#urbanjunglebloggers

Apr

2015

Cactus-time

November cactus Photo. ©nini.tjader.2015

November Cactus Photo: ©nini.tjader.2015

The November Cactus keep on flowering. I never stop admiring its flowers.

November Cactus Photo: ©nini.tjader.2015

It seems to be cactus time presently. Happened to turn around one of my other cactus plants and surprise… it hade flowers on the side that had been leaning onto the cold window…

Cactus flowers Photo. ©nini.tjader.2015

I know this kind needs a bit of cold to get flowers. But I hadn’t noticed that they came this year again. it is the second year it has flowers since I moved to this place.

Cactus Photo: ©nini.tjader.2015

This cactus has been with me for several years. I don’t even remember how many. In my previous flat it got flowers every year. Here, it is only the second time. The cold from the window it has been leaning against did the trick.

Cactus Photo: ©nini.tjader.2015

Mar

2015

Happy Green Easter and Pessach

Easter chicken in the herbs. Photo: ©nini.tjader.2015

Easter and Pessach is fast approaching. Time to style your home with decorations and plants. Not that I usually do that, but I just today took check at what decorations I had stored from previous years. Still hesitant if I will use it or not.

Yellow is the color of Easter. Plants with yellow flowers are nice to have and give som much needed color at this time of the year when the greenery outside is still not awake.

Minidaffodils. Photo: ©nini.tjader.2015

Bought them on Sunday. Not a single flower had opened then. They all opened up yesterday and today. When they are “done” I plant them outside in one of the flowerbeds so they can come back next year, outside then.

Kalanchoe. Photo. ©nini.tjader.2015

I also got a yellow kalanchoe to brighten up the kitchen window.

Wooden tulip. Photo. ©nini.tjader.2015

My red, wooden tulip also does its best to brighten up the kitchen.

White and yellow roses. Photo: ©nini.tjader.2015

In the livingroom I placed 12 white and yellow roses that I got for free from Plantagen because I bought six eco herb plants at the fair last week.

Roses. Photo. ©nini.tjader.2015

Roses are fascinating flowers. Almost too perfect in their form. No fragrance from these ones though.

Easter eggs. Photo: ©nijni.tjader.2015

Intended to go out and cut off some branches to hang the small easter eggs in. So far didn’t get around to do that as the rain has been mercilessly pouring down the last couple of days (around 40 mm in two days). Today is sunny, but I have other plans (food shopping).

Easter eggs. Photo: ©nini.tjader.2015

Also found a couple of empty easter eggs laying around. No point to take them out if not filling them with all kinds of sweets. Need to do some shopping… Normally don’t have sweets laying around. Too tempting…

Not that I celebrate Easter or Pessach in any way, but Happy Holidays everyone.

Mar

2015

Nordiska Trädgårdar Garden Fair 2015

Fritillaria. Photo: ©nini.tjader.2015

On Thursday March 26th I visited the Nordiska Trädgårdar Garden Fair 2015 at Stockholmsmässan in Älvsjö.

All my images from that visit can be found here.

Nice fair, but too many visitors already the first day. The hunt for cuttings of pelargonias and other flowers was on all the time. Some of those visitors… ran all over you, pushing, got in the way, apparently afraid that they would miss a bargain.

There were so called idea gardens. I only liked one of those, the one called Hanging Garden by Trendstefan (Stefan Nilsson).

Hanging garden Photo:©nini.tjader.2015

Some had brought in trees from Germany, timed to flower when the fair opened one of the exhibitors told med. They timed it right and the fragrance was lovely.

Flowering trees

There were also a balcony competition. I didn’t like any of those balconies… What is the point of a balcony if it is so crowded with things that there is no space left to sit and enjoy outdoors on it?

Overdecorated balcony Photo: ©nini.tjader.2015

One of the magazines that were there might have sold lots of subscriptions as every one who bought a subscription got a bag on wheels with the subscription. Saw those ones all over the place later…

“Dramaten” Free, provided you bought a subscription of a certain magazine. Photo: ©nini.tjader.2015

This kind of fair sell things, hats, tools, flowers, cloths… and a lot of other things too.

