gardenless gardener

my hometown in winter

2012-01-26T06:44:00.000-08:00

A walk in Brno, yesterday, before sunset

winter bloom

2012-01-08T12:35:00.000-08:00

I have had this Helleborus for at least three seasons and now is the first time it is about to bloom.

This was Josefínka's favorite path around the house, she used to love to come here to enjoy the sun-heated pavement.

I like to think that this plant is putting forth its blossom for her.

In this unusually warm winter, another Helleborus, Senecio, Heuchera and Hebe are holding strong on our baclony.

sad parting

2012-01-05T03:20:00.000-08:00

The end of the year 2011 was very sad for me. On the last day I had to say good-bye to my beloved little cat Josefínka. Two weeks before she suddenly stopped eating; the vet found she was severely anemic and blood tests revealed feline leukemia. There is no cure for this disease in cats. She made it through Christmas and even raised my hopes by becoming slightly better and starting to eat a little. Then, toward the end of the year she gradually became worse and worse. It was heartbreaking but at least I was able to stay with her until the last moment. I miss her very much.

I would like to share with you some of the happy moments we shared together last summer.

On our balcony with her "siblings". She loved to soak up the sunshine there.

Last year we got this wonderful portable cat enclosure from my sister and so the cats were able to enjoy a little bit more outdoors at our Grandmother's garden where it is not safe to roam freely.

She loved going out on a leash. And she was fearless, in spite of her frail constitution she wasn't afraid of strangers or dogs or anything. She enjoyed lying on the ground and watching ants or birds or squirrels or anything that caught her attention. The less she saw with her only eye, the more she looked.

She loved people. The cat shelter where I picked her advertised her as a very timid little cat no one wanted. She remained timid for about a week after I took her in. Later she seemed never to get enough of the human touch. She was only able to enjoy it for four years with us. I was taken aback by her illness. Suddenly there was so little time left. I wish I had given her more strokings, more cuddles, more kind words.

I hope that the love and bond we shared - most intensively during the final days - can somehow last forever.

On the last morning I promised her it would.

almost winter?

2011-12-15T08:25:00.000-08:00

We usually have snow at this time of the year!

discovery

2011-10-23T23:57:00.000-07:00

One young squirrel became acquainted with the feeder yesterday.

young squirrels 2

2011-10-09T13:06:00.000-07:00

Today I was able to take some more shots of the squirrel youngsters playing.

Enjoy!

young squirrels!

2011-10-08T05:10:00.000-07:00

Thank you to all my followers who have patiently waited for me to blog again...

Today I had a big surprise waiting for me outside the door. Four young squirrels were chasing each other on the pine trees in front of our house! They are so cute. I like to think that our squirrel feeder has helped their mother along, and I hope to see these little ones find the feeder as well, as the winter time is approaching... There has been abundance of acorns, beech nuts, and hazel nuts this year, and I have been diligently collecting, drying, and storing.

sunflowers to heal contaminated soil in Fukushima

2011-07-13T00:02:00.000-07:00

Activists are asking people to plant and grow sunflowers with a goal of decontaminating soil made radioactive in the wake of the Fukushima nuclear disaster. A group of young entrepreneurs and civil servants are asking volunteers to grow sunflowers, then send the seeds to the Fukushima area where they will be planted next year to help clean the soil of contamination.

The process of extracting contaminants from the soil via plants is called phytoremediation. While animals can move away from pollutants or other toxics (if they’re lucky), plants have evolved ways to live with the toxics and eventually extract them from the soil. The downside is that the concentrated pollutants, such as radioactivity or lead, can then pass along the food chain if not disposed of properly.

Fungi, bacteria and plants have remarkable properties that can help clean up the messes that we humans create. While no one solution will solve the problem of irradiated soil and the struggling farmers, it’s always wise to look to nature first for the processes that can heal the land.

Read the whole article here

Flower market in Leuven

2011-06-07T01:36:00.000-07:00

Two weeks ago I went on a business trip to the town of Leuven, Belgium.

On Friday morning they made my day by taking all these beautiful flowers out into the streets!

enjoy your breakfast

2011-05-24T02:30:00.000-07:00

our squirrel feeder in action!

2011-04-01T08:03:00.000-07:00

praying for Japan

2011-03-17T01:37:00.000-07:00

for the people, animals and gardens of Japan

The Japanese Homeopathic Foundation has set up an account for donations for the sufferrers of the earthquake

A message from Torako Yui, Chairperson of the Japanese Homeopathic Medical Association:

This huge earthquake in North east coastal area has been reported as the worst in Japan and I heard the below news as one episode what was happening on this horrible day. This made me think about this event, being in the midst of an ongoing process. I would like to tell you very important thing how I would take this disaster and would like you to think.

