Weekend Coffee Share – preparing garden beds at the allotment garden

Posted byMariaPosted inDalarna, Gardening, Intentional Living, Sustainable options, SwedenTags:, , , ,

Welcome to the Weekend coffee share! Can I offer you some coffee? Or tea? 

My apologises for not writing a coffee share last weekend, it was crazy busy! I spent last weekend writing on my thesis, only taking short breaks.

This week has been marvellous here in Dalarna (Sweden). The weather has been mostly sunny with highs of 12-18C/53-65F. The nights are still in the 30’s, but are supposedly getting warmer this coming week (with day temperatures slightly colder than this week.)  18-21C/65-70F are my preferred temperature all year round, warmer than that is too hot if you ask me. Unfortunately this summer is supposed to be really hot, we’ll see..at least my garden will appreciate that. 

The garden isn’t that impressive right now, but taking a closer look there is a lot of life hidden here, just waiting to burst out.

All the berry bushes that I planted last summer/fall survived the crazy winter we had with many cold days, warm days (when everything thawed,) and more cold days, warm days etc. It made me happy to see that my bushes are thriving (they are an investment.) I’m planning on planting wild strawberries around all the berry bushes (red currant, black currant, gooseberry,) that are planted in garden beds, as soon as it gets a little warmer. That way I have a great and delicious ground cover, preventing unwanted weeds. 

Speaking of my garden, on Thursday they unlocked the gate to the road leading to my allotment garden. I immediately arranged to bring soil and compost there this weekend. In other words, I rented a car and prepared the bokashi compost I have at home. (I also have two regular composts at my lot in the allotment garden.) Since I only need a car every now and then it makes more since from an environmental point of view to rent a car, it’s about $35/day, instead of owning a car. Yesterday I took the bus to the rental place and picked up my car, loaded it with about 100l boakshi compost (bokashi composting is a way of turning food scraps into fermented organic matter that you can then add to your compost pile, or bury in garden beds,) and 500l organic soil. I took it up to the garden, and carefully added it to my garden beds as needed. Most of it went to the top layer of the huge hugelkulture bed I built last fall. I also had about 500l organic soil in my compost at the allotment garden that I also added to my garden beds. 

It felt so good after I finished preparing all the garden beds! After that I planted carrots in all the colour of the rainbow directly into one of the beds. I also planted some poppy seeds that a neighbour gifted me. In a couple weeks I’ll start to transplant vegetables that started their lifecycle at my balcony over to the allotment garden.

I also plan on adding 2-4 fruit trees this year. I know I want a couple apple trees. They thrive in our area and we eat a lot of apples, so it makes sense. I might add some other fruit trees as well, but apples are a priority. Some varieties of plums and cherries are also doing well in our area. I met some of my friends in the garden club for the first time this year yesterday. It was great seeing them again, and it truly was a wonderful day. 

How is your week? What have you been up to? Are you enjoying the weekend?

I’m thinking that the perfect ending to this post would be a couple cute picture updates showing the growth of my daughters Flemish Giant baby “little” Munchkin. (He was born February 9, 2023.)

Today I’m going to spend the entire day with my daughter and do little things around the house, preparing for the week to come. Somehow I have meetings every single day after work this upcoming week, it’s going to be quiet the week. Luckily next weekend is a three day weekend. Thank you Natalie for hosting the Weekend Coffee Share.

Love,

Maria  

Published by Maria

It’s all about experiences, and the healing power of nature. Life is about choosing happiness. My gypsy soul have taken me to many different countries, and definitely taught me to be more humble. I enjoy growing my own food, and spending time outdoors. I now reside in the region where I was born: Dalarna, Sweden. I am a mom, a kindergarten teacher, a minimalist and a gardener. Love, Maria

39 thoughts on “Weekend Coffee Share – preparing garden beds at the allotment garden”

    1. I’ll tell my daughter 🙂 He is a sweetheart ❤
      It was awesome to finally access the graden. The wait and eager anticipation has been long 🙂 Have a wonderful week!

