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The Art of Artichoking
2008-06-03 10:14:00
Have you ever seen those weird looking artichokes and wondered how on earth you are supposed to eat those things and how to prepare them? And, more to the point, how do they actually taste? Well, wonder no more because here you'll learn the art of artichoking in 7 easy steps. Step 1: put the artichoke in some salty water for an hour or so to get rid off creepy crawlies. Cut off the stem and rub

Why Garden?
2008-05-30 15:30:00
There is no unlucky gardener, for each small success outweighs each defeat in his or her passionate heart. Elspeth Thompson, Urban Garden er, 1999 Those of you who visit Bliss regularly know that I usually finish my post with a quote, this time I start with one. I feel it is such a good quote as it is so very true. Do you, gentle reader, feel that you are a lucky gardener? Do your garden

The Bliss Rose Extravaganza
2008-05-27 07:46:00
Smothered with roses is what is happening at Bliss right now. The front garden is one mass of white roses and many an unsuspecting pedestrian, when turning the corner, looks like s/he has just been hit with the proverbial blunt instrument when they clap their eyes on this extravaganza. And when they get a whiff of that gorgeous rose scent they stop dead in their tracks. Very funny, I've seen it
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French Bliss
2008-05-22 16:08:00
The old watermill in Vernon, Normandy is what I enjoyed earlier this month when I went for a short holiday to Normandy, France. It's a 6 hours drive from where I live so not too bad. My main reason for going was, of course, to experience Monet's garden in May and it did not disappoint as you can gather from my previous post. The weather was lovely so that made the holiday even more enjoyable.
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Monet's May Garden
2008-05-19 08:13:00
Earlier this month I was able to fulfill a dream of mine because I went to see Claude Monet's garden in Normandy, France, in Spring. I've been there twice before, both times in Autumn. Monet's garden looked great then too, it looks great most of the year no surprises there, but I did so want to see it in Spring and now I have. Colour me a happy gardener, a very happy gardener. :-D Without much
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Clambering Clematis Batman!
2008-05-16 09:24:00
that's what I thought when I entered my conservatory this morning. After a dry spell that lasted for 2 weeks it finally started to rain last night which was great as my garden could do with a bit of rain. So I was a happy bunny with all that rainfall until I spotted this one soaking wet sofa and this a puddle of dirty water on the conservatory floor caused by this. a leak in the roof of the
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May Bloom Bliss
2008-05-13 11:24:00
It's almost half May and time once again for my contribution to Garden Bloggers Bloom s Day. There are so many blooms in my garden at the mo that I've decided to show just a selection of them as showing them all plus making long lists of blooms would take up way too much of my time. Last year writing a post for GBBD took up 4 hours of my time from May until October. That's just too much time to

Sowing the Seeds of Love
2008-05-07 15:10:00
That's what I've been doing since late January. There are seedlings everywhere at the mo, in my greenhouse in my conservatory and already planted out in the veggie garden, growing like no body's business. Whenever I do a spot of sowing that song by Tears for Fears always pops into my head; Sowing the Seeds of Love . And they are so right, that really is what we are doing. Just think about it.

To Comment Or Not To Comment
2008-05-05 08:48:00
That is the question. Or is it? Last week my garden friend Birgit (Day After Day, That's Life) wrote a post about commenting or not commenting as one of her blogging friends had switched off the comment section of her blog and had informed everybody of her not commenting on other blogs from now on. Her reason was that commenting simply took up too much of her time. Sister Dolly, do you see any
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Pottering in the Potager
2008-04-29 15:45:00
One of my favourite places to be is my potager. I love pottering around there all day long. Lately we've been having quite a few sunny days and I've made the most of them. In the Netherlands we almost never know what the weather will be like the next hour, let alone the next day. So when the sun is out, I'm out too. Because of all that sunshine and temperatures around 20 C everything is growing

Oops, They Did It Again!
2008-04-26 07:51:00
It's that time of the year again, when birds are singing, bees are humming, butterflies are fluttering and nasty people are stealing your content. That's right folks, it's CTT (content theft time) once again! Yesterday I received an e-mail from my garden friend Frances of Faire Garden whose content had been stolen and published on a website. She asked me if I knew this website, I did not, but

