Rats!

There's a rat in me garden - what am I gonna do?
There's a rat in me garden - what am I gonna do?

Surprise admiring the Springflower meadow

I'm gonna fix that rat - that's what I am gonna do! I'm gonna fix that rat!!!!!!

For those unfamiliar with the catchy ratsong by UB40, click the vid.

And she did. Surprise lived up to her name and caught a young rat in me garden before I was even aware of the fact that we had a rat problem. Now that I have chooks I'm even less keen on rats than before. 

Chooks living a rat free life courtesy of ratter Surprise

As you can imagine my relief was great when Surprise caught the rat. Less so when the killing of it took ages. I am familiar with the biology and the psychology of torture inflicted on prey by cats but I am not happy with it. From where I'm standing rats are people too, you know, it's not their fault that the human population regards them as vermin.

Surprised fixed that rat good and proper because some time later I found the gruesome remains of it; 2 hind legs, a tail and a ripped belly spilling entrails. The rest had been eaten. Ewww! And no, I did NOT take a picture of it and count yourself lucky coz it wasn't pretty.

Rats in the garden seem to be de rigueur lately, especially among former Gardener's World presenters. Having me own rat in the garden must mean serious rockage gardenwise for yours truly.

And as if one rat wasn't enough I've been sowing them in my potager lately. Rat's tails, I kid you not.

It's an oldfashioned radish called Rat's Tail for obvious reasons. They are part of the Forgotten Vegetables collection of seeds that you can buy here in Dutchland. I've bought several unusual and mostly forgotten vegs and fruits seeds to try out this year and will blog about the results at a later date.

I've sown the Rat's Tail radishes (Raphanus sativus) last March and they look like this at the mo. As you can see the leaf is the same as on ordinary radishes. But unlike the ordinary radish, in case of the Rat's Tail you eat the fruits (formed after flowering), not the tiny bulbs.

BTW if you have a rat problem in your garden I have a super ratkilling kittycat for hire and her fee is quite reasonable: a saucer of cream, some smoked haddock and a nice warm lap.

Surprise giving her daughter Kadootje a good wash. She's not only a killer ratter but a killer Mum as well.

On a more personal note: my MIL was cremated last Friday. My dad was diagnosed with cancer shortly before Christmas, my MIL with bowel cancer 2 weeks later. My dad's prostate cancer is under control now so that's quite a relief. MIL was less fortunate; because her condition was so poorly an op was out of the question. She got radiation treatment instead but that didn't work out.

Last February my dad was operated because the main artery in his tum was about to spring a leak. The op was succesfull but my dad has not recovered completely from it. He still is very weak, his feet drag behind him when he walks. He was always such a robust chap, so this is quite worrying and my Mum isn't in the best of health either (Alzheimer and partial loss of right hand and leg function due to a stroke). All in all life hasn't been all that much fun for the last 10 months or so.

I'm leaving you with a picture of my recently much enlarged potager. More about that in my next post.

copyright 2011 Y.E.W. Heuzen

A Taste of Spring

We've been having the most delish weather lately so I'm making the most of it while it lasts. It's finally Spring and I'm loving it because it looks good, it smells good, it feels good and it tastes good too.

Last February I had sown a pot of mixed lettuce leaves and today I had my first taste of it and it was devine as nothing tastes as good as Spring does.

My Springflower meadow is a feast for all the senses and it's so cheery uppy! If this doesn't make you burst into a song and perform the Snoopy Dance of Joy, nothing will.

Is that the gnashing of your teeth I hear? Cheer up, envious reader, there is always next year. Be sure to buy an humongous amount of bulbs come Autumn, bung them in and then just wait until your very own Magic Spring Carpet unfolds before your very eyes.

If it all goes according to plan my Springflower carpet will have to be rolled up somewhere in May and then another feast will start: my wonderful world famous mobile wildflower meadow. I've just sown this years wildflower meadow, don't forget to sow yours!

 Tara (l) and Dolly

In the mean time we at Bliss will be working our cute widdle behinds off in the garden, what with the removal of that ugly bruiser of a Leylandii hedge (all 30 meters of it), creating a small woodland area  and simply enjoying Spring; the happiness the garden brings and the warmth of the sun.

