Oak Hill Cottage Garden - July 2019
It's summer at Oak Hill Cottage Garden and I need a lot of compost for my beds. My flowers are already thriving, and I want the rest of my plants to look as healthy and beautiful!
I absolutely adore these shades of red and pink. It looks so lovely against the green. I'm so excited about how well everything's growing!
The new year has barely just begun, and I wanted to start it off by looking back to last summer at Oak Hill Cottage. It was dry and warm in mid-July, but my garden was thriving anyway. Mostly because of my new watering system, but my lovely nutrient-rich soil helped too of course. As you might know by now, I try to collect mulch wherever I go and soil quality is a big priority in my garden. My newest vlog is about composting at Oak Hill Cottage:
I'm planning on planting more summer flowers at Oak Hill Cottage next year, and even started designing an entire flower bed on the hill. I'm going to write more about this later. But first, more pictures of summer and composting at Oak Hill Cottage:
My daughter Alba's birthday is in July and she wanted to pick some flowers for her celebration. The previous owner planted the New Dawn roses here, it's a beautiful rose I grow at home too. Large and nice-smelling flowers are her favorites!
Our friend Ninnie came over for a cup of coffee. She has been a wonderful support throughout this project. She has so many great ideas! Ninnie also likes gardening and knitting.
I'm letting the kids do their own thing while I'm working on my projects. Basically how we do it at home. They have so many tools to play and use here, and they get so creative! One of their favorite games is to make little inventions for my youngest child Loa. This is his favorite weed whacker.
I was in the middle of writing my newest book in July 2019. I wrote basically all of it here at Oak Hill Garden, and I was able to focus really well here. This is the view from my kitchen window, the violets and japonica just outside my house! I started making a flower bed in this area too.
It feels like I'm digging everywhere and I don't have a clear plan for the area yet. One side of the lawn will be dedicated to vegetables, the other to flowers. Possibly at least! I'm removing old grass sod here so that I can fertilize with bokashi.
I have lots of work today, both in the garden as well as inside the house. Here, I'm getting some grass clippings by the church nearby.
This is how I work on my soil health! I'm going to grow summer flowers here right by the wall. I'm sure that this bed will make both me and anyone passing by very happy!
Not too shabby! I can start harvesting carrots only a few months after getting access to the house. They look a little strange shape-wise, since they had to push through the hard soil. They taste amazing though!
I had some flowers sprout at home that I wanted to plant here at Oak Hill Cottage Garden together with sweet peas. I decided to just wing it since I don't feel like putting row cover on top this summer. Well, a risk is a risk of course. In July, cabbage moth larvae started showing up and then the plants were completely destroyed by the end of summer. It's ok though, I didn't expect that much.
I have a lot more to do in the kitchen garden than here and I'm sometimes surprised by how few tasks I have in front of me here at Oak Hill Cottage. That makes me think that I'm going to have time for some new interesting projects next summer.
The light is so beautiful here at night. The lot is drenched in sunlight all day and then I get the afternoon rays on the front side. I decided to plant a peach tree and grapes by the little outhouse. Hopefully, they can give my new garden a little extra flare!
I decided to be a bit relaxed about my planting in this bed. So, I gathered plants from all over and put them here. It looks really nice though!
I'm not a believer, but I do enjoy having the church so close nearby. I feel like it's a good sign. And it looks beyond beautiful too!
This is my new flower bed that I'm hoping will be in full bloom later this year. I put an old hedge, some grass sod and moss I got from the churchyard on the bed first. The large bags contain soil that I haven't really decided what to do with yet. I got some soil for my kitchen garden and thought I might as well put a few bags here too.
I don't know if anyone noticed, but I didn't post any pictures of lettuce last summer. That's because I didn't grow any of it at home, because I had so much here at Oak Hill. For example this large Romaine which was absolutely delicious!
Looking back, I have to say that the garden rose to a completely new level in July. The summer started cold, I watered a lot and added plenty of grass clippings.
This stone wall actually isn't as old as you might think. One of the previous owners was a stonemason and decided to build the wall since I got tired of people walking in on the lawn. The wall is starting to look a little wonky though, so I need to start working on it soon.
I didn't have that much time to tend to my summer flowers in 2019, but some of them still thrived. I made this lovely bouquet with flowers, cabbage leaves and corn leaves. So pretty!
Be sure to check out Sara's Kitchen Garden on YouTube for more content from Oak Hill Cottage Garden, and don't forget to read the other articles in the series here on the blog.
Sara's Kitchen Garden on YouTube
/Sara Bäckmo
12. February 2020
