I’ve been feeling a bit burnt out this week, only 4 weeks after the summer holiday! So a lazy day or at least a lazy few hours in the garden paying attention, really paying attention was my self prescription. It’s particularly worth it at this time of year. We have had an unseasonably hot week, 25 to 28C most days, after the wet summer the apple trees are bursting with big green fruit.

So it was up in a ladder and into the tree to harvest. A very satisfying 3 crates of perfect apples later and I felt better already.

Harvest time is such a pleasure.

Last weekend we plucked most of the plums (Victoria, an old favourite), about 3kg worth in fact. There were so many some of the branches broke! Today we gathered the last remaining, a good 2 kg worth.

The grapes are ripening beautifully in the mean time, they have that wonderful spicy Muscat taste, but are still not as sweet as I hope they will become. We usually eat them in mid to late September so a few weeks yet, but it seems.this will.also be a bountiful harvest.

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It has been overall a very good year for fruit we must have had 5 or 6 kilos of cherries off the (netted part!) of the cherry tree back in July. And sweet and juicy as anything. Nothing really compares to cherries straight from the tree.

We’ve had a decent berry harvest too. Lots of raspberries and redcurrants, a few delicious gooseberries, the plant has been recovering from an attack of sawfly last year, plenty of strawberries, mostly rather small though, and a few extremely good blueberries and figs. The rhubarb did extremely well this year too.

We also had a very good crop of new potatoes, which we fried and boiled last weekend.

The remaining big harvests are the pigeon apples a little later this autumn and of course our heavy pears just before the frost.

It’s been a warm year, 2024 will likely be the warmest on recorded history, and it’s been one of the wettest on record in Denmark too. We have had a plague of killer slugs (Iberian slugs), but mostly they have eaten plants that can mostly tolerate a bit of damage.

Now the hederifolium cyclamen are coming through, signalling the slowing down of the growth season and the approach of Autumn.

If asked when a kid what my favourite flower was, I’d probably have answered roses. I was a conservative child and knew that roses were a traditional cottage garden plant. Anything that grew round traditional cottage doors were good for me. It also helped that I could identify roses. I liked the dark red bunches in the shops around valentine’s day – in my country bumpkin 80s imagination they seemed urban and sophisticated. Never mind that they had no scent. That realisation came when, after my great grandmother’s death, we inherited some plants from their marvellous, although in retrospect rather conventionally 1979s garden – including a magnificent compassion rose with a peachy coloured bloom and a glorious scent.

I also very clearly remember the first time I learned what a peony was. I actually thought it was a rose and pointed it out as such. But no, my mother replied. That’s a peony. And I was impressed by the dark red rose like beauty of it.

Later, after moving to Denmark and deciding it was time to finally buy a dwelling place, we visited this one and my overwhelming first impression was a brilliant flower bed at the front, overflowing with glorious pink peonies. I had never really taken the time to appreciate their silky soft textures and subtle but very sweet scents before. More riches awaited in the bank garden, a swell of azaleas and rhododendrons and, later in the buying process a chorus of different pelargoniums and scented geraniums in pots. The house made little impression, the garden however was what we bought..

All of which is to say, when I came home from ma 3 week trip to a bleak part of the world, suffering somewhat from fomo in the garden, the first thing I did was bury my face into the most wonderful soft, welcoming pillows of peony blooms.

Judging by the bee activity around about, I was not think one enjoying them.

But wait, there is more, my husband declared on our first ritual round of the garden with a welcome post-travel cup of tea..  Our white rose “avalanche” (also known as Roda snow white)  is also out, it should flower all summer as a climber and has not peaked yet, but I slightly regret having it against a wall of the house where it’s difficult to enjoy that wonderful scent…

Also somewhat misplaced (though we had few alternatives) is this yellow rose. I sometimes suspect the neighbours get a better view of it than we but it provides a wonderful support for a clematis and again the scent is worth seeking out.

And my old favourite compassion is now also thriving after a tricky start in our garden. We managed to place this one in a slightly more favourable spot where we can easily admire both colour and scent. It’s still a little early, though the buds and the glossy green leaves are promising.

All of which is to say, I may have missed the warm summer weather in May and the peak of the rhodos and azaleas, but the peony and rose season has been a wonderful homecoming..

15th March 2024

It’s been a cold, or perhaps I should say, climate normal, Spring in Copenhagen. Today was the first day, under blazing sun and blue skies that it was really warm enough to sit outside at lunchtime.

Even so, it was chilly out the sun but the local wildlife it waking up. The birds are so going loudly in the mornings, we’ve seen newts coming up for air in the pond the last week and many of our trees are starting to bud including the early flowering cherries and pear.

In the spring borders, the miniature Tete a Tete daffodils are starting to come out as are the beautiful chionodoxa flowers that are scattered through the garden – one of my all time favourites.

The snowdrops have been out for weeks but the cool weather has kept them beautiful though the winter aconite are now fading.

I had never been a huge crocus fan, but I was persuaded to plant a few small orange wild crocus in our spring border at the front. They were spectacular last year but are only just holding on this year. I fear they can’t deal with the competition.

However the standard purple and whites in the lawn are doing better than ever and now the children are bigger I might risk planting more to naturalise too.

