)

Short, stout Spanish peppers.

Really pointy Ring of Fire chillies.

Turned into quite a long blog post, sorry about that. But I don't always have time to blog - it takes a while. So I've saved up a bunch of stuff this time. Will try to blog more often with shorter entries.

Thanks for reading and Happy Easter!

Early morning wander round the garden with the camera

Another beautiful morning!! We had frost last night >( but the temperature quickly rose to 14 once the sun had appeared. How can I possibly sit inside on a day like this?! But... I have work to do, so I settled for a quick wander round the garden, a few pickies and a quick blog update so you can all enjoy what I just have.

Carpet of white woodland anemones (vitsippor) in our
west-facing wilderness garden.

Carpet of white woodland anemones (vitsippor) in our
west-facing wilderness garden.

Palest palest palest (almost white) pink star magnolia.

There are still a few crocuses around.

Forced rhubarb.

Otto guarding my earlies from hungry animals.

Amandine potatoes waiting patiently for the new raised beds
to be ready, which are waiting patiently for the manure delivery.

Time to thin the turnips... hmm a little over-zealous
with the seeds perhaps...?

Should have some baby spinach soon, yummy!

I'm determined to succeed with beetroot this year,
no bambies are eating this lot!

Pictures of the house

I thought it was time to post some photos of the house now that we've cut down so many trees. The garden feels much more airy and bright. Might even get some afternoon sun on the terrace this summer...

Flowers for a change

Everything has started getting greener over here in Sweden and I've spent the past few days concentrating on getting the flowerbeds weeded, fertilized and ready for the summer. Something I must admit I haven't been too good at. But an interest in flowers has been slowly creeping up on me and this year I've absolutely relished in planning and digging the flowerbeds. Photos to follow...

On another, slightly related note I was blog shopping over a cup of coffee by the fire yesterday morning and I came across this one, Fint Hemma, which really inspired me to go out and forage for flowers.

When I stepped outside I was blown away by the carpet of white wood anemones (Vitsippor) that appeared to have sprouted overnight! Also inspired by Fint Hemma, I dug out a few antique crystal snaps glasses and filled them with flowers:

Wood anemones - Vitsippor in antique Orrefors snaps glasses

Wood anemones - Vitsippor in antique Orrefors snaps glasses

We inherited a huge magnolia bush when we bought the house, and it keeps trying to grow INTO the house, so I moved the iron stake along the branch a bit yesterday in an attempt to train it to grow along the house. In doing so, there were a few casualties, but they came to good use and have actually started opening :)

Magnolia casualties