Kevätpuutarha - Spring Garden 2015, part 1

The annual Spring Fair was held at the Messukeskus Exhibition & Convention Centre in Helsinki from Thursday 26th to Sunday 29th. I was able to visit the Fair only on Saturday, which was probably the most crowded day. It would have been lovely to have more time at disposal, because there were many interesting displays and booths. (I did miss some, unfortunately...)

As you all know, taking photos in crowded locations is not easy. I will share the best shots I got without invading anyone's privacy.  In this post, there are photos of the four display gardens, planned for different kinds of families and locations by the garden designer and horticulturist Eva Wuite.

1. A little bit surprisingly, "the modern garden" was also my favourite, as it was of many others. It could be the garden of an urban couple that appreciates minimalist design.

A Quercus palustris, swamp Spanish oak, grown as espalier. It's said to be one of the most commonly used landscaping oaks due to its ease of transplant, relatively fast growth, and pollution tolerance. The word espalier brought to my mind the Italian word spalliera and the vine training. This image makes me remember some interesting views in Southern Italy, where the practice of training vines a tendone  is used.

2. In a garden for a family with small children, there are flower beds and a safe playground. There were indeed kids enjoying the playing area of this garden...

There were cheerful splashes of colour:

3. A garden is beautiful when it is in harmony with its surroundings and the architecture of the house. One of the gardens was for a country house, perhaps a log cabin, surrounded by coniferous woodland. Reflecting the busy lifestyle of its owners, this garden is very easy to maintain.

4. The fourth garden could belong to a DIY family that lives in a traditional, wooden house, loves the romantic atmosphere of a cottage garden and enjoys growing herbs and vegetables:

That's all for now. In the next post there will be... more flowers!

March in photos

March is soon over and it's time to create a month collage 

and link it up to Susanna's March collages.

I decided to participate with this post also in this week's Mosaic Monday,

even though there is a small (frosty) collage also in my previous post.

Thank you, Judith, for hosting Mosaic Monday!

♥

Happy new week to everybody!

Happy weekend!

When I woke up this morning, the temperature was -18 °C (-0.4 °F).

I went out to take some fun photos of these blocks of snow, removed from the lawn next to the house...

... when I noticed there were also other interesting things to see.

Seeing our spring views, you can understand why this weekend's garden show is held indoors  - even though Helsinki is located in southern Finland, on the shore of the Baltic See. :)

This is the final week of Sunlit Sunday. 

Thank you so much, Karen, for hosting this lovely link party!

I will catch up with your posts as soon as I can!

Happy Sunday!

Happy spring!

Lisää haastevastauksia - Five on Friday

Hello to all! Today I'm joining

Amy at Love Made My Home

for

Five on Friday

and sharing with you five things, again mainly about gardening.  Hello, Sametti Hortensia at Pikkuinen puutarhani! Here are my answers to your questions. :)

Sametti Hortensialla oli Pikkuinen puutarhani -blogissaan mukavia puutarhakysymyksiä, joihin vihdoinkin ehdin vastaamaan.


1. Minkä kasvin tahtoisit hankkia ensi kesäksi puutarhaasi/parvekkeellesi?

Olenkin jo kertonut, että tänä keväänä kylvettiin muun muassa laventelia. Kylvöohjeiden perusteella arvelin, että itäminen saattaisi viedä aikaa, mutta nämä itivätkin muutamassa päivässä. Toivottavasti taimista voi pian ottaa hienoja kuvia  -  ja toivottavasti tulevina kesinä on paljon kukkia kuivattavaksi tuoksupusseja varten... (Siemenet: Exotic Garden)

1. New plants for the summer 2015? Perhaps the most exciting one is the lavender.
I adore it - who wouldn't? My babies are 3 - 4 cm tall now. ♥

2. Lempipuusi? Kevyet perustelut?

Tietysti rakastan kuusia ja koivuja, mutta vaahterat ovat aina kiehtoneet kauniiden lehtiensä ja upeiden syysväriensä ansiosta. Minulla ei ollut kuvia puista, joten kuvitukseksi pääsi nyt japaninvaahtera kahden muun lempipensaani kanssa.

2. My favourite tree? I love them all, but I have always found maples
(not native to these areas) fascinating because 
of their beautiful leaves and the stunning autumn foliage.
I noticed I don't have good photos of  maple trees:
Here a Japanese maple poses with two other favourite shrubs of mine.

3. Onko sinulla jokin unelma joka on mahdollista toteuttaa?

Pihapiirissämme on paljon tällaista metsikköä, johon pikkuhiljaa istuttelen erilaisia alppiruusuja, saniaisia, kurjenpolvia, ketunleipiä...  Siitä tulee vielä joskus metsäpuutarha.

3. My dream... is to transform a part of the surrounding woodland
into a woodland garden with rhododendrons, ferns, geraniums, oxalis, etc.

4. Lempiherkkusi?

Pidän melkein kaikesta! :) On ihanaa herkutella tummalla suklaalla tai itsetehdyllä jäätelöllä, mutta kaikkein paras olo ja mieli tulee vihannesten ja hedelmien syönnistä.

4. My favourite dish/treat? You already know I love dark chocolate 
and Italian ice cream, but the biggest happiness comes from eating fruit and vegetables.

5. Suosikkipuutarhakirjasi? Ja suosikkipuutarhalehtesi?

Jos kaikkien ihanien puutarhakirjojen joukosta pitäisi valita vain yksi, se varmaan olisi RHS:n kaikenkattava tietopaketti.

