Dirty Hands - Happy Heart

Dirty Hands = Happy Heart:)

I've been soiling my hands in compost pretty much the whole day:) I'm preparing for the spring and summer season, which finally means a total refurb of the garden (I hope!) Here are some of the pretties I've been playing with:)

Liatris Spicata / Dense Blazing Star / Prairie Gay Feather's

(Punatähkä in Finnish)

funny looking tuber

(apologies for the nasty looking dirt soiled fingers)

My first seedlings, wee! I've been watering my seeds every two days and on the sixth day, this sight was greeting me (today), yei!:)

This is Baby's Breath (Kesäharso / Morsiusharso)

which is a beautiful and delicate plant commonly used as a dried flower. When I was a kid, I remember being fascinated by my mum's wedding bouquet that I found dried and stored away:)

Hence the name in Finnish - "bride's veil"

Flax or Linseed Flower(?)
Kuitupellava / Pellavankukka

This is a pathetic excuse of a photograph, but I had to share my total of three successful seedlings so far! (Out of 23) Ha!

This one is called Flowering Cabbage (Osaka Pink) / Flowering Kale
(Lehtikaali)

I also received my order from Premier Seeds Direct (UK) today.:)

Which meant I had to stock up with my miniature "greenhouses"

from 2 to 5, which equals 96 pots to 240.

I might be tad bonkers with my efforts of growing nearly everything from seeds, but honestly I'm just excitedly waiting what sort of seedling comes from which:)

Here's some of my "loot":)

I was bit sceptic about Artichokes (Latva-artisokka), but I read somewhere that they are supposed to be surprisingly easy to grow, so here we are:)

Ah, Rhubarb! (Raparperi)

I had always thought rhubarbs were supposed to be grown from rhizomes (which I've been after for three summers!), but when I saw these seeds I jumped for the opportunity to have a go:) Even the seeds look really nice:) Fingers crossed they'll grow, I so want to have some home made rhubarb pie, YUM! <3

2nd test go for Halloween Pumpkins (Jättikurpitsa)
HERE's my desperate race against autumn on summer no. 1 in Vihti

So, I indeed bought these "covered" seed trays, 48 slots each from S-Rauta, which is a Finnish hardware + gardening chain.

I've previously used the regular uncovered ones, but I thought the covered trays would be so much nicer and tidier with the furry little helpers and would protect the seeds, the very interesting and exciting wet compost and eventually, the yummy seedlings.

I was so wrong, ha. Some of my sowings have already lost their labels and some dirt has mysteriously disappeared. Check out my dented covers now, ha! I see paw prints!;)

Well, the covers weren't so great to start with. They didn't sit nicely or "lock" neatly as I had imagined. They do the trick of recycling some of the humidity and warmth, but that's about it.

Quality Controller, Varpu Varpunen

(she's been good, no paw prints as of yet)

Found some beautiful plant pot covers / tin buckets in turquoise:)

And I found a very excellent looking gardening book about perennials
"Perennat Kotipuutarhassa" (Prisma, 29e)

by Eva Robild and Görgen Persson (Otava, 2012)

The book, which is a originally Swedish (Perenna Rabatter), has a beautiful visual outlook, and for a beginner like me, easy to understand perennial "maps" and all sorts of very handy tips. I just literally got it, so I haven't had a chance to read it as of yet, so I do apologise that I can't really give you proper "in-depth" book review, but so far it looks the best gardening / flower book I've ever laid my hands on:)

I love traditional English gardening books, but the info isn't always suitable for Finnish soil, so I'm excited to find an inspirational book that seems to cover all the, even tiniest, details that have puzzled my mind, and are indeed suitable for my garden.

I especially love how they've shown the progress of a perennial from year one to year five. It might sound silly, but I bet there's lots of over excited people out there, like me, who have all these over the top ideas and might get disappointed and discouraged when the first year's perennial is just a muddy pile of compost. I mean , I know that, and I'm supposed to be prepared, but even saying this out loud, I know I will be gutted if I don't see any proper(?) development, heh:)

Do you have any big plans for summer 2012 in gardening- wise?:)

Have a lovely weekend and buckets full of sunshine:)

x x x