Thinking Outside the Box
2008-04-23 18:45:00
Actually, I was more thinking of this box rather than a window box. :-) My front garden is a formal one but plants are free to think or grow outside the box. I like plants to be free, have a mind of their own, enjoy life and burst from the box beds like there was no tomorrow. Just let them flop all over the place and be happy. I love to design formal gardens and then give the plants a free reign
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The Heem Garden
2008-04-19 07:53:00
Earlier this month I went with my friend Aimee to the heemtuin of Rucphen. Before we go any further let me explain what a heemtuin or garden is. A heemtuin is a garden where, mostly for educational purposes, indigenous flora is grown the way you would find it in a certain area in the wild. And of course where there is indigenous flora there's indigenous fauna to be found as well. I love wild
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A Bliss Review
2008-04-17 11:43:00
A few weeks ago I was asked if I would like to review this book, no strings attached. One look at the cover made me say yes. If you know me at all, then you know that organic is right up my street and as this book claims to be 100 % organic, how could I refuse? A few days after I had said yes, I received the book through the mail. It made a resounding thump in my mailbox because, good heavens,
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April Flowers, April Showers for GBBD
2008-04-14 11:49:00
It's half way through the month again and time for another post for Garden Bloggers Blooms Day, a tradition started by Carol of May Dreams Gardens. Yes, I know I'm one day early but I won't have time to post tomorrow, the 15th. I've started off this post with a pic of my pear tree in flower, always such a wonderful sight to see those precious blossoms. And we have more flowering fruits such as
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April, Zen, Bliss
2008-04-09 16:55:00
It was sunny today and around 14 C so I decided to soak up some much needed sunshine and unwind from all the stress I've had lately. It did me a lot of good just to be in the garden today, perhaps not doing very much; just pottering about, but enjoying myself a lot nevertheless. Contrary to what I wrote before everything didn't go so well for my mother and it is only since last Sunday that she
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Save Our Planet, Start In Your Own Garden!
2008-04-03 10:26:00
Unless you've been hiding in some deep dark hole for the last few years, you have heard of Global Warming and what it is doing to our beloved planet. Perhaps you've even seen the movie An Inconvenient Truth. It is shocking what will happen to mother Earth if we do nothing. Many people want to do something to save our planet and the good news is that you can. Very easily in fact. Today I blog
More About: Garden , Planet , Start , Save

Spring!
2008-04-01 11:31:00
It seems like it is Spring again in the Netherlands. On Easter and during many days after, we had weather like this with lots of hail, sleet, snow and frost but yesterday it was suddenly Spring again with temperatures around 14 C. In my conservatory it became quite warm, 30 C, and most of the Bliss team was there, soaking up their portion of sunshine and warmth. It was nice and sunny yesterday