Puutarhalehdistä on suosikkini edelleen italialainen "Gardenia", jossa on hyödyllistä käytännön tietoa, kaunis layout ja artikkeleita todellisista unelmien puutarhoista. Viimeisimmät numerot eivät ole kuitenkaan mielestäni olleet enää yhtä hienoja kuin aiemmin...  Olen esitellyt lehteä hieman tässä postauksessa. Muistan lehdessä ilmestyneen ainakin yhden Suomea koskevan artikkelin; täytyykin koettaa etsiä se.

Kuvan numero on vuodelta 2007. Anglofiilinä olin innoissani kansikuvajutusta, vaikka sen tehtävänä lieneekin ollut (myös) edistää HKK:n kirjan The Elements of Organic Gardening myyntiä.  Kirja on muuten kaunis ja mielenkiintoinen. :)

5. My favourite gardening book... doesn't need presentations.
My favourite horticultural magazine remains to this day the Italian "Gardenia",
 even though in my opinion it's no longer quite what it used to be. 
The cover story of the April 2007 issue, above, was very interesting.
I confess - I do agree with HRH about many things! :)

♥

Thank you for reading!

Have a good weekend!

Oikein mukavaa viikonloppua kaikille!

Taking photos

Now the temperatures are what they should be in March, clearly below zero centigrade at night and pleasantly warm during the day.  The days are very bright, and photographywise the lighting is almost too harsh, at least to my taste. I love mornings and evenings, and yes, summer nights, too. In late winter, I find evenings especially magical. Do you know how the snow smells when its surface is melting during the day and refreezing at night?

In the morning photo below, the blue background is unfocused snow, not the sky:

Pussy willows grow close to the water.

"Soft kitty, warm kitty, little ball of fur..."

Since my recent, daylight photos are a little bit boring, I edited them for my mosaic. :) You can see I have already found some snowless spots near our home, especially under the trees!

The "mosaic tiles" are rather small, and that's why I wanted to add two of my favourite ones a little bit bigger:

Linking up with Judith

for

Mosaic Monday!

Have a lovely week!

PS Two weeks from today, I probably will not be able to participate in Mosaic Monday. The days start to be more hectic, when spring advances, and during the weekend I will visit our capital city.

The annual Spring Fair will be held at the Messukeskus Exhibition & Convention Centre in Helsinki from Thursday 26th to Sunday 29th March. What interests me most is of course the Spring Garden Fair, but there will be areas dedicated also to home-building and renovating, second homes, interior decoration, as well as organic and locally produced food.  The displays are, unfortunately, arranged indoors (the climate!), but I will try to take as good pictures as I possibly can and to prepare some nice posts in the following week.

Source: Messukeskus Mediabank

Happiness

Wednesday evening the sun came finally out and, so happy, I ran outside to enjoy its warm rays and to try to take some photos. Here are five of them:

You may have noticed that I enjoy taking photos of lingonberries. They look so sprightly throughout the year:

Our blueberries (bilberries) have deciduous leaves. In these photos you can see some spruce-cone debris scattered by the squirrels.

The sun is already going down...

I love taking counter-light photos:

Joining Amy

for Five on Friday

and

Nick

for Friday Greens



♥



Sunlit Sunday

at 

Karen's My Little Home and Garden



Happy Sunday!

Spring?

'Mount Tacoma', the first of our own tulips this year... 

Most pelargoniums have wintered well. Often the most beautiful and special cultivars are the most difficult to overwinter successfully. This one looks rather happy... in fact its label says "BR", which stands for a "Boring Red". :)

You wouldn't believe me if I tried to count how many grey, snowy, sleety, rainy, slushy days we have had in the past weeks and months!

The catkins of the pussy willows look like wet cats...

... and probably this squirrel was wet, too.

Not much light in these days, and so I have been adjusting lighting curves also for this mosaic... :)

Happy Mosaic Monday!

Thank you, Judith, for hosting MM!

♥

This week joining also Susanna

for

This week's theme: March

Next week: Evening

♥

Wednesday around the World

at Communal Global

Last hot chocolates

When we were living in Italy, our year was divided in two parts, the ice cream season and the hot chocolate season. In Italy, of course, you can taste the best ice creams in the world, and also very nice hot chocolate is served there. La cioccolata calda is thick and not very sweet.

Since the hot choc season is coming to an end soon, it's time to dedicate some photos to this lovely beverage that contains flavonoids, antioxidants and pure happiness.

This is my favourite cup for hot chocolate. I like love its colour and the material that feels lovely to touch. Perhaps the set could be called breakfast ware, there are also saucers, bowls, mugs, a sugar bowl, and a small creamer, which I find especially cute (see the mosaic at the bottom of this post).

Dark or extra dark chocolate, milk or cream, sugar. Adjust the amounts according to your taste:

The cinnamon roll and the biscuits are just for the photo. In my opinion, the chocolate with whipped cream is so delectable and rich it doesn't need anything to accompany it. I have sprinkled cinnamon over the cream; powdered chilli or ground black pepper would be our other favourites.

Participating in

Mosaic Monday
at Lavender Cottage Gardening
(unfortunately this site doesn't exist any more)

 Roses of Inspiration, on Tuesday,

as well as 

Wednesday around the World!

Have a lovely week ahead!