23C today! The week has been filled with Weeding.nl gardens to weed, enjoying campfires at Buitenzorg with the camp staff and puttering around in our garden. The ikea gate has found a place in the garden. The gate was simple to divide into two. Remove three screws with an Alen wrench down the middle. That was step one. How to attatch the two pices to the wooden poles? Drill a hole the size of the `foot´ an inch or two deep then stick a `foot´ in it! 
Here´s a view of one side of the gate. The big leafy plant is a poppy. I don´t know what colour it is. I recieved it last Autumn as a small seedling. It did overwinter well!
The other half of the gate. In the back ground are Hosta´s in pots. Just recieved an invitation from the Nederlandse Hosta Vereniging to their 20 year celebration as an association. www.hostavereniging.nl Looks like a lot of fun! Entrance fee is 1 Hosta in a pot to help decorate and to participate in the `Best Hosta in a pot´. Every participant recieves a surprise!
A view looking from the house to the shed. Summer Yellow paint is now on the wood trim under the flat roof, the window frame and door. A job that´s not bad to do at home but I wouldn´t want to do this as a profession! I like gardening. Feet on the ground and most work is done below eye level.
Summer Yellow it is!
What a treasure! Finding a cast iron antique gate at a rummage sale or a second hand store for next to nothing is super! A great addition to the garden as a climbing rack for plants. How about Sweet Peas? or large flowering Climatis? Ivy is a big no no! That would soon take over and there would be nothing left to see of the frame. Maybe splitting the frame in half down the middle and placing the two sides along the two pergola poles by the entrance to the garden? There would have to be two long flower boxes full with summer flowers at the base of each! How about painting the gate with hammerite paint? Give it a colour?
There was no gate at a rummage sale or 
"De Levenstuinen van Het Groot Hontschoten" is located in Teuge near Apeldoorn. It started out as a farmer's field and has been transformed into a 1.5 km walk through 25 different but well connecting gardens. These gardens represent the different stages of life, the five senses, the colours of chakra and eastern and western philosophy.
Just like looking at something from a different perspective,
Each of the twelve signs of the Zodiac has a special plant.
Mineral Garden, "De Toega Circle"
In a Victorian Pavilion full of potted plants we could relax, 
Before we leave Italy behind and get busy with gardening here in The Netherlands I thought I would share a few more photo's with you.
I thought these were the greatest plant pots since sliced bread! Half rounds! What a great space saving idea! I have never seen them here and who needs more space saving garden ideas than The Netherlands! Ikea doesn't stock them either.
While enjoying the sun we spotted this critter.
Nice close-up but he will not be hanging on our walls!
And of course, when in Rome!! or Pisa in this case!
The Royal Greenhouses of Laken are one of the most important monuments from the 19th century in Belgium. The Greenhouses are in the park of the Royal Castle of Laken in Brussels.
This project was commissioned by King Leopold II of Belgium and designed by Alphonse Balat. Built between 1874 - 1895. The total floor surface is 2.5 hectars or 270,000 square feet.
It is built mostly from glass and metal. The greenhouses contain an important collection of plants and flowers. This complex has to be heated. They use 800,000 litres of fuel oil every year to heat it!
Every year in the Spring, for a few weeks, the greenhouses are open to the public.
There is a main route to follow through the buildings and outside. Many parts can been looked at but not entered which isn't bad for taking pictures! 