There was a young lady, who was working for the village town hall in south Sanriku town, which was one of the badly affected places. She was in charge of risk management in the town hall and had a responsibility to inform people in village that the town is expecting to have a huge Tsunami, so she decided to stay at the hall. Even her mother called her to escape, this young lady did not respond to it and kept announcing people in the village through local transmission ‘Please evacuate from the village! Please evacuate! 6m high Tsunami is coming to this town!’

Her mother made the heartbreaking decision to evacuate from the village by a car, leaving her daughter behind. She evacuated, listening to her daughter’s announcing voice. Cars behind the mother were wiped away. People kept beeping horns in their cars for seeking help. The mother could escape to a mountain side with listening to her daughter’s voice and car horn sounds, but it was real pain for her.

In the end, most of people at the village town hall were killed by this disaster. Only a few tough men who hanged on an iron pole on a roof terrace could survive. The young lady was announcing on third floor of the building until the end. All windows were broken and there were full of rubbles in the wracked building. It was found that the tsunami was not 6 meter high, but was 10 meter high, and wiped the young lady and the village town.

Moreover, the most serious problem by this huge Tsunami has now been on nuclear plants on the coastal area. Japan has approximately 55 nuclear plants on coastal places, which is extraordinary in the world.

What this disaster made me think was that Japanese people should be awakened cleverly. I think that we should start a movement to stop having nuclear plants. I think Japanese people should be brave enough to say that we do not need them anymore, and I would like to generate such move from Japan to the world.

I think it would be good if other countries in the world agree with this move, as Japan start this protest against nuclear plants. What Japanese people should do now is to replace nuclear plants with other resourced plants, being used natural power such as oceans’ waves, and winds. We really should work towards such development, which we can use nature to generate electricity.

I am strongly feeling that Japan should start this move, dreaming a day, when there is no nuclear plants in Japan, in midst of this disaster.

At the moment, 1,800 people were found killed, 15,000 people are missing. It is expecting the death toll will be more than 10,000 people.

As Japan have already experienced atomic bombs in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, we, Japanese people really should tell that we do not want to have nuclear plants in our country. I think that it is time for Japanese to face this issue.

If we, Japanese people, do not do any actions after suffering from such big disaster and huge victims and being expected radiation exposure, it will not change nuclear plants situation in the world.

I am feeling this is our mission for Japan, who received this big catastrophe. That is why, it is time for we, Japanese, to hang in. We could not realize how dreadful to have 55 nuclear pants until we had such huge victims. That is why, I think we have to keep improving ourselves every day.

Hahnemann said ‘Aude sapere (Dare to know)’.

We have to know what is safe and what is not safe, what is truth and what is not truth, and what is right and what is not right. It is time to know those things.

I believe that people in the world will be saved if Japan stop having nuclear plants.

I think that Japanese people should start this move with courage. I really hope such dangerous nuclear plants will disappear from your countries, too.

Torako Yui
Chairperson of JPHMA

European Tree of the Year

2011-02-21T04:33:00.000-08:00

Through the trees we help people find their way to nature and each other.

Choose one of the candidates from

Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Romania and Slovakia,

and vote for the Tree of the Year

European Tree of the Year

homegrown revolution

2011-02-09T00:22:00.000-08:00

Winter time... Gardeners are half-hibernating, searching through gardening books, dreaming of spring...

Time to watch some inspiring videos... I found this great one on

Urban Food Production:

HOMEGROWN REVOLUTION - RADICAL CHANGE TAKING ROOT

the keeper of the wilderness

2011-02-03T00:37:00.000-08:00

Continuing with the theme of preserving ancient forests and natural habitats of wild animals, let me take you for a virtual walk through the Silent Valley of the Slovak mountains - the Tatras. Here, in the heart of Europe, an isolated fortress of true wilderness has been restored after 40 years of no interventions by humans. Meet the bears, the wolves, the mountain goats...

The trailer is in Slovak but the images speak for themselves

Strážca divočiny - Keeper of the Wilderness

The DVD with English, French, German and Polish subtitles can be ordered at info@arollafilm.com

help save ancient forests of England - petition

2011-02-02T11:34:00.000-08:00

"So often described as our equivalent to the rainforest, ancient woodland is defined as a habitat of extraordinary continuity which stretches back hundreds - even thousands - of years. Ancient woods therefore are fragile and highly sensitive to change - and are irreplaceable."