I bought three things. A plant-lamp with natural light (LED) done particularly to give flowers indoor the right amount of light. And six different herbs. The lamp comes in several different colors and can be found here at Venso Eco Solutions.

Natural light lamp. Photo ©nini.tjader.2015

No, they are not going to remain on the kitchen table. It is a temporary placement testing the lamp.

I also bought a “plantcage” because I liked it, not because I needed it. Presently hangs in the kitchen window. It has a similarity to the napkin holder I bough years ago. A bit hard to water the plant in the cage though I noticed.

Caged flower Photo: ©nini.tjader.2015

The rest of the images can be found here.

Mar

2015

The jungle in the kitchen

Kitchenplants. Photo: ©nini.tjader.2015

My kitchen has two windows in a corner. One, the above facing south, the second facing west. I stopped using curtains in the kitchen a couple of years ago. I use plants instead. The windows have semi-transparent blinds (from Ikea) to regulate the light and sunshine. Some plants lCAN get too much sun. The windows also have regular blinds that I sometimes in the summer have all the way down.

Kitchenwindow. Photo: ©nini.tjader.2015

This time of the year, when there are no fresh herbs outside yet, I also added a pot of thyme on to the kitchen table. In easy reach when you need for cooking.

Thyme. Photo: ©nini.tjader.2015

I recently did some reorganizing in the kitchen windows as I bought two trellises from Ikea to have somewhere to store some of my pelargonia cuttings until they get roots, and to put some new smallish plants I also found at Ikea.

Photo: ©nini.tjader.2015

Kitchenwindows. Photo: ©nini.tjader.2015

One of them bloomed on the second day after it came to my home. The plant has lilac leaves.

Photo: ©nini.tjader.2015

I love my sunny and light kitchen and the way you can have flowers in the window there. It is relaxing watching them when eating breakfast.

The aloe in the corner isa problem. It has become very heavy and big. Hard to keep it upright. It also has a small aloe-baby in the pit that I’ve planned to move to a pot of its own at some time. Just haven’t got around to it yet. Now would probably be a good time for doing it.

Kitchenwindows. Photo: ©nini.tjader.2015

And all the orchids on the windowsills are in bloom presently.

Mar

2015

Early spring

Crocus. Photo: ©nini.tjader.2015

Spring is early this year and coming along nicely. Sunny and warm days. Very cold nights with frost.

LED-lamp. Photo:©nini.tjader.2015

Got a new sun-driven LED-lamp from Ikea and planted it in one of the flowerbeds. It has charged but noticed yesterday night that only one of the bulbs lit up. Have to check that.

Patio-lamps. Photo: ©nini.tjader.2015

Hung out last years sun-driven lamp (the dirty one in the background) and got a new one from Ikea (the closest one). Both have charged during the week as it has been extremely sunny. ON the wall I still have the light-curtain which during winter has other decorations. Ikea did this smart thing that you can exchange the decorations on the light-curtain according to season. So I got myself some white and green balls with holes in and took off the stars that were there over the Xmas-season. The nights and evenings are still very dark so the extra lighting out there is needed.

The honey-suckle on the corner is coming along fine. The leaves are visible and growing each day. Best though are the flowers. So far snow-drops and crocus, but there are lots of flowers budding in the flower-beds.

Crocus. Photo: ©nini.tjader.2015

Feb

2015

Hanging Plants

Photo: ©nini.tjader.2015

My kitchen has two windows. One facing south, one facing west. They are ideal for plants and most of them love being there. The only problem is that the window sills are so tiny. On the south-facing window to the left, there originally was no window sill at all. I added it later. It cannot take heavy plants though, so only light-weight ones there.

As I don’t use curtains in the kitchen, but I still have the curtain rods, I started to hang plants from them. And one of them, the climber to the left and below, even hangs directly on the curtain rod.