We've Gone Bananas

And it's not what you think. It never is, because after all, this is Bliss, don't you know?

Before I show you the bananas thingy, first some gratuitous pics of the potager where yours truly has been working her widdle hot hiney off these past few weeks.

Looking good, wouldn't you say? I'm talking about the potager here, not Jeeves, handsome kittycat though he is.

Some irrefutable evidence that yours truly has indeed been working her bliddy socks off of late.

And now, without much further ado: we have gone bananas!

Drat, it's that Dutch Duck Decoy Dog that's stealing the show once more. Move over Tara!

So we have bought a banana tree, as you probably guessed, but with a difference, a vast difference. It was high time the Bliss Team got a new climbing and scratching tree as the old one was ever so slightly the worse for wear.

Kadootje looks rather woebegone in this pic, she is such a drama queen. I must say she perked up pretty quickly when the new tree arrived. And not only Kadootje was  a happy bunny, the rest of the Bliss Team was too. Of course the banana tree had to be subjected to a thorough investigation by the Bliss Team before the thumbs up was graciously bestowed.

Big boy Merlin tried out the snooze-worthiness of one of the baskets,

and gave the tree a good scratch as well.

Daredevil Dolly Daisy jumped for joy when she tested the new tree. All members of the Bliss Team love their spanking new banana leaf tree and use it on a daily basis. Often the banana tree is filled to the rafters with members of the Bliss Team. You can safely say we all have gone bananas chez Bliss in more ways than one.

I leave you with an update of my Springflower Meadow aka the Magic Spring Carpet

On a more personal note: my dad was diagnosed with cancer shortly before Christmas. Last week he got the results of his tests back and there are hardly any cancer cells to be found in his body which is very, very good news. So glad that his medication is working and that my dad is slowly, but surely, on the mend.

copyright 2011 Y.E.W. Heuzen

Rolling Out the Magic Spring Carpet

Those of you who visit Bliss regularly, know that I'm very keen on wildflower meadows. And frankly who wouldn't, as they are so incredibly beautiful. You have to be a real sourpuss indeed not to love them. A while ago I wrote a post about wildflower meadows and how Blissfully wonderful they are.

In that post of July 2008 I also demonstrated that anyone can have a gorgeous, bee-magnet wildflower meadow, even if you don't have a big garden or even a garden.

 And today it's time for another revelation: you can have a wildflower meadow in your garden in early Spring. With a bit of luck it will start to flower in February and will continue to do so until May. Which is very fortunate because that's when the other wildflowers (see pics above) will start to burst into bloom.

Yes, yes, I know, you are chomping at the bit to clap your hot widdle eyes on pics of my Spring wildflower meadow. Well, ladies and gents, let me roll out the Magic Spring Carpet for you:

Last Autumn I planted up a part of the lawn, right next to the garden path in front of the big border, with some 1600 bulbs: winter aconites, snowdrops, botanical crocus, several varieties of botanical tulips, frittilarias, bluebells, botanical narcissussusses, grape hyacinths, iris and more. I simply put all the bulbs in a big basket, gave them a good stir, rolled up the grass carpet, bunged the bulbs in the ground and rolled the grass carpet back. Easy!

And then the hard part started; the waiting to see if they would come up.

My Magic Spring Carpet started to unroll at the end of last February when the first crocus popped up. It could have been weeks earlier but we did have a rather nippy Winter. Since then quite a few spring bulbs have reared their pretty widdle heads. At the moment crocus, winter aconites, snowdrops and iris are in flower and soon, perhaps even later today the first botanical tulip will delight us with her pretty pink bloom.

Another star in the Magic Spring Carpet is the humble Daisy. Who would want to be without it? I certainly won't!

And yes, avid Bliss blog reader, I will provide you with regular updates on how my Magic Spring Carpet is progressing in the coming months as this is only the bashful beginning of it. Later on this Magic Spring Carpet will be bold as brass, I hope, and will not hesitate to hit you in the eye with its exuberant display of colour.

copyright 2011 Y.E.W. Heuzen

Bloom Day, But There's Nobody Here But

It's Bloom Day, but there is nobody here but

us,

chickens!

