July has been an extremely warm month here in Oslo, with temperatures in the high 80s and low 90s. That has had an impact on the garden in terms of hastening growth and maturity of some of the berries. For example, our strawberries were ripe at least two weeks ahead of their normal schedule, and the gooseberries and black currants are on track to be ripe for picking next week, which is a good week to two weeks ahead of their normal schedule.
The garden's growth has exploded during the past two weeks. My perennials have grown quite tall, those that do actually achieve some height. My dahlias are now blooming, likewise all of my lily plants, which are beautiful this year. The loosestrife is also lovely and has not shed its petals yet as it normally does. The wisteria along the fence is now blooming for the second time this year! Lovely. The magnolia tree is growing tall and starting to spread its branches. It's happy. There aren't many red currants this year, but there will be plenty of black currants and raspberries. New this year--a lot of black and yellow raspberries. Black raspberries are my favorite type of raspberry.
As far as annuals go, I planted snapdragons and rose mallows from seed, and they are doing well. Note to myself for next year--plant more of them--they're beautiful. I removed all the pachysandra from under the krossved tree and planted a hosta garden that is doing well. The pachysandra, while lovely, was beginning to negatively affect the growth of the krossved, as it is known to do in many instances. You have to be careful what you plant it next to.
My three asparagus plants (planted in April of this year) are doing very well, but there won't be edible asparagus for another two years. It takes that long for the plants to become stabilized. The pumpkin and zucchini plants are growing, but it will be interesting to see if there are pumpkins this year. Last year there weren't any because the plants had only male flowers. I planted two kinds of potatoes and they are growing happily. I mounded the soil this year because that is supposed to help yield larger potatoes. We'll see. My garlic and onion plants are also doing fine.
Having a garden is a lot of work, but it's worth it when you see the results. I only hope as I get older that I will be able to manage it all. I've had the garden for ten years now, and am hoping for at least another ten. That's provided that the allotment garden is not turned into a public park as has been suggested by the Oslo municipality (a stupid idea if ever there was one). I'll keep you posted. In any case, here are some photos from the past two weeks.
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| Anemone--poppy anemones according to my iPhone info |
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| Burning love flowers |
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| Potato patch to the left, hosta garden straight ahead, loosestrife to the right |
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| Allium plants that the bees love |
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| My beautiful wisteria |
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| Black raspberry plant--the ripe black berries look like little hats |
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| Loosestrife and allium plants, plus a red dahlia |
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| Phlox and astilbe flowers |
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| Japanese maple |
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| Rose mallows |
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| Yellow lily |
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| Reddish-pink lily |
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| Liatris spicata--the dense blazing star, next to a day lily |
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| Loosestrife |
