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Things are looking good in our garden. The Wood Ragwort (Senecio nemorensis, Schaduwkruiskruid in Dutch) is growing fast and looking very
strong. The Absinth Wormwood (Artemisia absinthium, Absintalsem in Dutch) is doing well also, though it's still a small shadow of the plant this one
originated from (see the plants page in the pictures section, second picture on the first page). I'm glad to see it's doing well
in our garden though, as the original plant had to make way for construction (see also one of my Swift project pages!).
The pond is doing ok. There's quite a bit of algae growing in it, probable mostly due to a surplus of nutrition, and none of the seeds I planted have
germinated. But the Yellow Flag (Iris pseudacorus, Gele Lis in Dutch) is doing very well, as is the Gypsywort (Lycopus europaeus, Wolfspoot in
Dutch) that came along when I took the small Yellow Flag from a nearby lake. Nothing going on plant-wise in the 'marsh' either. Blackbirds (Turdus
merula, Merel in Dutch) come to bathe in it pretty much daily though, which is fun to watch and supplies me with small black feathers (I collect small
mostly fluffy feathers to put into Swift nestboxes as nestingmaterial).
The last picture shows a small bit of our back garden. I really like how a small bit of ground can hold so many nice plants. The three blueish-green plants
that grow from bulbs in the lower left corner are onions. When I find an onion that is growing leafs while making dinner I plant it in our back garden. They
dont grow with the nice purple flowers that most cultivated onions have, but the white flowers are still nice and attract plenty of insects. Only just
visible in the left, above the onions, is an Aster species. The triple-lobed, toothed leafs to the right of the Aster belong to Hop (Humulus lupulus,
Hop in Dutch). The small somewhat kidney-shaped leafs growing all over the place (but clearly visible between the grass in the front) belong to Ground Ivy
(Glechoma hederacea, Hondsdraf in Dutch). The purple flowers belong to Heartsease (Viola tricolor, Driekleurig Viooltje in Dutch), or possibly
a garden variaty of that species. The small plant in the centre of the photo, with a purpleish stem, is Watermint (Mentha aquatica, Watermunt in
Dutch). I think that may have arived in our garden with the wind because even though I really like it, I don't recall sawing or planting it there. Between
the two Watermint plants (there's one at the base of the Robinia post as well, a bit hidden) stands the purpleish stem of a Columbine (Akelei in Dutch), of
which the flowers are not in this picture (they're not spectacular anyway). Just behind the Watermint in the centre there's a shiny dark green leaf that
belongs to an Eastern Purple Coneflower (Echinacea purpurea, Rode Zonnehoed in Dutch). The white flowers at the top are those of Greater Stitchwort
(Stellaria holostea, Grote Muur in Dutch). All the way at the top are, best visible between the stem of the Columbine and the Robinia post, leafs of
Alfalfa (Medicago sativa, Luzerne in Dutch). I nearly overlooked one, a pale green prickly leaf behind the largest of the onions. I'm not sure of the
species, it looks like some kind of thistle.
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