Your voice counts, too

Woodland Trust

buy your own tree

2011-01-31T23:45:00.000-08:00

How citizens have fought to preserve a unique, untouched forest

in Central Europe -

WOLF Forest Protection Movement

Buy your own tree

"On 1st of April 2004, the regulation of the District Environmental Office in Prešov, by the force of which the private nature reserve "Vlčia" (Wolf Reserve) in Čergov Mountains is declared, and the ordinance of the District Environmental Office in Trenčín, by the force of which the private nature reserve "Rysia" (Lynx Reserve) in Strážovské Mountains is declared, come into effect. Both reserves are located in forests owned by the WOLF Forest Protection Movement and are the first private nature reserves aimed at forest protection in Central Europe. Nowadays, we already succeed in declaration or extension of several other state reserves"

a thought for the holidays

2010-12-25T00:13:00.001-08:00

Every part of this earth is sacred to my people. Every shining pine needle, every sandy shore, every mist in the dark woods, every meadow, every humming insect. All are holy in the memory and experience of my people. We know the sap which courses through the trees as we know the blood that courses through our veins. We are part of the earth and it is part of us. The perfumed flowers are our sisters. The bear, the deer, the great eagle, these are our brothers... The shining water that moves in the streams and rivers is not just water, but the blood of our ancestors... The rivers are our brothers. They quench our thirst. They carry our canoes and feed our children. So you must give to the rivers the kindness you would give any brother... Remember that the air is precious to us, that the air shares its spirit with all the life it supports... Will you teach your children what we have taught our children? That the earth is our mother? What befalls the earth, befalls all the sons of the earth. This we know: the earth does not belong to man, man belongs to the earth. All things are connected like the blood which unites us all. Man did not weave the web of life, he is merely a strand in it. Whatever he does to the web, he does to himself.

words attributed to Chief Seattle

squirrel feeder

2010-12-09T01:34:00.000-08:00

This is Silky Soul being creative.

One week ago we finally put the feeder up on the tree that we see from the window and balcony. The squirrels haven't found it yet. It is waiting for them filled with walnuts, chestnuts, beechnuts and sunflower seeds.

I learned how to make a squirrel feeder, what to put in it and why it is necessary to feed them, from a lady who runs a squirrel sanctuary. Every year some baby squirrels fall out of the nest, or adult squirrels get injured by cars or predators. The sanctuary receives squirrels from all over the country and makes sure they get all the care they need in order to get well again. Squirrels that recover from the injuries are then released into the nearby woods. Others, that would not be able to survive at large, stay and live a happy life at the sanctuary. The sanctuary updates photos and stories on their Facebook page. You can see how the feeder works here.

more squirrels!

2010-11-07T10:54:00.000-08:00

By now I have three. Here is Agáta, the black one, that sat and apparently just meditated the other morning just a few meters away from my window on a branch of a pine tree. This picture was taken from the window.

I went outside to take a live look at her and found another black squirrel on the spruce tree!

So this is where another squirrel box went.

Agáta no.2 came to say thank you in person.

Thanks to Silky Soul who can climb trees...

If you wonder what squirrels actually do in these boxes, take a look…

furry acrobat

2010-11-03T13:09:00.001-07:00

Last weekend Silky Soul and I decided to put up a box for “our” squirrel. The squirrel story is starting to turn into a sort of community project. Now many neighbors know what I am after, so one tall neighbor volunteered to climb up a ladder lent by another neighbor who is also offering old walnuts and dried mushrooms from the previous year to feed the squirrel. Another elderly lady is watching the squirrel from her window “for me” and reports on her every move.

The moment we went out to put up the box, the squirrel was right in front of the entrance door and rewarded us in advance by this acrobatic performance.

Silky Soul was self-possessed enough to capture it.

I call the squirrel Agáta.

As we were hanging the box to the tree (it is an old linden tree and we decided against using screws), another, red squirrel ran up the tree, took a quick look and disappeared.

It is actually a bird box, not a squirrel den but the squirrels are supposed to like it too. I am curious. We later found the other squirrel on a spruce tree on the other side of our house, next to a busy intersection. Thanks to Silky Soul again, we are fortunate enough to have this picture of him. I call him Adam. We already have another box ready to go up this tree.

I am very excited to actually have two squirrels! Our next plan is to make a squirrel (bird-proof) feeder to help them overwinter. Don't worry about the birds, they already have many bird feeders around.

I am thankful to Silky Soul and my neighbors who are helping me to make my plans come true. I wouldn't be able to do it on my own.

what it takes to make a transition

2010-10-27T06:37:00.000-07:00

Satish Kumar, editor of Resurgence, speaks about the Transition Town movement and the difference between being a pilgrim and being a tourist on the Earth... we are in charge of our environment...

