Adrianfinland's Outbox

Hi Gillian,

Yes the garden is a lot brighter and feels more spacious as there is no canopy of branches filling the sky, so on balance we are very happy with the change.

We did plant a small tree "Double Flowering Almond Tree" in the corner of the garden a few months ago which we hope will grow through the years. It flowers in early spring so we hope it will provide the first colour in the garden after the winter.

Also we still have some tall birch trees so the house does not look 'lost' or still has scale when viewed from the road. So we won't be cutting any other trees down :)

Chezs - I bow to your knowledge! These came in a tray of 10, but sadly with no name. Thank you.

Yep they only come in one size the skips here: HUGE. They charge by weight and contents. They open at the rear via swing doors. Standing inside it you feel like a soldier at a D-Day landing!

Hi Irish,

Good question and thanks for the interest. We thought long about both options, and decided in the end to have it removed. We'll fill in the gap with earth and grass over.

Next to this we normally have a swing bench, which with the stump removed we'll now have more choice on where we position it. Also we might add some beds or pots on the ground.

Our garden has plenty of large boulders or rocks (left over from the last iceage) which make enough features already ;)

Geranium makes sense - or at least your suggestion and my google images search seem to match up! Thanks.

Thanks Grammazoo you are so clever!

Chezs you know your plants! Peony and wikipedia showing it flowering matches my memory from last year, spot on.

Chezs you star. Name a weed a wildflower and I can live with that :)

Cool! Many thanks for your knowledge.

It has a metal and wood handle (on the rear side of this photo), so with a shorter plant you could carry it around. We saw it in a shop on saturday and thought we know the perfect place for that...

Its really green this time of year - only 3 hours of darkness, so everything is growing and growing.

.

My tips would be (I'm no expert, but have had some success this year and last year turning rough ground to lawn and veg patch to path.)

1) I think they mean weed the soil, break it up and rake it so that its flat but not compacted. When I have turned some mud / plant areas to grass I've weeded, removed any stones, made it smooth, then walked over the whole area like heel to heel in heavy boots so that any voids or air pockets are squashed out. Then re-rake. If the area is not smooth or flat you may have to repeat this process till you are happy with the surface visually. That way you should avoid an uneven surface, as the soil settles in. If the area is already flat and without voids or dips, then make sure the top surface is well raked/broken up so that the new grass can establish roots. You want a firm soil area but that is broken up at the surface so the seeds have a good environment to germinate in.

2) I would lightly spray / wet the soil first as this darkens it. Make sure your seend is well mixed if it has different types. Then hand scatter the seed which should show up better against the dark soil so you can see where you have thrown. Be careful of wind direction, but other than that just go for it, grab an fist full and throw across you body and outwards. I opt for more the merrier, but obviously you are aiming for an even distrubition of seed over the soil, so that its not 'patchy' when it grows. Also don't cake/blanket the soil with seed, as the seed needs space and soil.

3) Back and forth lightly rake the seed and soil so that its partially covered / all mixed up soil and seed. Back and forth should avoid you pulling all the seed to one place. You want it so that the seed can still get some sun light, but not blow away.

4) Hmm. I haven't stamped or rolled the area. If you had a large tree log you could roll that, but probably alot of hard work. To my mind heel to heel walking to flatten the area and then raking before planting should have same effect? I'm sure others will have ideas.

The real 4) or 5) is to water the area once the seed is scattered and lightly covered / surface mixed with soil. And then regularly water or get it rained on so that you get good germination until the grass is well established.

Avoid cutting the grass as long as possible, so that you don't damage the seedlings, e.g. let if grow long in the first place. Helps if you don't walk on it too much either in the first few days and weeks.

Be careful about weed killing lawn treatments while the grass is still young, e.g. avoid them.

I hope you son enjoys watching it grow and playing on it!

Why thank you!

Interesting that Sarah65 is from Washington State (I visited there last year in May - I thought Finland had a lot of trees till I saw parts of WA! But your trees seem more 'leafy'. And of course more mountainous, here in South West Finland its quite flat. But the wooden style barns and house, looked very similar 'cousins' to what you have there in Washington countryside.

And Grammazoo from Ontario (sadly I only visited Canada once on a walk over from Buffalo to look at the water falls). In my mind I would imagine Canada landscape similar to Finland? But then again Canada is so large, maybe only parts of the country resemble? Maybe your light is similar to here, being further north - very blue skies.

I feel like some border guard, checking it daily for incursions. We'll have to make some Pimms to start using it up.

It was! This week is raspberry and strawbeery (no photo) but equally tasty ;)

Could be! It grows in a sunny morning spot near the house wall above rocks. It came with the house, and we like it being there.

This photo is no the best, its already peaked flowering. The bumble bees really like it as its some of the earliest flowers we have in our garden.

Thanks Jacque - I'll update the plant name.

Seedlings or weeds? We have a very low height blanket weed that grows on exposed veg plots, so the seedlings can't be identified till they grow some true leaves and then can spot the difference.

Daisys and buttercups are flowers we don't have in our lawn, which is a shame. I'm not sure if they grow naturally in Finland or not, at least not to the levels they do in England.

You are just too clever! Glad you have lots - we have one!!! But I found it at the base of a siren bush / hedge that last year was huge but we cut down - so maybe there are more in the ground...

Thank you for the name!

Thanks!

Bergenia - fantastic!

So difficult to work out the name of established plants the were planted long before we had the garden.

Thanks for your help with the name.

LOL indeed! They are Lord Nelson brand 'Wild Mixture' which last year included some great 'feathery' type flowers.

They look well fed! Great image.

Glad I'm putting my first (and new) DSLR to good use!

Yes its amazing. Its one of the huge positives with house, that its surrounded by farming country and trees, "natural" working landscape. I'll upload some photos of 'the view'.

We have 3 of these windmils in our garden, they only way to have colur all through the winter!