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  3. Cute bunny! Sounds like Spring is arriving in Sweden. I’ll admit that when I saw the top photo on FB I was confused for half a second – it looks like something floating in mid air. I had to bring it up to realize it was ice on water. I hope you are having a great weekend. Have a wonderful week 🙂

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    1. Spring is slowly arriving. All the lakes are still ice covered to some degree. The little lake at that particular photo is an important one, it really is a manmade pond from a very long time ago. Then the water was used for the copper mine, nowadays we use the water that is collecting there every year for our gardens (there is a pump system pumping water from the pond to each individual garden plot.)

      Have a great week Trent!

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  4. YAY!! Finally Spring has arrived there and so happy you were finally able to get to your garden. I LOVE all your photos and I can’t wait to see what starts growing!! The bunny is soooo ADORABLE!!! Life is good, right? Happy gardening and I hope you have a wonderful week! 🤩🥰❤️

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    1. Thank you! Yes! Spring is here…even though we had a tiny bit if a snowstorm last night, it’s all gone now. It was kind of fun, I was sitting in my living room watching huge snowflake fall down from the sky behind the very green salad that is growing in hanging planters at the balcony…it wasn’t very cold though so I don’t think the snow did any damage.
      Have a wonderful week my friend.

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  5. Busy, busy! You must be so excited to start the garden season again. I love the feeling of having all the warm days ahead of us, like a long banquet table laid out to enjoy. 🙂 Sounds like you have some great plans for the garden.
    My garlic is up, I planted sweet peas and onion sets, but have spent most of the week doing clean up. We did a tick sweep of the yard and came up with dozens of ticks to dispose of. It is satisfying to know that those at least will not be biting us or the dog. I really loathe those vectors!
    Munchkin is a doll, I expect he will grow into those ears? 😉
    Have a great week ahead!

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    1. I am excited indeed! (Even though we had a late snowstorm coming in yesterday…) Since the summer is supposedly going to be very hot I’ve looked for durable garden ollas for the fruit trees that I’m going to plant. I found a small Swedish pottery that makes a good model and I’ve ordered two of them (to try them out.) Since I’m not going to visit the garden every day I have to make plans to provide water when I’m not there. During the hottest time, I’m hopefully off work and can visit every day, but it might be a long summer 🙂

      Best of luck with your garden! I don’t know how my garlic is faring. I planted a lot of garlic, but then the weather turned and became warmer than usual for the time of the year. We’ll see. I planted flowers in the same garden bed so if the garlic somehow good damaged at least the bees and I have pretty flowers 🙂

      How smart to do a tick sweep of the yard. How did you do? Ticks exists here but are not common, in some wet areas of the region they have more ticks. About 20 years ago a tick landed on my hand while I was walking in the forest, I saw it when it landed and shock it off, that is the only time I’ve seen a tick in Sweden. In California the dogs got them from time to time, even though we used every available method at hand to avoid them.

      Have a wonderful week!

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      1. Thanks, Maria. Garlic is a pretty tough plant, but needs well drained soil. Soggy does them in.
        We did collect dozens of ticks, so well worth the effort. I will do another sweep to pick up the strays. 😉

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  6. Pingback: Sunday Stills: Adoration of the #Earth – Second Wind Leisure Perspectives

  7. I’m even more convinced we live in the same climate zone, Maria! Your spring looks like ours, at least this year,k with tiny tree buds rather than blooms. Good to read your schoolwork is going well. That bunny is darling. Love your backyard–you have a lot of areas in which to plant. Hans just planted 4 dwarf apple trees (2 fuji, and 2 pink ladies). My Sunday Stills theme is Earth Day, so I added your earthy post to my round-up–hope you don’t mind 🙂 Enjoy your week!

