Studiogarden...



4 years ago here used to be a large building. It was in a bad shape and had to be torn down. Here was no garden, just grass and black soil. A friend of my parents drew a plan for the area. There has been made a lot of changes in it but it still remains mainly as originally planned.

Normally when I think about garden design I think in terms of making outdor rooms with hedges or trees as walls. One room joining the next, creating corners and spaces for different purposes.
But there is another way of doing it... The idea is to let the living area extend to the closest part of the garden and let the rest of the garden mix with the nature ( which in Denmark is farmland ).

It can get very warm along the southern wall so the idea came to imitate the cozy life lived outside houses in Southern Europe under shades and pergolas with lots of climbing plants, seating areas and pots filled with flowers. And since this after all is not Greece, here will be a 35 squaremeter big wood framed greenhouse...

Last year we established the middle section between the building and the fields with a lawn and five different types of appletreees. Also the paving was made. There are still a lot of things to be finished at the building but we are slowly getting there.

This year it was finally time for planting some plants. We started with the herbaceous border outside the 3 big studio windows shown below.




The plants are all perennials and my mother is the mastermind. I basically told here about all my favorites, and she chose the ones that would fit to the conditions of the place and decided how many of each type we should plant.




Above are the main characters :

From left to right

Geranium macrorrhizum 'Ingwersen's Variety, May, june and juli, 30 cm.
Nepeta faassenii walkers low, June, Juli, august and september, 50 cm.




Above are the supporting characters:

From left to right:

Veronica gentianoides, may and june, 40 cm.
Helianthemum 'Elfenbeinglanz', May, june and july, 20 cm.
Allium schoenoprasum, June and July, 25 cm.
Ranunculus acris 'Multiplex', June and july, 60 cm.
Chelone oblique, August and september, 80 cm.
Oreganum vulgare 'Thumble's Variety', July and august, 20 cm.
Tradescantia virginia 'Breviacaulis', June, july, august and september, 50 cm.
Echinacea purpurea 'Alba', July, august and september, 60 cm.
Phlomis russeliana, July and august, 80 cm.

Below is the overall plan of the area...





My mother helping with the planting...




1½ months later it looks like this... Still a lot of the plants need to grow bigger and completely fill out the space making it pretty and very easy to maintain.

Shoes...

All my shoes were in a bad shape and something had to be done... Then there was a burglary in my car where my best shoes got stolen. So I decided to be very strategic in my hunt for new favorite shoes. Shoes kind of sets the standard for the rest of the outfit. One pair of shoes makes me feel very girlish, another is very soft and allows me to sneak around corners smooth and flexible and some are just great because they are very practical... I wanted my little summer collection to have the variations that I needed for different outfit and different moods. Lucky me The Internet made it a lot easier to find what I was looking for:

First I fell completely in love with Ulrikas shoes So I decided to get one pair of very sweet sandal clogs. I have never had much success with wearing closed shoes with stockings and dresses but these I can imagine will be just fine that way ( Just see Ulrikas beautiful combination with blue stockings here ). I bought them at Knulp





Then I bought a very practical pair of clogs perfect for those quick runs in and out of the house. The leather is very pale now but will darken by the time to a very nice light brown...have a feeling that these will be used a lot... Also seen at Ulrikas blog and bought at Knulp.se




10 years ago I went on a holiday to Florence and bought a pair of handmade sandals like the ones at the last picture. They were on my feet the next 9 summers, I had new soles twice, but in the end they completely fell apart. I thought I had lost the business card but one month ago I found it again... And yes The shoemaker Moretti Walter has a website so I quickly ordered to pairs...one pair just like the old ones and another pair with a nice shaping at the front. These looks really nice with a pair of jeans.




I am one happy girl... Come summer...

Confession: I did something I find very extravagant. I went on a one day shopping trip to Copenhagen. Early in the morning I left the sleeping baby and boyfriend behind in the apartment. With me I had a big bag with some knitting, water and whatever I needed for the trip. I started out with a coffee at the train station and then spend some nice three hours of knitting in the train. At the main train station in Copenhagen I had just enough time for another coffee before the shops opened. It was a great feeling. It was a beautiful day and I was walking the pedestrian street and saw all the truck drivers delivering to the shops just before they opened. A hole day in Copenhagen just for myself... luxury...

