It’s been a weird old winter. Not only have we been months in lockdown, experienced four days of power outage, witnessed severe storms that felled hundreds of large trees in the forest and last Wednesday morning a 5.8 earthquake!
Thankfully, there was no damage but we had such a fright. My heart goes out to all people and animals who have experienced mother nature’s anger. Maybe she’s trying to tell us all something. Stay well and be safe.
I love this time of year, when I can gather up these gorgeous white lilac panicles and display them in this vintage vase. 
For my mum whose funeral was this time last year – All Saints Day. To all our loved ones who remind us of the things we love.
This wonderful town, only 120kms from Prague is a fairy tale destination.
Why are the streets empty, you may well ask, because it was 37 degrees C!
Kamenice nad Lipou – a gorgeous garden not far from where we are staying. The 700 year old linden tree was the star – it has weathered many storms, and with some support, survived the ravages and challenges of time – some people are like this too. ⭐️⭐️ ( by the way Lipou means linden😊 )
Check out its supports. Amazing tree. Happy gardening today.
The winter seeds are planted, the garden raked, pots spruced up, house secured, cats and magpies fed and chores completed. 
Time to travel back to see family in Prague, Trieste and Rijeka. Please join me as we revisit some wonderful cities and beautiful gardens. Happy gardening!
This weekend, I rifled through my seed packets and found some “Diggers Club” seeds to plant in the winter garden. Some of them are winter recommendations and others, well, they were just what I had in store. We will be going overseas next week so I had to get these babies planted!
The first seeds I sowed were Spinach “Perpetual” Beta vulgaris. The label reads that it is a cross between spinach and silver beet. It can be planted in any season – tick! Harvest in 10 weeks. So, I should be able to harvest it around 20th August. Looking forward to that!
Near these seeds I planted a few leeks “Jaune du Poitou” allium empeloprasurn– a French heirloom variety. The packet read that I should plant them in punnets – it pays to read the label carefully. Also, the seeds are a bit old, so fingers crossed. Harvest in 20 weeks – that’s a long way off, around the very end of October.
Behind this group of seeds and below a short trellis, I wanted to use up some flower seeds. I chose Sweet Pea “Lord Nelson” lathyrus oderatus, a fragrant heirloom variety from around 1890’s. Can you believe, the label describes these as having “dark and stormy navy blue flowers”. Oh well – we shall wait and see until the end of October as well! Hopefully it will be worth the wait.
In another raised bed, I popped in some peas, “Greenfeast” pisum sativum. Harvest in 15 weeks the packet read – so that will be around the end of September. The label reads “easy and rewarding crop for new and experienced gardeners”. These are dwarf bushes, so it will be interesting. Let’s wait and see.
In the foreground of peas, in went some calendula flowers “Green Heart Orange – calendula officinalis”. The edible petals are much sought after as a gourmet treat. If they germinate and grow here in our cold area, they should put on a bright display at the end of August.
There’s only one catch living here in the mountain zone micro-climate and that is we are usually three to four weeks behind the city with respect to germination, flowering, and harvesting. There go all my calculations. Add to this dilemma, the packet information reveals an 85% germination rate, so stay tuned and happy gardening. Hope these seeds are as successful as the parsley! Happy gardening!
Yesterday, a beautiful sunny day, for a change, after yoga, I went to the local nursery and bought some compost and potting soil. I tilled the soil in the two raised garden beds in the “chick-house garden” and added the compost and the soil. By the way, the “chicken-house” garden, is, as the name suggests, a chicken enclosure which is now a vegetable and raspberry garden. We used to have gorgeous Plymouth Rock chickens but after a terrible fox attack, we decided, no more chickens for us, sadly.
I pruned some of the grape vines and raked around to neaten things up. You see, we will be going overseas in a couple of weeks and I want to plant some seeds for when we return.
I always try to plant seeds purchased from the The Digger’s Seeds club www.diggers.com.au – a well-respected heirloom seed savers cooperative here in Australia which has been around for about forty years – their latest issue suggests seeds for our Cold Zone:
I have a bit of work in preparation but it will be worth it to return to sprouting and growing seeds into plants. Happy weekend gardening.
Be botanical, be in the garden.
Please don’t eat all my plants! 
A cool morning walk – even the horsies are rugged up! A very dry start to autumn. 
crabandfish garden 