A Garden Frozen in Time
2008-03-26 09:20:00
This time we are going to make a journey through time, to one of the most famous of Dutch gardens; the gardens of palace Het Loo (pronounced Het Low) near Apeldoorn. It may sound like an odd name but the old fashioned word loo means an open space in the woods and as such it's a very apt name. Het Loo is not a very big palace, as palaces go, and its gardens are not all that big either in
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I'm Dreaming of a White
2008-03-24 09:08:00
Easter!!! Well, not really but it happened anyway.This is the sight that greeted me this morning when I woke up. Snow on Second Easter Day, not something that happens very often around here. So I got out of bed, put on my wellies and went into the garden to snap some pics. We had not had any snow this winter but we're having some now. Not a very thick layer as you can see here, but snow nevertheless. Nowadays it's very rare that we have snow in the Netherlands, so for me this is a very special treat.But it was not only snow that had fallen during the night, there had been some hail as well.And some light frost too.But when I was out and about in the garden earlier this morning I could hear the drip drip drip of melting snow and hail already. The sun was outand the temperature had risen to plus 3.2 C, which is well above the freezing point of water at 0 C. So if I wanted to take some pics of my garden covered in snow I had to be quick about it as it was fast melting away.The birdb...
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Happy Easter!
2008-03-21 09:40:00
According to the calender it is Spring now, but the weather tells me differently. It's been quite cold and wet these last few days so I'm happy that I did a lot of work in my potager earlier this week.This is the colour of the sky lately and it's been raining all day long yesterday and it's stormy, wet and cold again today. My poor daffodils are slightly the worse for wear, so I decided to rescue the ones that had been flattened by the wind and rain and put them somewhere nice and cosy.I swear I could hear them breathe a big sigh of relief! ;-)With weather like this, what is a poor gardener to do? So I decided to decorate my home for Easter .And who was following me around while I decorated the house?Well, Mummy's little helper of course. :-)Kadootje (Small Present) is always willing to help her Mum and she really liked those new Easter eggs I bought for decorating.At least, I thought they were meant for decoration but Kadootje obviously had different thoughts about that.So whil...
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It's a Beautiful Day!
2008-03-18 19:35:00
Daffodil ThaliaIt's almost Spring and some days it feels like it is Spring already. This morning the sun was out and the air was crisp and clear.Looking out from my bedroom window this view was beckoning me to come outside and work in the garden. Who could refuse an invitation like that? Certainly not me!It was still a bit nippy outside, only 5 C / 41 F, but the temperature inside my Victorian greenhouse was a different matter altogether; 39,5 C / 104 F which felt like a very, very hot Summer's day.With temperatures getting as high as that the automatic window openers had to be re-installed. They are removed every October as they get frost damaged if you leave them in during the cold season.It's small wonder that the water cress I've sown last week in my Victorian greenhouse is coming up a treat.Last February I'd sown some lettuce and some radishes too in my cold frames and they are doing great as well. It won't be long now before I can harvest the first radishes from my potag...
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March Blooms at Bliss
2008-03-14 07:31:00
Once again it's time to show what is in bloom at Bliss. Last year Carol had this idea to show what is in bloom every month in your garden around the 15th, and many bloggers from all over the world have joined in the fun that is Garden Bloggers Blooms Day. Here is my contribution for March 2008:Violets in white, pink, burgundy, blue, purple and yellow. Yes, I love violets.Daffodils and lots of them. They are such cheerful flowers that I just got to have them in droves in my garden.I have quite a collection of daffodils as shown in the pic above. That's not all of them as some are not in flower yet.My Thalia dafs (white) are about to burst into flower, can't wait for that to happen as they are so gorgeous and scented too.And we have daisies in flower as well, the common one and the very rare variety Dolly Daisy.The first forget-me-nots are starting to flower,and the Arabis is showing its first blooms as well.The yellow wallflowers are already in bloom, for some reason the purple on...

An Early Spring Garden
2008-03-11 08:30:00
This is the garden that belongs to my friends Anja and Machiel. Their garden is dominated by a lot of trees which make it a very shady garden. Because of all that shade and the stiff competition their plants would get from the trees for water and nutrients Anja and Machiel decided to create a garden where everything is in harmony with each other, instead of fighting to the death.So they created a woodland garden where many plants and bulbs flower in late winter/early spring before the trees get their leaves.And it all looks wonderful. I took these pics from early til the end of February and as you can see there is so much to enjoy already.Hellebores and oodles of snowdrops in flower.Witch hazel.CrocusPrimrosesHelleboreBeautiful Hellebores and snowdropsMahoniaSome more snowdropsIn this garden there are snowdrops in flower from October till end of April as Anja and Machiel are both suffering from a severe case of Galanthofilitis. It's not an illness that is bad for your health altho...
More About: Garden , Spring , Early

Danger Kitty!
2008-03-07 15:54:00
You've probably heard of people in high places before, but how about this?Danger Kitty on top of the shower/steam cubicle.Danger Kitty on top of a bathroom cupboard.Danger Kitty on the conservatory roof.Danger Kitty on the roof of our house.Danger Kitty, a cat with a mission, on the pergola!Danger Kitty on the fence, but not really sitting!Danger Kitty on the roof of the Victorian greenhouse. Hey, I just cleaned those windows!Danger Kitty wiping away her paw prints, she is such a darling!Danger Kitty, coming soon on a roof/pergola/cupboard/shower cubicle/fence near YOU! (not really)Danger Kitty was played by the very talented Surprise of Bliss who did her own stunts.No animals were harmed in making this blog!copyright 2008 Y.E.W. HeuzenMarch winds and April showers,Bring forth the May flowers.Have a great weekend!

