How does our garden grow II

In a previous garden post we were very excited about our kiwi plant having fruit for the very first time. Alas, shortly after that the snails came in and killed them off (they attached themselves to the tiny fruit resulting in them falling off the stem).
So there are no new kiwi pics to show you :-(
However...

...we do have blooming chives. Isn't that pretty?


And blooming Oregano as well!


And our blue grape is getting along very nicely. Our neighbor has done some pruning to give them all the sunlight they need.

Of thunderclouds and paper recycle bins

The sky sure looked menacing this morning, but nothing came of it, really. That made our kitty Zelda Mae happy! She hates the rain and oddly blames us when it's wet outside.

She had us all riled up BTW by catching the same unfortunate bird twice. First she ran upstairs with it but I followed her and so she changed her mind and went downstairs again (I just know that I will find some ripe dead bird corpse under my bed one day and it will freak me out!).

Nene caught her - still holding the bird - and yelled for me to come down (I was closing all the bedroom doors just in case). When she finally dropped her prey we put the cat in the hall and pursued the fledgling ( a female house sparrow) ...under the table...behind the kitchen cabinet...table....under the cabinet again....

It wasn't flying well but it disappeared in the neighboring gardens so we went inside to do some work. When she brought the same bird in again some two hours later Nene decided to take it further out. I don't think it will make it to adulthood :-(


Yesterday I bought some fruit plants for the back garden. We prefer usable (read edible) plants like herbs, fruit and veg over just ornamental ones. I was lucky to grab the last set of three small raspberry and 3 blackberry plants. Last week I just missed out on some nice blueberry plants so this made up for it!


What's this? We got paper recycle bins delivered in our hood today. The city had a test drive with these and it turned out to be a great success so it is official. Normally our old paper was collected by a local church once a month...I guess they are out of business now.


Kiwi update! The white flower has turned into this alien looking thing. In the heart of it you can already make out a little 'bub' that will turn (hopefully) into a kiwi.

How does our garden grow

We have a small garden in the front and in the back of our house (and really....it's small - don't forget I live in Holland - there isn't much ground to go around here :-)

Although you won't see me doing much gardening (rosacea and sun don't go together) I do love nature and growing things ourselves. Like strawberries.


Look at this one! He will be yummy (if the slugs don't get to it first)

4 years ago we planted a blue grape and last year we had our first small crop, but alas there weren't enough warm summer days to make them tasty.

Let's hope this year we'll do better!


You know what these are? Kiwis!! Well....they're going to be kiwis one day. First they will be nice white flowers. Like the grape this plant is 4 years old and this is the first year it bears fruit. We are very excited about it.


And here is Zelda Mae, our kitty. She loves hanging out in the garden. Catching flies, dozing in the strawberry plants, stalking the birds. This is her first summer and so far she loves the outdoors!