The spring border itself is coming into bloom but the tulips are too large leaves, I don’t expect them to flower so may remove them this year and be contented with the mini daffodils and naturalising hyacinths. We typically plant out indoor bulbs here and it’s always rewarding to be greeted by small spring flowers.

On the other side of the garden path the peony bed has a few crocus in it too. I think we decided today to plant about 500 crocus (in purple, striped and white and perhaps also yellow orange) to give that early spring interest. This is a note to make sure we remember to do it!

The little scilla flowers on the other side also need replenishing. They’re beautiful but have fallen victim to various works we’ve done in this bed the last year or two.

I have similar thoughts about our plum, pear and tulip bed. It was a mas of winter aconite earlier and has some nice snowdrops but it is also looking a bit scruffy now. The tulips have been occasionally added to, but this may be the year to pull them all out and replant. We will revisit in late May when we can see how many have flowered..

Returning to the back garden, the weather has inspired the end of the pruning – a magnificent effort this year on our large apple tree. We’ll have to see if we’re rewarded by extra good flower and fruit this year.

The branches look very bare against the clear blue sky, I love this weather even if it’s cold, but it’s always important to remember that it won’t be really warm until May – we have been caught put before by expecting spring and summer to be warmer earlier than it really will be.

Something that also gets quite frequently caught by frost is out camelia. The red one is out already and I always find them rather incongruous with their rose like flowers so early. The frost or the wind has slightly burnt the opening buds.

Now it’s time to sit and enjoy the low spring sun through the corkscrew hazel with a cup of tea and a slice of lemon drizzle cake…

It’s January, my vague promises to blog more last year didn’t last much beyond early summer and here I am back again.

It’s been a cold and snowy start to the year but now it’s mild again (the new climate normal).

This might be the earliest that I’ve  seen eranthis out. There are plenty of other signs of spring in the air too.

The snowdrops are not quite there yet, but on their way..

And the first of the hopefully many flowers on the witch hazel has appeared.

This one is supposed to be scented, but I can never detect any scent from it. It’s definitely my favourite of the 2 we have in the garden, the other is earlier and has lots of sulphur yellow flowers which are a nice presage of the yellow euphorbia below. This whole flowerbed has a yellow theme, starting with these in early January.

Since it is so mild, the viburnum bodnantense – which definitely is scented is also on its way. It flowers throughout the winter, but only when mild. I occasionally cut the branches for a vase indoors. They don’t last long but I love the spare branches with clusters of beautiful pink – and scented!- flowers. There is an appealing zen to them.

The catkins on our corkscrew hazel clearly find it a little too early, though our neighbours have a magnificent red variety where the female flowers are already well out. It’s also a prolific fruiter but I think the squirrels get most of them. I certainly frequently see the reds harvesting in both gardens..

We have a lot of evergreens in our garden, so it’s not too bare. The different shades are well appreciated at this time of year. I love these glossy evergreen ferns too.

This one is under an apple tree and while the decaying apples look a little messy, many of the birds love them, especially in the frost so we leave them where they fall for wildlife.

The Skimmia flower buds are almost at their pre-opening peak. We have several varieties, these white ones were planted to hide an ugly cold frame in the neighbours garden, but they give an attractive background too at this time of year

I think the red ones are my favourite though, both the  male, which has a very Christmassy look…

And the female, which has smaller flowers but beautiful glossy red berries more or less year round, hidden in the foliage. The females are much harder to find and more expensive than the male plants, but are well worth the effort and expense to get hold of.

We have moved what has become a large plant to our front door and very cheerful and welcoming it is too. The previous Skimmia we had in the same position had simply grown too large…

We planted some willow and Cornus last summer for exactly this time of year. Their stems are bare but brightly coloured, though still rather small. I hope they will be larger and more bushy next year. This is Cornus Sanguinea, midwinter fire, with a green willow up front. It’s hard to get the vibrancy to come out in a photo, but close up I think you get an idea.

Finally, it’s been so wet this year we have a fine crop of different fungi all over the garden, including my perennial favourites the puffball…

How could I resist this piece? Utterly marvellous. Read on…

It’s been a while, but you probably haven’t forgotten my weird obsession with Latin names, and the creativity scientists exhibit when coining new ones. Not just here on Scientist Sees Squirrel, either: my latest paper is titled “Naming the menagerie: creativity, culture and consequences in the formation of scientific names”, and let’s not forget I […]

Wonderful Latin Names: Loncovilius carlsbergi

1. 16/06/2023
Drought parches garden
Sudden rainfall petrichor
Drops fade, plants beg more

Hard to imagine now but I was a bit doubtful about the pond. I knew it would be important for wildlife and I’d always wanted waterlilies but I imagined it a bit of a work sink and of rather little interest outside of waterlily season and yet… Here it is now, one of the glories of our beautiful garden..

Surrounded by plants that are buzzing with bees, the occasional bloo and bubbles of newts, masses of invertebrates: snails, beetles, dragonfly larvae….

It’s become a focal point for everyone from small children to jaded adults.

Earlier in the year the marsh marigold was a focus, now it’s the irises and the masses of delicate white water forget-me-not. The waterlilies are developing flower buds and then the snoek kruiden will poke up pink persicaria like flowers. In the autumn the kalmia, a pink gladiolus like flower comes.

It definitely doesn’t make it easier to ride off to the office having to leave this glory behind….