My Garden Hero
2008-03-03 10:35:00
One of my garden heroes is the late Geoff Hamilton who taught me most of what I know about gardening. Geoff presented Garden er's World on the BBC for many years and was one of the first gardeners who promoted organic gardening.He made you feel that organic gardening was really the only option if you loved your planet and wanted what was best for it and all its inhabitants and he made it sound very logical and fun too. I'll never forget his remarkable enthusiasm and passion for all things garden related; even when he was explaining how to sow seeds or take cuttings for the umpteenth time he would still be enthusiastic. No minor feat that.Through the years I bought many of his books, which are all very practical, filled to the brim with good advice and down to earth. Geoff had great ideas about how to make things for your garden that wouldn't cost the earth.Here he explains how to make 2 compost bins and this is what I'm using in my kitchen garden today.They do their job very nice...
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We Are Here
2008-02-29 11:22:00
On the 7th of February Jodi from Bloomingwriter challenged us garden bloggers to write a post (or two) about where in the gardening world you are. Well, that question is very easy to answer so here goes:The Netherlands can be found in Europe, in between the cream coloured Germany and the yellow coloured Great Britain on this map. The Netherlands is that small beige coloured blob. I'd better show you a bigger pic of my country as it is a bit hard to find, one blink and you missed it. ;-)Here we are, that's much better. The Bliss garden is situated in Dinteloord, a small over 400 years old village, half an hours' drive from Rotterdam in the southward direction. It's not on this map as it is so small; less than 5000 inhabitants, which makes for a very peaceful village life in the Dutch countryside.Jodi also asked us to write about something that really tells us where you are in the world. What's really special about your community.But do I really have too, because I'm thinking yo...

Working In the Potager
2008-02-27 09:22:00
As it was such a lovely day last Monday I decided to work in the potager. There was a lot to do. For the next day they predicted rain (90 % chance) so I got my big bag of organic fertilizer out and started spreading the joy around. I use dried cow dung pellets and they are a slow release fertilizer that I use for everything; my veggies, my roses, the borders and hedges, all do wonderfully well with a helping of dried organic cow dung.The rain tomorrow will make sure that the fertilizer sinks into the soil.We had frost lately so I couldn't do the outdoor sowing I normally do around the 15th of February. But last Monday was nice and sunny so I got cracking with my outdoor sowing. The 2 beds I had prepared earlier in January when the weather was so very mild so there was hardly any weed showing in the beds. I just had to rake the soil over a bit and that was pretty much that.In the first bed I've sown broad beans as they are one of my favourite vegs and they are so easy to grow.Here...
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Hellebores (and Something Else) Galore!
2008-02-24 08:35:00
Maroon with freckles, doubleA week ago, on a Sunday, my garden club and I went abroad to visit a nursery. We went to St. Nicolaas in Belgium ;-) to visit a Hellebores nursery. If you have been paying any attention at all, then you know that Hellebores are one of my favourite plants and it's not difficult to figure out why, is it?Double greenWhat's not to like? The plant has beautiful leaves and is more or less evergreen. It flowers for a long period of time (months) in Winter and early Spring when not a lot else is in flower. And speaking of flowers, Hellebores come in so many colours, single or double and with or without spots. Just have a look!Double yellowSingle white with a crimson eyeApricotPure whiteBlack!!!Double pinkDouble cream with maroon spotsPinkSingle yellow with maroon eyeAt the nursery there was also a show garden where we could look at all the gorgeous Hellebores and how well they do outside in the wild, so to speak, and to what size they grow. We got a guided tou...
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Decidedly Droopy
2008-02-21 14:53:00
A very short blog today as I'm not feeling all that good. My neck and shoulders are much better (rest works) but I have an infection in my lower jaw, an infection in my right ear and I've got a fever, am feeling rather dizzy plus I am in a lot of pain. I am on antibiotics and painkillers although the last ones never work all that well for me. :-(Thanks for all the kind words you all send me and the concern so many showed for my well being, I appreciate it.Hopefully, I'll soon feel as cheerful again as those pretty winter aconites!copyright 2008 Y.E.W. Heuzen