Today the lawn mower came out of the shed! The first mowing of the year! Fresh cut grass! Summer bulbs have been planted. The wee plants from Groei & Bloei are now all in potting soil in pots in the back yard. The terrace by the Mexican shed had to be reworked to make it level. More Canadian Slate was used for the finishing touches. Ate lunch outside but this time I didn't need an extra fleece to keep me warm. I was almost sweating while I was gardening! Two gardens a day now for Weeding.nl. DST has started and this makes for longer days and shorter nights! Let the gardens grow!

The plants have arrived by Groei & Bloei Baarn! A few thousand small "plugs" were ordered last year. This weekend they were counted, divided and the orders filled. My order was quite small: 5 Fucshia's, 5 Rhodochiton's, 20 Zinnia's, 5 Lythrum's and 20 Nicotina. There are a few more nights with night frost and then these little plants can start their new life out in the garden.

Located south of Soest are the Soester Dunes.

A very different view of The Netherlands

than the typical windmills, wooden shoes and tulips!

Rain, wind, sun or snow, there is always a photo moment!

Dogs and their human partners love the dunes as well!

Chickens. Wouldn't it be nice to have a few running around the backyard. They are so enjoyable to watch as they scratch the ground. To collect fresh eggs most mornings and start the day off right with an English breakfast, complete with mushrooms, tomatoes, beans and toast! Yummy! I wonder if chickens eat slugs and would leave the Hosta's alone? If a cat entered the yard, what would happen? Do chickens and Blackbirds communicate? Being down wind from a chicken farm on a summer's day is not the nicest experience. What would the average backyard bunch smell like? Well, I won't be finding these things out nor will I be eating "yard"fresh eggs daily. I will stick to my bowl of oats while watching the Blackbirds look for food to feed their young!

This is the future Hosta Boorder in our backyard. 22 pots. The 5 large hosta's in the centre row will be taken out, split, half of the plant will go back into the original pot and the second half of the plant will be set into a smaller pot making that 10 filled pots. The others will be filled within the year. The Gardener's calendar is filled with Spring markets and Hosta Days at nurseries. Then there are a few Hosta's that will have to be moved from the frontyard to make room for annuals. Before you know it the battle of the slugs will be in full swing!

You know when you are enjoying the good life when you can go out and purchase dirt. There are many different kinds of dirt: to put in pots, to put over the dirt that is already in the garden, to use with orchids, under differnt bushes, special dirt when planting a beech hedge, eco friendly dirt(?) and don't forget the huge name brand selection of dirt available at most store's and garden centre's. Why is dirt measured in litre's and not in kilo's?

March 21. Spring! Spring! Spring! Ah, the good life. The sun is all up before 7:00 am! Another week before DST begings. I get the day started early. Wash is started in the "in house "electric wash machine. There is hot and cold running water out of a tap to wash my face. Don't forget to take the recharged battery and put it in the digital camera before leaving the house! Just a short walk from home to see this! Back home to upload this photo onto a laptop. Boil clean drinking water from the tap in the electric kettle to make porrige. Turn on the coffee! Process photo's. Connect to wireless internet! Blog away!

What is this? This is not a new dish for a vegetarian! This is the start of a collection of empty, found in the gardens while I am working, slug houses for a very creative project. I saw a wreath decorated with shells ans slug houses. So I thought I would try to make a decorative item with only slug houses. Maybe I will have enough by the end of the summer. No, you don't have to send any slug houses to me through the mail!

A fun nature project to keep or to give as a gift is a candle holder made from a slice of Birch tree. Tea candles can be set in if you can find someone with a drill bit that big!

Baarn, The Netherlands
Bilthoven, The Netherlands

The new entrance to platform 4 (Baarn - Utrecht) at the train station in Baarn!

I went for a walk around Bilthoven yesterday and came across this Lunchroom. The menu looks tasty but it was closed. Lots of places are closed on Monday's in The Netherlands. This would be a good destination for a bike ride. Bilthoven is just 14 km away!

Good Morning! It's just after 7:30 am, warm and overcast. Warm, I mean around 10C! Door and windows are open. DST(daylight Saving Time) was on March 8 in Canada, starts March 29 here and on April 5 in Mexico. So soon, in old money, the time will be 8:30 and the evenings will be lighter longer! Hibernation is over and a lot of Dutch people will be heading out into their gardens and visiting the Garden Centre's today. I was having fun in our garden yesterday changing the plant lay-out once again. The bycicle trailer sure is handy! I picked up two huge containers yesterday and today I will take the fencing that is no longer needed to Buitenzorg. Coffee is ready.

Weeding.nl has expanded! A trailer that can hold 90 liter's or 90 kg. is now part of the Weeding.nl inventory! The first ride was smooth, once I got out of the backyard!

Do you know about Piet Mondriaan?

Last night Groei & Bloei Baarn held its monthly info evening. The theme was Follies. Mrs. Boogart from Eindhoven came with her selection of slides and gave an energy filled interesting two hour presentation. The Folly hunter must have a fun time hunting these down. " When creating a folly the builders threw away all the rules!" Some web sites to check are: www.follytowers.com www.follies.org.uk The Flower Arranging Club meets the Monday evening before. They are given a sentance, saying or quote the month before. Then they must come up with their own creation with their own materials. Their flower works of art decorate the Speeldoos, the building that Groei & Bloei uses on Tuesday night.

