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The Best Book Party Ever
Okay, the only book party I’ve ever been to, but it was for the best book in my gardening life. Two of my fellow graduates from gardening school, Stina Pyrrö (text) and Hanna Marttinen (pictures) have made a beautiful and resourceful book, “Puutarhan vihreä vuosi“, together that was just recently published. They arranged a launch party and were nice enough to invite me. The pictures, the text and the layout work together in a beautiful way. It’s my hand in the picture touching a ‘White Triumphator’ tulip among Phalaris arundinacea ‘Picta’ in my garden. I love the realness of this book; ordinary things become beautiful when they are genuinely captured. No…
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Still Winter
The view from an office building in Varkaus. I was on a business trip to Varkaus, a city some 300 km northeast of Helsinki, earlier this week. It was a bit of a shock temperature wise, it has finally started to thaw a bit around here and I had left out my second layer of wool clothes and my cap. However, when we landed in Varkaus with my colleague it was -18° C! It started to warm up quite nicely and by the time we got to the Navitas office complex and had set up we managed to get out for a few minutes as the sun was clearing through the…
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What Would the Hardcore Enthusiast Do? Part 2
There are easy ways of sowing and there are complicated ways of sowing, there are of course also easy complicated ways of sowing 😉 I wrote a bit about raising woody plants from seed in Part 1 of my slightly beyond normal gardening endeavors. Uncomplicated seeds germinate in something close to room temperature or a bit more within a week or two, but in addition to those kinds of seeds there are several ones that require a few tricks. Cold treatment is the most common one, but there are fire treatments, hormone treatments and all sorts of minor tricks. Cold treatment the easy way, sometimes I have been using the refrigerator, but then…
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Spring is Approaching
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Photographing Snowdrops
The snowdrop season has not quite arrived here yet, but statistically it should be here soon. About a meter of snow still puts a damper on the snowdrops arrival. I have not kept an exact chronicle on their arrival each year but I can see from my picture folders that in 2005 I have the first pictures of snowdrops from March 26th, in 2006 they are from April 16th, in 2007 already on March 13th of, in 2008 March 10th(!) and in 2009 they flowered at least on the April 19th. Last year work kept me so busy that I did not get a chance to photograph them at all. Snowdrops…
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The Best Book Party Ever
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Visiting Viherpaja
Corylus avellana ‘Contorta’ – peikonpähkinä – trollhassel I was out trying to score some herbs on Saturday; I’m being literal: I was looking for Thyme, Rosemary and other herbs for the windowsill, it’s surprisingly hard to find nice ones before the season starts. Viherpaja though, had some good ones, and once you are there you just can’t miss their Japanese Garden. The Japanes Garden is entirely indoors. This is gives you a chance to admire some beauties that just aren’t hardy enough for Finland and you get to see them flower before the season really starts outdoors. On Saturday the cherries were just starting to bloom, the Japanese maples were…
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Spring is Approaching