Off course I was looking for shoes... I wanted a pair of high heels espadrillos in a good quality and found these at magazin. I am not a nail polish kind of girl, but when I find a pair of shoes that makes me want to put nail polish on my toes, I know it is time to get into action. I just love these shoes they make me feel so feminine and Carrie Bradshaw kind of big city cool. Can be really nise sometimes... The nail polish I bought right away... Chanel... the color is #159 Fire...

I returned home at eleven in the evening, very tired but in a splendid mood. I had been a princess for a day... Next day I had a hangover from all the visual input I had gotten. I had a very slow day and tried to recover. When you live in a smaller town you don't have any practice in filtering all these impressions from big cities. I am pretty sure Carrie Bradshaw would be just fine after a day of shopping... It is certainly not the last time I will do it...





Through Wiksten I heard about Toast. I like their style and when I saw the golden T-strap ballerinas I knew I had to have them. It is a fine made shoe with a leather sole but I had to have a more practical sole on it since I would like to use them for more than dancing Saturday night ( Don't really do that unless at home and in my PJ... and my dancing partner is only two ears old... ) So a visit to the shoemaker and now I use them all the time. They look great with narrow jeans and big soft and baggy pants with elastic at the ankle.

Expectations...

It was so easy... Just one click, then one more... one more... and suddenly I had bought a whole bunch of seeds... I just couldn't help myself. But you also have to remember that I grew up in a nursery and I know that sowing is really the easy part of all that garden fun. So I restrained myself and only put half of the seeds in little pots saving the rest for next year. My dad has a very fine table in the greenhouse where he nurtures little baby plants, so I asked for some sowing advice and a little space next to all his seedlings hoping that his luck will rubb of to my plants too.








I found a beautifull book about flowers on sale at the supermarket, and I realized that Lathurus Odorata dont like to have their very fragile roots disturbed which gave me the perfect opportunity to buy that little tool "the potmaker". Can you believe it I am a potter and I buy a potmaker... isn't that a bit weird ? But you see you just cant rip of the buttom of a ceramic pot and then plant it in the garden... you see it was a total necessity... The funny thing is that even if we have one at the farm my dad had to make one himself when he saw the one I bought ( He is the lucky owner of a woodturner )... probably just to prove that he could, so now there is two of them lying around in the greenhouse... even more strange... They are functioning perfect and are great space saver if you don't want to save all those little plastic pots for next year. Just remember, only use newspapers that you have read or you will just end up reading the paper, drinking coffee, getting frustrated over poverty and crises, and the climate change... Of course that is also important but maybe on another day...





Here is what is in the little pots...

1 stk. Blomsterkarse, Milkmaid.
1 stk. Frøkenhat. Envy.
1 stk. Basilikum. Sweet Genovese.
1 stk. Ærteblomst. Wiltshire ripple.
1 stk. Ærteblomst. Mix.
1 stk. Ærteblomst. Grandiflora America.
1 stk. Blomsterkarse. Orange.
1 stk. Frøkenhat. Zinnia, dahlia flowered mix.
1 stk. Katost. Malva Sylvestris Zebrina.
1 stk. Levkøj, Matthiola longipetala.
1 stk. Mamelukærme, Rosa.Lavatera trimestris.
2 stk. Pragtsnerle. Caprice. Frø.
1 stk. Pragtsnerle. Crimson Rambler.
1 stk. Pragtsnerle. Milky Way.
1 stk. Opiumsvalmue. Papaver somniferum.
1 stk. Silene colorata, Pink star.
1 stk. Sløjfeblomst. Iberis candytuft red flash.
1 stk. Stedmoder. Can can mix.
1 stk. Stolt kavaler, Cosmos, Candystripe.
1 stk. Stolt kavaler. Pied piper red.
1 stk. Tobaksblomst, Tinkerbell.
1 stk. Trompetkatost. Malope trifida. Pink Queen.
1 stk. Kørvel, Dansk, Anthriscus cerefolium.
1 stk. Bladbede Rainbow chard.
1 stk. Fennikel.
1 stk. Tomat Green grape.
1 stk. Tomat Yellow brandywine.
1 stk. Valsk bønne Aguadulce.
1 stk. Pot maker.

I bought it all from Frøbutikken. The service was fine but I needed more information on the packaging and was also missing quite a few of the latin names. So next year I might try buying from Thompson and Morgan... we will see