Greetings everyone from your Finnish gardening friend!

We’ve been operating like a well-oiled machine here. Every couple of days Pekka hauls home another trailer full of mulch, and I spend the next days distributing it upon the beds. Some beds needed quite a bit of prep work – pulling weeds, pruning of wayward branches, and ducking around the nesting birds – but it’s got a start point and an end point. We’re still pretty close to the start point unfortunately, despite all the effort. That’s what you get when your garden is as big as a football pitch! I can tell you the beds that are done, look mahvellous dahling! And that’s the fuel that keeps the drive alive 🙂

We’re taking a little jaunt over to Hongiston Taimisto later today – they sell quite a few roses which can only be found at their location. We haven’t been there in a long time, so we’re sorta overdue for a return shopping excursion. I’ve got six roses on my list – hopefully they still have them in stock. There are 60 or so other perennials sitting on the walkway I need to plant out. It was my task for Thursday, but freakishly cold and windy weather put a complete damper on gardening. Friday was another washout of inclement weather. Weird bands of wind and rain have been blowing over every 30-40 minutes with some breaks of sunshine in between. Hoping things clear and warm up a little on Sunday so I can attack the mulch pile and plant all the new goodies! Sadly, all the bands of rain that has been passing over only added up to a couple of mm of total rainfall. Better than nothing at all I guess

So, what do I have to offer this week – let’s get cracking

One: Rhododendron yakushimanum ‘Goldschatz’ or ‘Gold Prinz’

It sits pretty happily amongst a bunch of wood anemone and quite a few weeds in the shady area of our big border. One day, I will make my way to that final length of the garden. Until then, it’s a never ending stretch of marathon mulching for me. By then, the anemone will have slipped back beneath the surface and the hydrangea will be budding out. Steady as she goes!

Two: Malus toringo var. sargentii ‘Marleena’

Would you look at that, another crabapple! Now all three of them that we growing here have made it to the SOS! This one also sits within view of windows and is perched on top of a large berm interspersed with several conifers and other shrubs.

Three: Picea pungens ‘Maigold’

Last week, it was red foliage of Picea abies punapaula, this week it’s yellow foliage of the apt-named Maigold. Although in our case, it was June when it started really pushing the new growth tips.

Four: Chaenomeles Japonica ‘Venus’ Japanese Quince

It’s really low-growing and is usually smothered in orange blossoms. Sadly, it was a preferred treat of the voles last winter and was seriously reduced in overall size. It’s one of several things they munched on, and in this case it survived. The blossoms aren’t teeny tiny, but about the size of an American .25 cent coin.

Five: Clematis ‘Albina plena’

An Alpine variety twined upon a black trellis up near the house. Snow white flowers on a velvet of emerald green leaves. It’s in pruning group I, so you really never have to prune it. It just comes back every year to once again look stunning. If you do double duty with your trellises, make sure to keep the pruning groups well defined so you don’t make the mistake of cutting back one that isn’t supposed to get the snips! This trellis also hosts another clematis in pruning group II called Niobe which flowers later, once the Albina plena has stopped flowering.

Six: me and Greta

With the cold weather on Thursday, we took a day off to recharge. Woolen socks- check, thread-bare worn-out flannel pajamas- check, warm furry friend- check.

Looking forward to seeing all the posts from other SOS bloggers! Hope you all have a great weekend. See you next time ❤ Kate

For more about what we’re growing here – this is the link for you.

What’s Growing at Vanha Talo Suomi