That's right, 10 cats and one small dog were not enough so now I've added a few chooks to the mix as well. They are Australorp chickens and hail from the land of Oz originally. There's 3 of them; Kylie (the blue one) and Possum and Skippy, the black grrls. Pretty, aren't they and great egg producers or so I'm told. They arrived chez Bliss last Saturday and are settling in nicely. Hopefully they will start laying eggs soon.

I didn't get the chooks for their eggs only, but also for the manure they produce which will be used to fertilize the potager and borders. Apart from that chickens are very handy when you want to get rid of kitchen scraps, especially those you cannot bung on the compost heap. One chicken eats about 50 kilo's of kitchen scraps per year.

But enough of the latest addition to the Bliss Team, here are some pretty blooms for your delectation:

A bashfull white Helleborus orientalis hybrid with purple freckles

Hellebore nigercors Emma, with upright-ish flowers instead of the usual droopy ones

Hamamelis intermedia Diane, in flower since last December

 Primula vulgaris, one of many about to burst into bloom,

Bergenia cordifolia,

Violets,

Jasminum nudiflorum, it's called nudiflorum because it flowers on bare branches. This baby has been in flower since last November.

Viburnum bodnantense Dawn, she's been in flower since last December, and she has a wonderful scent, bless her.

Snowdrops and winter aconites flowering their socks off,

and not Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds but Crocus in the Earth with Diamonds. Aren't those brave little troopers gorgeous?

When I started the Bliss garden my aim was to have flowers in the garden all year round and so far I've managed that for the last 5 years.  Flowers all year round are a joy and they are particularly precious at this time of year.

Happy Bloom Day!

copyright 2011 Y.E.W. Heuzen

Grow Your Own Mushrooms

Every year I'd like to try something new and this year is no exception. As you have gathered from the title I thought I'd try my hand at growing my very own mushrooms. I'd seen starter kits in a shop in my little village and as the price was very reasonable I'd thought I'd give it a go. I love to experiment, that is one of the bonuses of being a gardener, isn't it, you get to experiment every year to your heart's content.

So last Saturday I bought a starter kit for chestnut mushrooms as I prefer them to white mushrooms.

In the box you find a container of well-rotted compost containing the mycelium (on the left) and a small bag of covering soil. You let the box stand for 3 days with the lid slightly ajar, temperature 20 to 25 C, to promote the rotting process of the compost even further.

well-rotted compost with the mycelium (the white, fluffy bits)

There is only one place in my house where the temperature is constantly between 20 to 25 C, day or night and that is in the bathroom where I have underfloor heating. So I put the mushroom box there.

I also knew where the very bestest, cosiest. toastiest place in the whole bathroom was. If you are wondering how I know this.....

the above picture says it all. ;-)

Today I'll have to make a few slits in the bag of soil and bung it in half a litre of water for roughly 8 minutes. Then remove the bag from the water and let it drain for half an hour. After that spread the soil evenly over the compost. Within 6 to 9 days the mycelium will start growing in the soil. As soon as the mycelium is visible I'll have to place the box in a cooler space say 13 to 18 C.

It will be awhile before I can show you my chestnut mushrooms but fortunately here is a box I prepared earlier.

About two weeks ago I bought my first mushroom kit and this is the result after 2 1/2 weeks. Those are yellow oyster mushrooms, one of my favorites, I love mushrooms, how about you? It won't be long now before I can start harvesting them. If all goes well I will be able to get 3 to 5 harvests from 1 box. Not bad, eh? You just harvest the mushrooms and then wait for a new crop to pop up.

In the garden more flowers are starting to appear. This is my pretty Hamamelis that is currently flowering its socks off.

And everywhere in the garden little green noses are poking through the soil. It won't be long now before crocus, winter aconites and snowdrops will be laughing their little flowery heads off, bless them.

And in my living room these tulips are doing an excellent job of cheering the place up. January days can be so dull and grey so yours truly needed a bit of colour like a shot in the arm.

Tulips are very good in providing much needed colour on dull, drab days and so is Maine Coon Dolly Daisy with her snow white and firy red garb and a disposition that is frighfully cheery-uppy.

copyright 2011 Y.E.W. Heuzen