Helena-Reet: Mother’s Day + Month of May activities in the garden

12 May, 2021 by Helena-Reet Ennet

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NordenBladet – Good morning! The weather is already so good that in the morning there is no desire to stay in bed very long. At about five or six o’clock I lose sleep and then wish to start working in the garden at once. Yesterday I was indeed looking forward to mow the lawn, but had to wait for some time before switching on the machine not to wake my neighbours. I instead extended enjoying the morning coffee peacefully, and made buckwheat porridge (I garnished it with cottage cheese, beet, dill, and pickled tomato and cucumber). Thereafter I sent my family to work and to school and went outside to gather primrose to be dried for winter. Gathering herbs and drying them is one of my great hobbies!

Then I started mowing the lawn and tidying the garden. Most of May has passed by under the title of garden works. I cut down some of the lilac bush and planted lavender on top the cellar. In the flower boxes I planted marygold flowers. Since the spice beds are still in progress (the boxes are ready and have also been stained to endure the climate, but they haven’t yet been set in place), thus I planted a bunch of thyme and oregano in a large flowerpot. I cut the lower branches from the spruce trees, those which were against the ground, in order to make it easier to care for the garden, and spread coniferous type soil around the tree trunk. During these works I ran into a giant snail/slug. At first I was scared that this might be the dreadful Portuguese slug Arion lusitanicus, but when I took a closer look I realized that it was a quite innocent local Leopard slug that eats decay and dead plants and can rather be considered a useful fellow in the garden. Many times this year we have been able to burn branches and decay – for example we have partly torn down the old fence that went straight into the fire. Today is the time when 200 (80-100 cm tall) Brabant arborvitae should arrive from Hortes. There is a plan to plant them partly as the hedge in the places where the fence was torn down. In 2017 I bought from Hansaplant a hundred 100cm arborvitae plants (see the blog HERE), these have already become quite tall as of today.

In the evening a few guest came by and brought a large sack of freshly picked wild garlic from the wood. Yummi… this will be made into a delicious fresh salad today! In return I offered them frozen buckthorn berries picked from our garden last year.

Hugs!

(below the garden gallery you will find yet another gallery where I post some photos from the recent Mother’s Day).

Sunday 9th of May was Mother’s Day! I got a lovely flower plant and a box of salmon from Estella (she knows salmon is among my favourite food) and Ivanka had prepared for me an assortment of greeting cards! I love the both of you so much – Estella Elisheva and Ivanka Shoshana!! You are my treasures, my delight and my concern!

Do read also my previous blog posts (all posts are available in four languages – Estonian, Finnish, Swedish and English!)

Photography: NordenBladet (Helena-Reet Ennet)