Hello friends!  Welcome back to Vanha Talo Suomi ❤

Pekka and I have been hard at work – this time creating a shade garden in the near-side corner of the property. This is the same area previously mentioned a few months ago that received 20cm (approx. 14 inches) of fill dirt to bring the elevation up.

After realizing what a waste it was to not use this portion of the yard, especially since it’s so close to the house, I came up with an idea to make this area more useful and enjoyable.

We hitched up the trailer last Thursday and headed off to Taimiteutari Ky a fantastic family-owned local nursery in Virkkala.  (Virkkala is a bordering farming and argicultural community now part of the greater Lohja area.)  Taimiteutari Ky has just about everything and then some! Click on their name above and you can open thier webpage. Once there you can see by clicking on “TAIMET” some of the items they have for sale. Apple trees are a local specialty and many types are grown here in Lohja, you can find them all at Taimiteutari Ky. Of course they sell other fruiting trees as well as decidious and evergreen specimens.

Our visit Thursday was mainly to acquire plant stock for our new shade garden; hosta, rhododendrun, wild ginger, bugloss, astilbe, and assorted lilies – 57 plants!!

And here’s a view of the new landscape coming together…

As you can see, we’re using a commercial-grade weed barrier to keep this area as weed-free as possible since we have to contend with the gout weed that’s still plaguing the yard. We are also fortunate to be able to make our own mulch from all the tree pruning we did earlier in the spring. The tree growing in that mulch circle in two of the pictures above is a really nice apple tree – doing pretty good even though it’s growing in the deep shade of this back corner of our yard. 🙂

At the position of the rhododendrun (located in the very bottom of the 2nd to last picture) we are almost out of the shade and can possibly grow grass. At least I hope so. Our plan is to use a by-product of the Tytyri Mine for the pathways – it’s a fine-grain particulate limestone mixture which is often seen around the local area in such applications as pathways. It’s white-to-pink in color and finer than crushed gravel, it should be great material for our pathways in the shade garden and possibly in other areas as well.

In case you forgot, this is what this same area looked like a few months ago, but before the trees really leafed out.

While we were at Taimiteutari Ky we also stocked up on trees!!

• 2 Japanese Maple – Acer Palmatum
• 1 Hydrangea Paniculata “Pinky Winky“
• 3 Punakoivu – Red birch – Betula Pubascens ‘Rubra‘
• 1 Rustouomi – Choke Cherry – Prunus Virginia ‘Schubert’
• 1 Kirjovaahtera – Harlequin Maple – Acer Platinoides ‘Drumondii’
• 1 Tammi – English Oak – Quercus Robur
• 1 Amerikan Jalopähkinä – White Walnut – Juglans Cinerea
• 5 Hydrangea Paniculata ‘Mustila’
• 2 Sambucas – Elderberry – Nigra Black Lace

All but the last two items on the list above have already been planted throughout the yard.  They are making a difference even though they are a fraction of their full-grown sizes.

Of course there are the other areas in the yard where I started other gardening projects. Namely, the back corner near the farmer’s field and the new perennial garden using the plant stock I got from Poland.

This area was a favorite of the visiting deer who were too frequently visiting and munched their way through the lilies until we got a cage around them! The deer nibbled the tops off most of the phlox and then made their way over to the other corner and continued to eat most of the cornus alba and also found the Philadelphius Virginalis Jasmine and Syringa Josiflexa.

The deer situation required an immediate call to action. Pekka and I (mostly Pekka) installed a rigid 1.7mm thick wire fencing along the property line which abuts the farmer’s field, closing this area off to the deer and all the other wildlife visitors. It’s only 150cm tall but should keep all but the largest deer out. Right now it’s a doe and her little ones that have been munching their way through the yard, so this fence should keep them out for a while.  So far so good!

Also since the last time I posted the patio deck and terrace construction got underway. Pekka has all the top terrace boards stained and in place and the lower deck is partially complete. Still another coat of stain for all of it, as well as the construction of the side ‘rails’ on the upper terrace and the ‘screen’ to camoflague the portion underneath.

I painted the concrete foundation a darker shade – or so I thought. We had asked for ‘black’ but got the same color as it had been – a mid-range grey. So we went back to the paint place, had them darken our bucket of paint and I painted the foundation a second time with the ‘black’ paint. As you can see, it isn’t black but a darker shade of grey. The door in the picture below was painted years ago in the lighter shade. 😦 oh well…

The internet just died and that’s always a scary thing when you have a half-million web tabs open and assorted pictures downloading for the media gallery! Better stop for now in the sake of sanity  🙂

Things are slowly happening indoors, dry-wall finishing is currently underway in the new downstairs guest room, the upstairs bathroom and bedroom (which was/is nearly done!)

A never-ending list of items requiring attention indoors and out. It’s a good thing Pekka is now on vacation for the next 5 weeks! 😀  and our trip to Ireland is just around the corner!! yippee. Can’t wait.

Thanks for your visit, we hope you’re having a great summer!

❤ from Vanha Talo Suomi!