la gardenista

Sundaymorning in the fairy-tale garden of my friend Lammie. She knows like no other how to create a unique personal garden and the joy that it brings each season. A gardenista with great style!

As you walk through her garden, you will find surprising corners everywhere and in the middle of the garden there's a small greenhouse, hidden behind a rose bush.

This garden... (sigh) all the greens, so many colors, the different plants, trees, vegetables and flowers.

backyard vibes

Backyard vibes.

New 'kiss-me-over-the-garden-gate' baby plants on the bench. I love the name of the plant and it is a very fast-growing annual that self-seeds in the fall. Once you’ve planted it, you’re likely to have the flower in that spot for years to come. While the plant can grow up to two meters high, it rarely, if ever, needs to be staked. They are seedlings from the Villa Augustus garden, where they returned a bit too abundantly.

And we've finally found a convivial parasol to replace the ripped Shady Lace umbrella, which broke down last summer after 13 years.

This May has been so good so far...

We already had quiet some breakfasts, lunches and dinners in the backyard. It feels like summer.

venice & vreeken

Wednesday morning, Venice-like Dordrecht.

Due to a sudden rain shower, the intended coffee on the terrace, turned out into a Vreeken Zaden visit.

Vreeken Zaden is a family business specialized in seeds since 1926. For years they have collected an assortment of seeds. In the old-fashioned cozy garden shop, you can find besides a large assortment of seeds, a lot of quality tools and special garden- and house plants.

For the shadow side in our mostly sunny backyard, we found a baby ginkgo, a peanut plant, a fern and a 'Lady's Mantle'...

picnic in the polder

vintique

Curiosities & coffee at Lammie's Saturday Shop on the marina quay in Dordrecht.

Lammie sells the best stuff from her treasure hunts from France. The pink (plant) table and zinc flower vase were irresistible and went with home us.

During the first weekends in June, Lammie and her friend Maria will organize a sales exhibition of their French finds. In Maria's large house at the Sarphatipark in Amsterdam, they use the ground floor and the whole upper floor for this exhibition and their friend/artist sets up all the rooms. This tradition is a great experience twice a year.

botanical, artistic & altitude gardens

Although it already seems ages ago, since we drove with our gardens group to the mountains, I would like to share a photo report of our second last day of the workshop.

In the morning we went to the impressive botanical garden, just outside of Marrakech. I can assure you it almost feels frustrating, because you want to take home so many plants, knowing that it is impossible. Just bring home a few cuttings would already be nice...
The amount of plants, the colors, the gigantic size of the garden, the diversity and abundance of flowers, trees, plants, cacti, make you feel like walking around in the plant paradise! You just don't want to leave this place, but we had to continue with the program and went via a rural route to the Atlas mountains and drove along fields full of poppies. Spring everywhere!

Before we went into the mountains, we made a stop at the Anima art garden. The garden, created by André Heller, is so colorful, surprising and so very different from all the places we went on our Green Gardens tour this week. After coffee and austrian cake in the cafe we continued our trip to the Ourika river and we visited the weekly local market.

When we arrived at our final destination of the day, Kasbah Bab Ourika, it was already pretty cloudy, but we were lucky to make a (vegetable) garden tour and have lunch on the terrace, before it started to rain.

We decided to have our desserts at the fireplace and had a wonderful afternoon despite the bad weather.
It was the first time that I have experienced so much rain in April in Morocco in all those years.
Well it did not spoil the fun, but I would have loved to give the participants the sight of the snowy mountains with bright blue sky, like the week before with the Cool Crochet workshop.

Even after my departure (when we had sunny spring weather in the Netherlands), it was still cold and wet in Marrakech, which is unusual for this time of year in North Africa.

The GG workshop was therefore the greenest sofar...

This was the last 'moroccan vibes' blogpost until October, thank you all for following our adventures!