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    1. Yes, I do believe our climate is similar. We are in growing zone 5 here, but the zones are not exactly the same as in the US. 1 is the warmest here.
      Dwarf trees are perfect, I have yet to decide what type of apple trees to plant. I’m asking around for advice, most of the trees with high yields in the area are very old, and the owners don’t have a clue what type it is! I’m in the process of visiting different gardening centers to see what they recommend, but they are not fully stocked yet as it is early in the season. We are expecting a very warm and long summer though. I found a smaller Swedish pottery that makes garden ollas. I ordered two yesterday, to help provide my new apple trees with water. I’m thinking that can make a big difference if it gets really hot for a long time.
      Thank you so much for featuring my post ❤ I loved the Earth Day post with so much inspiration. Have a great rest of your week! I would love seeing updates from your garden as the season progress.

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  8. Maria, Thank you for your weekend coffee share. Your garden is looking good. A week of sunny days will accelerate plant growth. We had a warm week last week and all of a sudden, trees have young leaves and flowers bloom. Munchkin is adorable. His fur looks soft and beautiful. Have a wonderful week ahead!

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  10. Pingback: This week’s small pleasures #332 – Thistles and Kiwis

  12. Great to see you progressing on the allotment, can’t wait to see the produce. My Damson and Plum trees actually have some flowers this year…..I can’t remember which one is which and so lucking forward to seeing what happens.

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    1. Thank you! and that is so exciting! Please share the progress of your trees. Did you plant those yourself? I hope you are enjoying a fabulous week. It’s been snowing every day here! It’s a white world outside my window again…but not super cold, around 30F.

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  14. Adorable bunny and such BIG ears. I loved reading about your preparation of the allotment garden. Especially that you are utilising Bokashi compost – well done. I just wrote a report on a professional wakeboarder who is utilising food waste from the meals served in child care and kindergartens which he collects and composts via thermophilic techniques and worm farming. Works so well and he returns the compost ito the centres so the kids can grow food for their meals in the centre’s garden.
    Renting a car for odd occasions is a great idea. I wish I could get rid of my car but cities in Australia are unlike Sweden. Everything is very spread out and public transport networks sparse and expensive.
    And my climate is too hot and tropical for growing apples. That was something I loved about Sweden- the apples growing in backyards!
    Still, I can grow things year round in my vege patch. I just started a wicking bed for lettuce.
    I look forward to reading further updates on the garden beds and best of luck for the thesis.

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    1. Thank you so much! Finding a way to make the best use of ‘leftovers’, (be it food or recycling/upcycling items we don’t use anymore) is very important in my world. I am doing a project where the kids in my kindergarten learn how to make their own liquid fertiliser out of banana peels right now. We use the fertiliser in an experimental project where we try to find out what vegetables that are best suited for our area. We’ve been reading books about it and had many conversations, but for these kids to really grasp the knowledge they need to experiment and try – is it possible to grow cantaloupe melons? The books we consulted and the people we interviewed said it was a no go for our area, but the kids still wanted to try, so we are trying 🙂 We are also growing vegetables that I know they will get a harvest from: peas, tomatoes, salad etc.
      I am slightly jealous that you are able to grow vegetables outside year round 🙂 Keep up the good job!

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        1. They use a scissor clipping it into smaller pieces. All the pieces goes into a glass jar, then the jar is topped off with cold water. I help them put a tight lid on it, and after that it rests for 48+hours, before being used on the plants.

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                  1. I will try it on some of my lettuce, radish and tomatoes I have got growing. I have had problems with blossom end rot in past years so I hope the banana peel water helps with that. Thank you so much.

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                    1. Best of luck. You can try adding some crushed eggshells to the soil as well, if you aren’t already doing that. That also prevent blossom end rot, and makes the soil more alkaline which promotes growth as well. I add eggshells to the soil when I plant, and sprinkle it on top every time my daughter decides to have an egg (I’m a vegetarian.)

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