This is the end result! No outdoor photo behind the frame. That will be for a different project on a different day! Ofcourse the window frame is bigger at home than in the store, 90 x 120 cm.!The white paint on the frame has also been sanded off here and there to give it a weathered look. Soon I will be planting real plants and a few climbers.

Today we celebrated the opening of the new and improved Scout Shop at Buitenzorg with cake and coffee. The Scout Shop in Hilversum has closed and Buitenzorg is now the main Scout Shop for this area!

The new Centre Managers and daughter unwrapped the door to open the new shop!The selection in the shop has expanded to include more outdoor items and all the group scarves for this region. There are also gift ideas for the scout that has everything! Come and check it out! Wednesday's from 14.00 - 17.00 and Saturday's from 10.00-16.00.

Vacation? Not yet! Need some refreshing garden idea's? Head on over to a garden centre near you! This display is at Garden Centre Overvecht in Utrecht. There are so many things in that store. Too many! Know your limits and design wishes or you might end up with a garden full of clutter.

Any theme can soon be in the biggest garden or on the smallest balcony. Just by adding chairs, gravel/sand/grass, a few fake or real plants, a mural or wall hanging and a few accesories friends will want to come and visit! Don't forget the candles!

This is my next garden project. First paint this window frame white. You know, sand, degrease, use paint for outdoor projects. Use a good quality brush otherwise you waste time picking out those brush hairs! Beter yet,before you start painting, send a digital photo, I like photo's with depth, to a company to get it printed, to the size a bit bigger than the window frame, on weatherproof canvas/plastic. They then send it back to your house! No need to go and pick it up during store opening hours! Carefully remove the photo from the wooden frame. Recycle wood(camp fire). Attatch the photo to the back of the painted frame, right side facing front. A staple gun should do the trick. Check to see if you have enough staples. Go to hardware store if necessary. Oh, and don't forget to pick up a "hang up" thing so that when the project is complete you can hang it up on the screw that has been anchored into the wall in the hole that has been drilled using the electic drill with bits for cement. Neatly trim the photo so that no cut egdes can be seen from the front and sides. Seel cut edges. Attatch that thing on the back so you can hang it up. Looks more like a window now! An extra idea and something that I will be doing is adding a window box. This will hang from the bottom of the window frame with the help from two metal "window box uphang system" things. Fill with potting soil and plant! A mixture of herbs for the kitchen and flowering plants should complete the project!

This is the ultimate spread for bread! For those of you that have visited The Netherlands you will know that there is a wide selection of spreads and toppings available for bread! Chocolate spread, Hagelslag(milk, pure, white and mixed chocolate sprinkles), jams, honey, licorice flavoured powder, chocolate-hazelnut spread, just to name a few. Now there is Speculoos, a speculaas cookie flavoured spread. Spreadable fudge! Just imagine what delicious things you could create using this product! Chocolate cake topping, between two cookies, on ice cream......Don't judge the Dutch on their sweet toppings. Who remembers Kraft's Marshmallow in a jar? Is it still out there?

Happy Spring

This is the Fruit Circle that was planted at Buitenzorg during the weekend. The Apple trees are: Jacques Lebel(1825), Rode Boskoop(Goudreinette, Reinette du Canada) and Notaris(1890). The Pear trees are: Kruideniers, Charneux and Beurre Hardy. The Black Currants are Ribes Nigrum Titania. The Red Currants are Ribes Rubrum Jonkheer van Tets. Then there is one Cox's Orange Pippin Apple tree that was a gift to the Centre Managers. This has been planted in the Fruit Triangle but not in the Circle.

In the background you see a building. This is the Owl's Nest where you can find the showers and toilets for the campers. There will be a wire fence set up between this and the Fruit Triangle. Climbing Black Berries and Raspberries will be planted and trained to cover the fence giving the building's users a bit of privacy and making the Owl's Nest less obvious to passers by.

There was a lot of activity at Scoutcentre Buitenzorg during this staff weekend! The weekend is a time when all camp staff, handy-men, the forrest maintenance crew, the Centre managers and all other volunteers at Buitenzorg get together and share stories, plan the coming year's events, update information and get ready for the coming summer season! This year Buitenzorg will be 60 and will be celebrated on June 27th!

One of the big changes that you will come across at Buitenzorg is the planting of fruit trees and a few currant bushes. First the neglected area was cleared and then a plan was created by an apprentice with his coach and the rest of the forrest maintenance crew. The plan incorperates the three walnut trees that were planted two years ago as a project to help the atmosphere by filtering out CO2. The apple and pear trees chosen are of an older race that are not grown for high productivity for todays market but for their taste. These trees have been planted in a large circle. Red and black currant bushes are spaced between them. Blackberry bushes have been running wild for years and will have to be cheked and controled on a regular basis. The ground will be levelled out, grass seed sown and maybe even a one of a kind picnic table will be made and set in the centre of this beautiful fruit cirle planted in a triangular piece of ground.