Sagittarius Viking

Welcome to the Weekend Coffee Share, a time for us to take a break out of our lives and enjoy some time catching up with friends (old and new)! Grab a cup of coffee and share with us! There is regular hot coffee in the French press (very strong,) ice tea and ice coffee. What would you like?

We are expecting another very warm day hitting 90F. Every day this week have been this warm. It is dryer than usual, but nothing like the desert where I used to live of course. The nights offer some amazingly cool air, and I open up the house to air out at night, closing everything again early in the morning, for the house to stay decently cool. We do not have air-condition. Starting tomorrow the prognosis promise rain for a few days. The ground needs rain, even though it is still very green and lush. Next week the temperatures are going to be in the 80’s, maybe low 80’s even. Which I think is perfect. Don’t get me wrong, we’ve had a wonderful, wonderful staycation week this week as well. I’m indulging in gardening, books, photography, and blogging. It is rejuvenating, and I feel good. The best thing of all is knowing that I have five more glorious weeks left 🙂 How are you my friend? 

These are some photos from around my garden this morning. Naturally I do not take any credit for the beautiful flowers, since they were planted long before I moved in.

Our first whole week without minus degrees at night was only five weeks ago, so the container part is a rather new addition. All the vegetables are grown from seed.

This is some of the pots with vegetables I have growing around my porch; beans, peas, bell pepper, bush tomatoes, and zucchini.

The zucchini is getting bigger by the day.

I planted this zucchini about a month ago. No flowers, or fruit yet but it is looking very healthy, and sure is growing. I had the pot standing on the ground, but decided that it would be nicer to get it spread out here up on the bench, with less bugs crawling all over it. I have three zucchini plants in similar sizes, one next to this one on the bench (morning-day sun about 10 hours of direct sun,) and one in another spot in the garden (day-afternoon sun about 8-9 hours of partly shaded sun,) trying to figure out the best location for each plant, since this is the first year growing here. The green that you see at the soil surface in the pot is basil. Basil is an excellent companion to zucchini. It loves the shade under the leaves. The white that you see next to the basil is crushed eggshells. The eggshells is a slow release fertiliser, a steady source of calcium that prevents blossom end rot, helps aerate the soil, and keep slugs away.  I mix eggshells into the soil while planting, and add some on the top every once in a while during the growing season. If you are free planting your veggies and have problems with slugs it pays off to spread eggshells generously all around. (I mentioned this about zucchinis in a previous post earlier this week, but the photos are new from this morning.)

On the ground next to the zucchini we have smultron, a variety of wild strawberry.

They are tiny, and widely spread throughout the country. This is the very first one of the season. Have you ever had a smultron? Or is there another English name for this berry?

I love figs and made sure to surround myself with fig trees in all the different locations I’ve lived at, in California and Nevada. With some effort you can actually grow them here as well. I don’t know how familiar you are with Sweden’s geography, but we have two big islands on the East coast. I ordered fig sticklings from a lady that have a big fig tree on the biggest Island, Gotland. I purchased two, and she was kind enough to send me five. That was so nice! I planted the sticklings in a pot I had with some culinary sage growing already, they are great companions.

I watered them generously, and covered them with a plastic bag with some holes in, to make a mini greenhouse. For a couple days they stood like this in my kitchen window.

Yesterday I took the plastic bag away, and watered some more. The sticklings did not have any roots at all when got them. I decided that they did not need the plastic bag anymore.

Late last night I found them a shady spot on my porch. They will not get scorch by the sun, but will enjoy some nice warm weather, similar to their native country. When they have some roots, should grow quickly in this weather, I will plant them in separate pots, and move them to a sunny spot.

I also purchased two small fig trees from an online gardening center that I like a lot. Everything I bought from this store have been of excellent quality. These trees turned out to be much bigger than I expected, so I repotted them immediately. They look very healthy, just a little dry from being shipped.

I ordered ‘Desert King’, the left fig tree is definitely a ‘Desert King’ but I believe the right one is a different type.

Typical ‘Desert King’ leaf, in the left pot (above.)

Below is two photos from the right pot. Is this really the same plant?

I’ve been thinking about what it could be, and came to the solution that it’s likely a ‘Celeste’, a very sweet, cold hardy type of fig. Or do you have any other ideas of what it could be? I’d love to hear, since I am far from sure about what it is. I’m just guessing. I had a couple young Celeste’s in California. Looking forward to see them growing. I’m going to have them in pots until I get my own place (renting now) and a greenhouse, then I will plant them in the ground, inside the greenhouse. Figs do great in pots, and will grow strong until it’s the right time to plant them. In fact when you restrict the roots, like in a container, it actually encourage the tree to direct the energy to growing fruits. Since I live in a cold climate, with freezing winters I will need to protect my trees from the worst cold as well, that is easy when you grow in a pot.

Would you like a refill on that coffee? Or tea? What is growing in your area right now? Tell me in a comment 🙂 Have a fabulous weekend!

Love,

Maria