>The plants I “rescued” from being bulldozed outside my apartment building suffered quite badly from being stored in my flat, even if I tried to keep them moist in a bucket of potting soil. They weren’t exactly perky-looking when I arrived at the summer house last night, so I dug them out of the bucket and soaked them over-night in a tub of water. Not sure if that made much difference, but it was what seemed most likely to help the poor plants into shape.
Then today I dug through the soil in a small square (4′ by 4′) that used to be covered by the sand box and thus was relatively grass- and weed-free. I added a bit of compost and sand to the soil (heavy clay soil) to lighten it an ensure that the plants have the best possible chances of still being there next year, and at the end it really did seem like fairly nice gardening soil. It had some structure to it from the compost, some lightness from the sand and some richness from the original clay soil. Now, I know nothing about soil conditions, but it just felt nice.
In the square I dug some trenches and put down the iris rhizomes (Iris Siberica), the anemones (pink anemony hupehensis) and peony roots with shoots (some purple peony of unknown type), and I hope this will keep them through winter as I try to prepare some more permanent areas for these plants.
Just digging through this small square made me realise just what an enterprise it will be to create a large herbaceous border on an area that is currently lawn. The digging, the cultivation of the soil and then the continuous weeding for a few years to get rid of any roots that I didn’t get out in the original preparation of the bed… Just the small square made my back ache, so I guess I will need to get in shape to be able to pull off the digging of an entire border! I wonder what the best in-door exercises for gardeners are…
I also cleared the ground around the white rose at the Southern gable of the house and cultivated the ground beside it so I could put in the red rose that I had also pulled from the ground outside my apartment. It’s flowers are not very large, but full and a deep red colour, so it should be a nice complement to the white renaissance-style rose that’s already there. If it survives… I know it’s a bit early in the year to cut down a rose completely and then move it as a bareroot plant, but hey; worth a shot, right?
My cuttings are looking quite well. Both the ones set to root in water (a white rose and a white climbing rose) and those set in potting soil (same roses, and also some buddleia and cornel cuttings). The next time I go to the summer house (in two weeks) I guess I will need to bring a few bags of potting soil so I can get the water-rooted cuttings in pots and leave them like that through the winter in the shed that will be (more or less) frost-free.
I don’t remember if I’ve told you, but I’ve lent the summer house to some friends who are having a new bathroom installed in their apartment and consequently were keen to borrow a place to stay where there was an actual toilet, rather than a porta-potty in the sitting room. This means that I only went up there from Friday evening to Saturday afternoon this weekend, much to my regret. It just seems like I’m a visitor there when they are living there, so I wanted to get back to my apartment tonight and just have a nice evening alone.
I miss the place. I haven’t had a weekend alone up there since… Well, since some time in mid-August, I guess. And initially they asked to borrow the house for two-three weeks, but obviously the builders are behind schedule so now it looks like it’ll be a lot longer, and from the weekend 23-24 October and five weeks ahead I won’t have a single weekend in Denmark, so I’m considering whether it would be rude to ask them to give me the weekend 16-17 October up there alone. I can’t wait until 27-28 November to have a weekend in my refuge alone… Also, there’s so much work to get started on before winter sets in, and especially the digging and cultivation will take time. I would really like to have broken the ground for the border before winter, even if the soil cultivation might have to wait until spring.
Also, whenever I go there I feel at peace. It’s a haven. It’s calm. I need that these days, what with work being all over the place (in a good way, but still not exactly relaxing), me starting an evening course in coaching in corporate organisations and stuff generally happening (like my grandmother taking a nasty fall and my father being diagnosed with cancer).
I’m sorry this is such a long, rambling entry. It’s just that writing about the summer house and the garden somehow – in a way I cannot entirely understand myself – makes me feel a fraction of the peace I feel when I’m there. It’s a peace I can find elsewhere – most notably within myself – but the house and garden has become an embodiment of that rest and calm.
Anyway, this entry has been entirely pictureless so far, so here’s one:

It’s not easy to see, but this is the entry to a tomb from around 3000BC. Sadly – or amusingly, I guess you could say – the tomb was dug out in 1776 and the site was remodeled as a monument to the Queen Juliane-Marie. The original tomb chamber is still – almost – intact, but the mound was turned into a scenic viewing point with a terrace running all the way around it half-way up the mound and a rather more monumental entrance to the tomb chamber. Also, the entrance to the chamber was moved from the East side to the South end of the oblong chamber. (I only found this out through Google, though it struck me as odd when we entered the chamber, as all other tomb chambers from this period that I have visited have had the chamber itself at a right angle to the entrance.)
Around the terrace mid-way up the tomb are 7 stones, representing seven heathen kings from Denmark-Norway (in 1776 these two countries were joint under one king): Skjold, Frode the Peaceful, Dan Mykillati, Harald Hairfair, Gorm the Old, Harald Bluetooth (yes, he’s the source of the name of the bluetooth connectability) and Wittekind (who actually was a Saxon , rather than Danish or Norwegian, king). These are there due to the initial belief that the mound only dated back to the times of the kings of legend, when in fact it is perhaps 3500-4000 years older.
http://rcm.amazon.com/e/cm?t=flanegarde-21&o=1&p=8&l=bpl&asins=0859915026&fc1=000000&IS2=1<1=_blank&m=amazon&lc1=0000FF&bc1=000000&bg1=FFFFFF&f=ifrJust imagine… 5000 years ago, this place was used to bury 4 individuals, though not necessarily at the same time. History goes a long way back in the area around our small summer house and it’s pretty garden with potential.
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