Being in Transition

what can a gardenless gardener do...

2010-10-16T02:11:00.000-07:00

At first, I started fulfilling my gardening dreams by filling up my balcony with plants. Ten came the window boxes. Then I was sorry I had nowhere to expand. I thought about all the lucky people who had gardens. I thought that perhaps one day in a very distant future, I would be able to afford a house with a garden. A dream… And then a thought came – why wait for years to fulfill a dream when there may be other ways to make it come true? And so I started digging up grass in front of the entrance to our apartment block and planting some flowers there.

The neighbors warned me that people or dogs would destroy the plants. I kept on planting, fulfilling my dream. Nobody destroyed anything.

On the contrary, every time I was doing something on this small plot, people would stop by and comment on how they liked it and what difference it made.

People who would not normally talk to me started to greet me from far. I know many people in my neighborhood now.

Although it was not my aim, I expanded from working on my own dream to reach out to other people, too.

And then I started noticing subtler changes. The flowers attract insects. Dead plants attract earthworms, insects attract lizards, earthworms and lizards attract birds and hedgehogs. With all these birds hanging around the house in the middle of winter, I put up a bird feeder on one of the pine trees and started feeding them, and a squirrel came to the feeder for nuts. This year we see her often on this linden tree next to the southern wall of our building. I hope that she has a nest there.

Now in the fall I am noticing that she likes the softer ground on the flower beds to hide her nuts for the winter.

flower beds at present, way past their prime time (entrance to the house from the east)

I started noticing how very much alive this little piece of urban land around our house is. With the increasing tendency of humans to cover every piece of ground by concrete, I am discovering these precious signs of nature right here outside my window, surrounded by buildings and parking lots. It is important to me that I do not harm but try to help preserve this fragile ecosystem. It is a small thing but it is comforting to know that I can do something for the environment and I don’t even need to leave my home.

our building surrounded by trees – view from the south

our building from the west

At the moment I’m busy getting ideas on how to help the useful insects overwinter. You can buy a fancy insect hotel for your insect helpers…

source

or you can make one yourself with pretty much anything you can find… I have made a very simple insect house using a plastic bottle, some birch twigs and leaves for my balcony.

I plan to create something that looks a little less like junk for the flowerbeds outside, maybe something similar to this which I am going to put on my window sill (lying, so that it forms a "roof").

The next exciting project Silky Soul and I have in mind is a squirrel feeder. Squirrels are such lovely creatures, I believe they make everyone smile. In our country they are protected by law as endangered species. And you can imagine what show that would be for the cats to watch from the balcony! So now on my walks I collect anything she might like in her feeder in the winter time, such as acorns, beechnuts and maple seeds, and I'm drying apples and plums for her. I will keep you posted on this project… In the meantime, why not consider building your own insect hotel to ease this coming winter for your little insect buddies. You will surely appreciate their help with aphids and slugs next gardening season! And if you have some maple leaves left over and all the roses in your garden are already faded away, you can get even more creative…

Even autumn can be fun…

rainy days

2010-09-28T03:39:00.001-07:00

fall in our part of the world

rain, cold, wind...

few blossoms...

no more time to ripen...

increased appreciation of central heating...

...and comfortable arm-chairs

family home theater

2010-09-16T05:23:00.001-07:00

down there, two squirrels are chasing each other

cats' bliss

2010-09-08T06:06:00.000-07:00

Just a few days after my post about our cat balcony I found this wonderful catio that has been created recently in the Netherlands. These cats live in bliss with Yolanda Elizabet Heuzen.

I have asked Yolanda if I may share her pictures on my blog and she kindly gave permission, saying, "The more people know about how to keep cats safe and how to find them when they've gone missing, the better."

The "feliary" as Yolanda calls it, was built after one of their cats got lost and her owners put an incredible effort into the search for her. It is the most thrilling detective story I've read recently.

Beautiful way of combining love of cats and gardening...

Something to aspire to!

some more impressions...

2010-09-06T11:03:00.001-07:00

...of the cat balcony

cat balcony

2010-09-03T00:30:00.001-07:00

In the spring, I promised to show pictures of our balcony after the work on the house was finished. So, to start with where I left, this was the sad state of the balcony in May:

…and then in August:

Since I moved in, the challenge of this balcony has been to create a place where I could enjoy a little bit of gardening and where my cats could enjoy a little bit of outdoors. In such limited space these two activities sometimes exclude one another, and so far we have come to this compromise.

For the cats’ safety, the balcony had to be secured with a net. It is unfortunate that I cannot easily get to the plants in boxes outside the net to tend to them better, to pick faded blossoms and prune them but this is one of the compromises that just had to be made.

