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Flowers in September

There are even some new summer flowers for this year in autumn, and some perennials flowering as well.

To begin with… there are still common poppy flowers in the garden. Friends are loving it.

There is no autumn without pot marigolds or calendulas… 😉

My personal little autumn sun…

Clematis growing and blooming as well. Our first ever clematis plants, planted in summer this year. Yet another new favourite… now I would love to have many different types of clematis flowers.

Our clematis is growing by an oak tree.

And there are still many annual mallow flowers at their prime…

There is no summe… yeah well, I planted cosmos seeds this year as well, but there’s been only few flowers – all the green parts of the plant have grown, but not much blooming this year. I think it’s the a bit strange summer and the spot where I planted them, both. I planted them by the ditch by the woods – that was the only place I could squeeze them in this year. 😀

Shrubby cinquefoil is flowering this autumn as well.

This year we have finally succeeded in growing sunflowers! We’ve tried to grow sunflowers already in the summers of 2015 and 2016, and last year we thought that we should start the pre-growing earlier. But… we didn’t pre-grow them this year at all, just planted the seeds directly into the ground. We think it’s the soil – this year we used both fresh soil and the fertile soil in the places where we put our grass clippings and some leaves. Worked like a charm. 🙂

Candies… There is no autumn without clarkia amoena or godetia flowers.

And there is still at least one peony poppy flower.

Dahlias growing and blooming. Our first ones ever these, too. Planted in spring this year, and new favourites again…

Mellow…

Cactus dahlia. How charming!

-Leena

About some of the food growing in the garden & more flowers

First about some of the food growing in our garden. We had some strawberries to eat still in August – a bit different summer indeed, usually the strawberry season has ended well before the end of July in our garden. Peas, potatoes, carrots and onions all grow easily. The pea season is at its end now and we’ve been harvesting our potatoes, too, for some time now, but there are still many potatoes underground, that’s for sure.

Homegrown food is always just so delicious, and sweet… 🙂

We’ve been harvesting our carrots, too. I took a pic yesterday evening when I was about to make soup.

One of the most delicious things you can grow in your garden! This actually is the first time ever that we’re growing onions. – I wonder why we haven’t done it earlier! Here in Finland, in the north, we usually grow onions from onion sets, not from seeds. And onions indeed are easy to grow from sets.

Come out, come out! This year we have more blackcurrant berries than ever before (-during the three previous summers that we’ve lived here). And it’s so nice! Our redcurrant bushes have been loaded with berries every summer, but our blackcurrant berries have been hiding somewhere. (?) 🙂

More common poppy flowers. Other names for common poppy: corn poppy, field poppy, Flanders poppy, red poppy, corn rose.

Our fly honeysuckle has berries now. Not edible, poisonous.

Phlox paniculata or fall phlox ‘early red’, in the middle of our garden. We planted it a bit over a week ago.

And there is no summer without strawflower flowers… 🙂

-Leena

Summer flowers in August

This year everything is a little late, so also the summer flowers are at their prime only now in August.

Peony poppy. There is no summer without peony poppy flowers…

Iris hollandica or Dutch iris. Siberian iris and German iris flowers in July… and this year I have also Dutch iris flowers now in August! 🙂 They are grown from bulbs that I planted in spring this year. My first ones ever.

And there is no summer without annual mallow flowers…

Viper’s bugloss, a bit wild now – I planted the seeds last summer.

More cornflower flowers…

A busy friend.

And more schizanthus or butterfly flower or poor man’s orchid flowers…

Maltese cross or burning love, a perennial, flowering this year as well.

Tropaeolum majus or garden nasturtium or Indian cress flowering. The taste is good as well – a bit peppery. 🙂

And my first ever tropaeolum minus or dwarf nasturtium flowering.

And the Ibiza lizard lurking… 🙂

This summer I have common poppy flowers, too! My first ones ever.

I love all the colours… Another new favourite…

You tell me yours and I’ll tell you mine…

With the shadow of a peony poppy…

A nice skirt…? 🙂

-Leena

The last peony flowers, schizanthus & cornflower, bike ride 20 km…

The weather’s been warm lately and it’s been sunny, too, but it’s been really pouring down with rain occasionally, but sometimes the sun’s been trying to shine at the same time as well. Beautiful. 🙂

Now the last peony flowers. This, indeed, has been a bit different summer – we’ve had peony flowers still in August!