Photo. ©nini.tjader.2015

The windows have see-through blinds from Ikea to protect the plants from the sun when necessary. The climbing plant that hangs directly on the curtain rod loves it here and is getting bigger and bigger. Fortunately it doesn’t grow TOO fast… It has a slow-growing hanging plant as company on this window.

Photo: ©nini.tjader.2015

In the west-facing window I also have a hanging plant. More conventional one. It used to hang in the livingroom-window but almost died there. Made it start over by cutting off its tips and planting them in new earth and moved it to this window. It is now happy again.

I have tried having some of the orchids hanging too, but that is more difficult as they get pretty heavy. One actually crashed down … Both the pot and the plant survived as it fell on the table and not all the way to the floor. What held the pot up broke (leather cords).

There is still room for one more hanging plant in the west-facing kitchen-window. Might hang one more there.

Feb

2015

The tulip season is here

Photo: ©nini.tjader.2015

I love tulips. Unfortunately I cannot grow them in the garden any more as the nearby deer gets drawn to them and eat them. The second spring I lived here I had tulips, planted the autumn before. Lots of them. A few remain and insist in returning each spring. They disappear fast however and get eaten close to the ground by the deer…

Now the tulip season is here, at least in the shops. Outside there is still snow on the ground.

Tulips are fascinating. So many different colors and looks. It is also interesting to follow them from the moment you bought them and brought them home until the moment when they died and went into the trash. Below are pictures of the tulips I bough last weekend which went into the trash today.

Feb

2015

Orchid time

The orchids are now beginning to bloom. Still early days for them but they are all coming. Orchids are easy to manage. Give them water not too often – they hate standing with wet feet – and a place which is not directly in the sun but still light enough. They look boring when not in bloom, but on the other hand the bloom is longlasting.

Will be lilac.

A smaller variety.

White with big flowers.

White with lilac edges.

Jan

2015

Plants and coffee

This time of the year, with that lousy weather outside, still dark… I need some greenery to look at. If you cannot get it outside (you cannot here in Sweden), at least I can get it indoors in my kitchen. Above is what I see when at the kitchen table.

Another thing I need is a good cup of coffee now and then.

Saturday afternoon I started to make one. And the capsule machine got all crazy… It spitted out water, coffee and steam and made odd sounds. I quickly removed the cable to the electricity to make it stop its craziness. Then cleaned off all the spitted out coffee and water and dried the machine. Then I tested it with only water in, no coffee. Machine was dead. Short circuit. It was too late in the afternoon to go out to get a new machine. It had to wait until Sunday. On Saturday I had to take out my old coffee brewer and the old coffee I had stored… Result: disgusting taste, but I got my dose of caffeine….

On Sunday I went off to buy a new capsule machine. The old one was a Nescafe Dolce Gusto Geniosic (see above), 2 years and one month old. One month too old for the guarantee to still be valid. Bought one of the model MiniMe and went home to test it.

New machine didn’t work. Water never got transported into the system. No coffee on Sunday either. Did all the actions required to test it, but no luck. Out came the old regular coffee brewer again but this time I broke into 2 capsules of Dolce Gusto coffee and used that to get a decent cup of coffee, instead of using the old stored coffee from I don’t know when… At least I got a cup of coffee that was almost OK.

Monday morning I called the Dolce Gusto people and we agreed on taking the new machine back to the store to get it exchanged. So I did. But I choose another model this time, a Dolce Gusto Circolo.

At that moment I felt I had to get something colorful, to cheer myself up, so I choose a red one, instead of a black which would have been my normal choice. Went home and initiated the machine.

And it worked beautifully. Finally I could again get decent cups of coffee! And I love the round form of the capsule machine and its red color. Glad I didn’t choose a black one.

Now I can again enjoy a good cup of coffee, relaxing and looking at the greenery in my kitchenwindows.

#urbanjunglebloggers

Cactus-time

Happy Green Easter and Pessach

Nordiska Trädgårdar Garden Fair 2015

The jungle in the kitchen

Early spring

Hanging Plants

The tulip season is here

Orchid time

Plants and coffee

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