Chronicle July 2010 | Chronicle September 2010

August 2010

Pictures

Hello there, everyone.
First of all, I want to give my apologies to our reader J.G. in Yavne, Israel, who complained about the late publication of the translation of the chronicles. Yes, J.G., you are quite right and I can only plead mea culpa and offer too little time and too much work as a pathetic excuse.


It’s 8 August 2010. The clock has just struck the hour, time is going by and we’re already in the month of August – my goodness! The humidity is rising and it’s late summer in Greater Stockholm and today we participated in the “Tusen trädgårder” (Thousand gardens) open garden scheme; I give my warm thanks to Gunnel Karlsson, who has been the driving force behind the scheme. Hip hip hurray! Today, some 400 visitors came to look at our modest garden, and we had many opportunities for pleasant chats about gardens and gardening.  It’s such fun to have the garden open to visitors, to meet people and exchange thoughts, feelings and experiences about life, plants, and gardens.


Even if you can’t visit us personally, I hope that you enjoy visiting us through the pictures we have on the site. The garden on the website is always open and you are welcome to enter at any time, throughout the year, even during the autumn and winter. A garden doesn’t stop in July. No, a garden is a living thing, it is alive, things happen all the time, from the beginning of the year to the end.
I love gardens!  There is something about them that permeates the entire body and soul, all the nerves in the body. Think of everything you can create, everything you can do. But, first and foremost, I think that it’s fun to be involved with plants and cultivation.


We’re now in the month of August and one might ask: what’s happening in the garden?  The answer – quite a lot. I usually say that it’s the harvest month. Just now, we’re harvesting tomatoes and cucumbers, but the runner beans (this year we’re growing dark purple, almost black beans as well as a yellow variety) aren’t yet ready, but they will be soon. And very soon the fruits – apples, pears and plums, will be ready for picking.


Once again, thank you to all the wonderful people we met today. This was the first year of the scheme, but not the first time that our garden has been open to the public this year. We have held an open garden for our local gardening association, one for the local branch of the Swedish Tourism Association, as well as an open day arranged by the magazine, Land, and the Tusen Trädgårdar I mentioned at the beginning of this chronicle. So my humble thanks to all of you. It’s so uplifting to meet people who enrich your life through friendliness, and by meeting a diversity of people. Thank you for coming.


The garden at the beginning of August is still awash with colour. Lilies and the Summer Snow clematis are still going strong. So much is happening at the beginning of August, and the garden shows no signs of slowing down.


We have created a garden which extends long into the autumn. This has meant doing things in the garden to keep it going for a longer period of time, not merely with flowering in June, July and August. Think of plants that can create happiness over an extended growing season. Take sedum, for example. It’s a plant that unfortunately is often overlooked in Sweden, and yet it blooms beautifully in the summer and autumn, and also provides a dramatic framework for frost and snow during the winter.


This year, we will be participating for the first time at the Formex trade fair in Älvsjö, Stockholm, 12-16 August. We will be displaying our greetings cards, which we produce ourselves based on pictures from the garden. For readers in Sweden, a list of retailers is available on the site. We hope soon to be able to sell cards on line to readers abroad.
Long live gardens and plants. See you soon.
Hugs from Tumba.

A Gentleman Gardener