Summer and Cottage life

I came across a very interesting Blog the other day, created by a Norwegian lady with an incredibly good taste. Her Blog talks a lot about interior and exterior decoration, something I have become very interested lately. Rustic decoration has always had a great appeal on me and now that I have Skogsveien to look after, I feel more and more attracted to it. The picture below shows some of these things I am talking about. Aren't they beautiful?

Important Visitors in Skogsveien 30!

On May 21st my department in Statoil took part in a workshop organised by me at Kolonihagen's event house. It was a beautiful day and the event was a big success! After the meetings were over and before dinner time, we all went for a short tour in Kolonihagen, enjoying the beautiful flowers and the small lovely houses. We visited Monica's cottage and last, but not least, Skogsveien 30. Below is a picture that marked such an important event for me and my beautiful garden.
Don't forget to click on the picture to see it bigger!

Beautiful Clematis

The Clematis shown in the pictures below have been the beautiful site in my garden recently. I planted them soon after I bought Skogsveien 30 and now they are really showing the air of their grace. It's a an enourmous satisfaction to see the result of your work begin to blossom like this. But alas, it's such hard work to make everything look right and keep away the weeds and grass etc. Not to mention trying to keep the snails away. I have set many traps and they are catching more and more snails each day. But many of the plants still show the sign of their presence and look ugly. The weather has been rather cold and windy lately too. But many other flowers are starting to come out in my garden, flowers that I don't even recognise yet. When they start blossoming, I will take pictures of them.

Click on the pictures to see them bigger.

Cozier and sweeter

Yes, Skogsveien 30 is becoming cozier as we add more of our personal touch to it. The pictures can give an idea. Yesterday Chris placed a green carpet on the terrace, specially for outside use. It made things more colourful, the more so in contrast with the red flowers I have the terrace at the moment. New flowers are popping out here and there in the garden, probably planted by the previous owner the year before. I have been weeding around them, so that I can see what is coming out and protect them somehow. The smails are still around, but I have set up 3 traps with beer to kill them!Apart from that, today I planted lots and lots of red sunflowers in small pots indoors. Oh, I have to succeed in making them grow healthy and transport them to Kolonihagen.The first sunflowers I planted about a month ago seem ready to be taken to the real world outside. What do you think?

Snail Awareness

I have been strugling to make my garden look nice and at least close to my neighbours' standards, but ...I must admit this is not an easy task. There are several things to consider, of course: 1. I am a total beginner in gardening. 2. I have limited time to dedicate to it. 3. The garden was passed on to us on a messy state. 4. Last, not not least, there are snails working against me! They have been eating the existing flowers and the new ones I plant. So, it is a bit frustrating and a bit discouraging...Anyway, I am trying to set some traps to get them and let's see if this will diminish their destruction.
Apart from that, I am having troubles with the sunflowers I carefully planted in Skogsveien. The biggest flowers are dying and this makes me very sad. I am waiting to see if the new buds will survive nicely though, before I take more drastic measures. I would love to hear some opinion about possible causes from experts. So, if anybody knows what the possible cause can be, I would very much appreciate to receive an email about it.
The strawberries are doing fine so far, though. They are grwoing strong and promissing.
Yesterday was a beautiful sunny day and I spent some time weeding and preparing the flower beds to receive new commers. Pictures follow below.