I missed some of the flowering of my peonies while I was in Kuusamo, but happily, there’s still been these beauties after my trip, too. 🙂

The very last ones on Thursday.

Schizanthus, butterfly flower or poor man’s orchid has been flowering lately in our garden as well. They are grown from seeds. One of my favourite summer flowers.

Daisies, too.

We have a lot of schizanthus growing this summer, they have been hit by the rain a bit…

On Thursday we took a 20 km bike ride along the lake Pyhäjärvi shoreline. It was nice. I took a picture as I was sitting by the lake for a while. 🙂

Cornflower blooming now as well, grown from seeds. Yet another favourite of mine… And hit by the rain a bit…

-Leena

Pictures yesterday and today

More peony flowers…

Follow the red petals! :

It was the peony flower that is the first peony flower who is dropping her petals this summer.

And we grow spinach from seeds in our garden. I made spinach soup. It’s delicious! 🙂 – Spinach, milk, some cream, a bit of butter, a bit of oat flour, a bit of salt.

Other herbs are growing from seeds with the basil in our garden, in the shelter of the house wall. There’s summer savory and rosemary, and then there’s some fourth herb – I can’t remember what it is… I must think about that a bit now… 🙂

We’ve now noticed that our grafted cherry tree has started to grow a branch on its own! High up there.

And a bit more roses in our rose garden… Rosa splendens in the pictures… the name of the rose is valamonruusu in Finnish.

And peony flowers again, because…

Bury your face in this – flower therapy. 🙂

By the lake Köyliönjärvi yesterday evening.

Love for the countryside. In the same place by the lake, where I left our car for the visit.

-Leena

Peony flowers

Today only peony flowers… Peonies started blooming already in June last year and I cut the very last peony for drying on 16th July then. But this year eeeverything’s a little late, and now, on 16th July, the first bounty of peony flowers here in Owlnature. And not all the peony buds have opened yet…

It’s just wonderful, for example, to take morning coffee with me outside and go and enjoy the charming scent of the superabundant flowers… that’s always one of the best moments in summertime right there! 🙂

Luxuriant…

Backyard peonies these dark red ones, the others are in the front yard.

Lush…

-Leena

More flowers, one new tree, a hedgehog…

July flowers… German iris is now flowering for the first time in our garden! We brought our German iris from Eastern Finland with us two years ago, my boyfriend’s mother gave it to us.

I read somewhere that when German iris is taken to a new spot it will flower again on the second year that it is on the new spot. And this indeed is exactly what happened to our German iris – it didn’t flower last year, it only had the green leaves. But now… and the colour of the flowers was a surprise to me – I remembered that they would be white… 🙂

Daylily, very short blooming, such a lovely scent… We’ve had many many daylilies flowering now in July, in the place where we put some of the leftovers in our garden… I’m not sure but I think that daylilies may be the ones that were growing already in the beginning of April there, at least these have been the only big flowers growing there this summer.

A bit of rose garden in the pictures above and below.

Rosa splendens, valamonruusu is the name of this rose in Finnish. The scent of roses…

And a cherry tree. We’ve had this new tree in our garden already since the beginning of June. A nice, fairly tall pole is this tree.

This tree is grafted and it should be self-pollinating. And it naturally hasn’t bloomed this year. Now just waiting… 🙂

Siberian iris flowering now as well. These came with us and the German iris from Eastern Finland two years ago, too, but these were flowering already a year ago. And they bloomed already in June last year – this year everything is a little late.

Purple-flowering raspberry blooming again, too.

This very busy little friend was like rolling there inside this tiny flower…

My words are failing me now… the first peony flowers are here! More pictures coming… luxurious days in the garden now… 😉

The first peony poppy flowers are blooming, but not in our garden, not yet. – We’ve managed to plant peony poppy seeds just outside our front yard and our driveway as well. 🙂

Basil growing from seeds in our garden, in the shelter of the house wall.

We’ve had yet another late night visitor in our garden, now a hedgehog. Hedgehogs in Finland are European hedgehogs. We gave the little friend a tiny bit of cat food. The hedgehog searches for food constantly sniffing the ground and the sniffing is very loud. An adorable creature. It likes worms very much.

By the lake Pyhäjärvi last night, 23.15 PM. It was a rainy day yesterday. I was a night driver and this was a lovely spot to stop by for a while. It was very foggy, one couldn’t see the opposite shore, the air felt very warm, it was easy to breathe, it was silent with only the light sound of the small waves… I need to be a night driver more often! 🙂

-Leena