A few years ago, we stopped mowing our lawn - which, back then, was consisting to about equal parts of grass, wild thyme, and moss. It still has these three components, but now a lot of flowers are blooming in the ex-lawn. Most prominent are scabiosa flowers, with their distinctive pink pollen - and we know our neighbour's bees come to visit them a lot, as he tells us they come home with pink pants.

The flowers are not only making the bees happy, though. There's also some flower heads that are lacking their half-ripe seeds, and some of the stems of these flowers are broken. And here's one of the reasons:

There's a pair of these, and they stop by quite often. They are very shy, though, making it hard to get a decent picture of them even with a tele lens... 

It's getting spring-timey in earnest - the cherry trees are in full bloom now: 

There's also a good amount of flowers doing their job: 

And the little cat is, of course, also enjoying the good weather. She's been having some health issues recently, some of them related to food intolerances getting worse as she ages, and some of them probably related to stress with other cats outside, so it's nice to see her relax and enjoy some sunshine. (We're working on both her health issues, and there's been some improvement already, but Madame does not find all the food that is good for her delicious enough for her palate. Sigh.)

Well, that time passed quickly...

There was colouring of eggs, and nice leisurely breakfasts, and some cooking, and some meeting with friends, there was the first ice cream parlour visit of the year for coffee and, you may have guessed it, icecream.

I finally managed to sow some more seeds, and there was even time for a bit of gardening. Like always, though, there's a bunch of work left to do, and the Easter holidays could have been twice as long without us getting bored.

Now it's back to work, but at least I have a nice view on the tulips blooming in the garden - the first ones are already sticking out of the lawn and in full bloom. (Since we are not really mowing the lawn anymore during spring and summer, I stuck some of the tulip bulbs that were not thriving in their former place into the lawn last year - and it looks like they are much happier there!)

There's a bunch of other flowers too, and the neighbour's bees are visiting them with gusto.

Oh, and speaking of bees - now is the time when they also need water, so if you want to help your neighbourhood bees, you can provide them with a source of water where they can safely land and drink. A flat bowl with rough surface will do, or a large jar with enough wood sticks or twigs stuck into it that the bees can land on the wood and crawl down to the water.

 It's getting warmer and spring-time-ier outside. The cat is venturing into the garden a bit more now, or snoozing in the sun in the wintergarden, where it's now getting more pleasant again. Well, apart from the not-so-beautiful-looking dead plants in their pots. 

Every year, I try to get some of the tomatoes and some of the chili plants over the winter - with mixed success, sometimes a bit more, sometimes no success at all. Usually some of the chili plants survive, and if I'm lucky, one or two tomatoes make it through. 

This was the case this year (unless it now dies a sudden death because I wrote about it) - one tomato made it. The really nice thing about that?

aThis picture was taken yesterday. There's hope to have early tomatoes! 

This year has been a weird one, garden-wise. It was (again) a very dry summer, which meant that a lot of the things that usually bloom were not doing so. That included our wild thyme growing in the area we lovingly call "lawn", though the amount of grass growing there is, let's say, not too high.

Consequently, when the autumn and late autumn were unseasonally warm and a bit more wet than the summer, quite a few of them had a late bloom, literally. That included our wild thyme, which is not entirely surprising.

It also included two calendula plants, but since they are sometimes flowering until November in any way, that was also not entirely surprising.

What really shocked me a bit, though, was this:

Yes, those are strawberry plants. Yes, that is even a small strawberry fruit doing its best to grow.

It's weird, and it is a little bit scary, if you ask me. Looking at how things have gone weird and wonky, time-wise, really makes me wonder that anyone can still be doubting climate change. Folks. Strawberries flowering outside in start of December. There should be no more doubt...

I've been saving seeds for next year, like I always do, and I was thinking about putting something about the fermentation of tomato seeds here just in case someone is interested, and while looking for some instructions I stumbled across the Garden Myths blog.

Which says, here, that a test of different tomato seed prep methods did not result in any difference in germination rate. 

Well... I do remember reading something, a good while ago, about different methods of preparing tomato seeds. That was some scientific research thingie, geared more towards industrial production, and there were differences in seed viability... so I think I'll stick with my method.

Which is: Take a ripe tomato that tastes well (obviously!), take out some of the seeds (maybe all, if it's a small tomato or has few seeds) and put them into a small glass. Add a pinch of sugar and some water, swirl around. Let stand for long enough, usually between 2 and 3 days, depending on temperature and general conditions. The way I decide whether it's time to get them out or not is swirling the contents around in the glass; when the seeds sink quickly to the bottom of the glass, they are ready. I then put them into a small sieve, wash the gunk off (gently rubbing with the fingers), put them onto a paper towel, and let them dry. 

Worked very well for me these past years, the seeds don't stick together, and they have stayed viable for at least several years. (Might take them longer to sprout if they are older, though.)

Do you save your own seeds? Do you treat the seeds in any way?

I woke up this morning to the sweet, sweet sound of raindrops falling. 

It's been very dry here for a good while - summers are hot these days without the relatively frequent thunderstorms that used to come every few days when it was hot and sunny. This morning there was just a little gentle rain, which did not last for long and did not yield much moisture (it was about one litre per square metre), but now we finally have some more, with a good dose of thunder thrown in, and that is very, very good. I hope the thyme in our lawn will get blooming afterwards, and it's also going to make the plants that are still not crispy very happy.

Another happy thing? The Grünes Heupferd in our wintergarden has grown up and is now an adult. At least she has wings now, in the proper size, not just the little stumps.

So. Rain, a grown-up green lady, summer break coming up, and the first tomatoes are also starting to turn red. Plus it looks like my lemon grass did actually survive the Great Grub Attack - something laid eggs in that specific flower pot, and the grubs that hatched from them were too many for the roots of the plant. I found the grubs by chance when looking into the pot and pondering re-potting. Which I then did, of course, and two of the stalks still had some hint of green. One of them is growing again now, jury's still out for the second one, but at least the one is saved and can eventually grow into a proper large plant again.

(The grubs were transferred to the compost heap, where they can eat to their hearts' delight. Without killing my plants!)