Author: Angela
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Anemone sylvestris
I do enjoy spring ephemerals. They’re the sort of things that we could never grow when I lived in California because the springs were never cool enough. During most summers here in Finland, they’ll stick around at least until midsummer. This is Anemone sylvestris (arovuokko), the snowdrop anemone. Not to be confused with the wood…
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Dicentra formosa
This is my first Dicentra formosa (purppurapikkusydän), the fern-leaf bleeding heart, variety ‘Luxuriant’. It came in the same order last spring as my white spectabilis and seems to be slower to start growing. However, it was also accidentally covered by garden equipment for half the season last year so didn’t have the most ideal start.…
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Dicentra spectabilis
A few days ago, I stumbled upon a much more established Finnish garden at Vanha Talo Suomi and was especially impressed with her neatly organized specimen list. At last count, I have four different spreadsheets and three apps around to keep track of things, and somehow manage to not efficiently update any of them. This…
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Green garlic, where have you been all my life?
These are the first stalks of green garlic I have ever picked. Up until last year, I didn’t even know such an option existed. Everyone knows about the dried bulbs, sure. I also knew that I’d have a bumper crop of garlic scapes later this year since our climate is most suited to hardneck varieties.…
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Dandelion Jelly Time
For the past few years, I have been looking forward to the end of May because it means… jelly-making time! We’ve always observed an unofficial sort of No-Mow May, if only because things don’t really dry out and start growing until June anyway. Even the weeds take a while to get going this far north,…
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First harvest of 2023!
That’s a bowl of baby spinach, about 6 cups worth. You can see there’s a lot more in the bed and I will be trying to use up as much of it as possible. Yes, partly because I love spinach and am thrilled that I can now get it fresh from the garden. Sadly, also…
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The Evolution of a Vegetable Garden
Having a large vegetable garden has always been one of my life goals, and certainly factored into our choice of home. We arrived at our little farm in the summer of 2012 with plenty of optimism and plans, but not much in the way of experience or supplies. It was a pretty steep learning curve,…
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A Weekend Project
Root cellars. I love the idea, but in practice, it’s taken me a bit longer to get the hang of them. Like all farmhouses of a certain age, ours had one built into the basement as a matter of course. We saw it, along with a vintage loom and spinning wheel, while poking around downstairs…
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Reboot
This is not my first blog and it will probably not be my last. It is, however, the first one that I have started with some sort of intent and organization. Blame it on the quarantine. A little more than 10 years ago, we moved into a very typical example of a postwar Finnish farmhouse.…