I didn’t want to feel like a prisoner behind bars and this solution with an olive green net protecting the upper part of the balcony works quite nicely. As there are green trees in the view, visitors sometimes never even notice what they’re looking through. There is a “cat window” in the lower part of the balcony, and that is secured with a solid wire.

Recently I have come across the term “catio” and have admired the many ways people try to make sure their cats have as much fun as possible under given circumstances. Of course, the best thing for a cat would be to run free in a garden. The best thing for a gardener would be to have a garden. We urban dwellers have to make do with what life offers us. Actually, that’s one of the best things I have learned from cats: they always seem to be quite happy with just what they have at hand, as if knowing too well that it could always be worse.

This is my youngest cat Josefínka, she came to us from a cat shelter already grown-up, supposedly very timid; she had sufferred unknown eye injury as a little kitten. She would make a good Halloween cat, only we don’t have Halloween. She has some issues related to the injury, and is being treated by homeopathy which seems to be working well.

Tadeášek is the embodiment of love. I got him from a shelter as a little kitten; he started to follow me everywhere and has never stopped since. He is the most vocal of them; quite unusually for a cat he can sing, ring, croak and bark, too.

Štěpánka is my first, and she is the smartest. Mind you, she can catch a bird through the net. She likes her personal space and is the only one that doesn’t sleep in bed but whenever I am down feeling sick, she comes to lie in my feet and heals me in her own feline way. A friend of mine found her in the street as a kitten. I never had a cat before; I actually wasn't sure that I liked cats.

Now on to the plants: The balcony has much shade, and so my favorites include hosta, ferns, coleus, heuchera and astilbe for the pots, and fuchsias and begonias for the boxes. The fuchsias and begonias overwinter inside the building in the hallway which has the right temperature but not enough light. This year they had to stay there much longer than usual because of the work being done on the balcony, and they never fully recovered from the abuse.

The space is limited but we all try to enjoy all that it has to offer, constantly rearranging the pots, plants and pebbles to suit our taste, some of us intentionally, others while chasing each other, but always delighted with the results.

running with the wolves

2010-08-23T05:43:00.000-07:00

A visit to Silky Soul’s homeland among the hills and deep forests of the Carpathian Mountains in the easternmost corner of Slovakia near borders with Ukraine and Poland, where you can still run into wolves, European bison, or a bear…

This bear representing the Carpathian Mountains is one of the symbols of the local ethnic minority called the Rusyns or Rusnaks or Carpatho-Russians or Ruthenians. One of the most well-known Rusyns was Andy Warhol whose mother came from near the town of Medzilaborce in this area, now the seat of the Andy Warhol Museum with the second largest collection of his works.

Rusyns are of Greek Catholic or Russian Orthodox confession and built purely wooden churches in the past without metal nails because they refused to use the same tool that nailed Christ to the cross. Some of these churches have been preserved and now are inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage list.

As always, I was on the lookout for cats and small gardens:

Feeling healed by beauty, on our way back we carried along with luggage also this picture by a Ukrainian artist that now hangs in Silky Soul’s consulting room, hopefully contributing to the therapeutic processes taking place there…

Yuri Behas, Thirteen Poplars

plant a tree

2010-07-08T02:54:00.000-07:00

Plant a tree. You found several here when you landed on this old earth and you've seen many cut down during your time. You probably cut down a few yourself. The children who are born after you've passed have a right to find a few trees standing. But they will not if every person who passes through this vale of tears cuts down a few and forgets to plant any. Plant a tree. Plant a dozen of them, and then you will have done something for the generations who follow you, even as someone did something for you ages ago.
FORT LAUDERDALE HERALD

The simple act of planting a tree

holiday in the Mediterranean

2010-06-28T06:17:00.000-07:00

Island of Brač, Croatia. The sun, the sea, the pebbles…

I was prepared to find some pretty little gardens with lots of flowers. I was right.

What I wasn’t prepared to find were all the hungry cats and kittens.

I should have brought bags of cat food!

I know that it is questionable how much tourists actually "help" by feeding stray animals in countries without an established spay and neuter program.

But would you have the heart to walk away from these little ones without sharing your snack with them?

There was one lost soul in particular that touched my heart.

This thin little cat with some older mouth injury, obviously unable to hunt for anything, found us one night on a terrace, watching the starry sky. When I volunteered to do the hunting instead and went to steal some cheese from our roommate, I told her to wait a little and she understood and waited. She seemed too afraid of people to come closer, yet also aware that they were the only source of food for her.

On the last night of our stay we heard some funny noises outside our bedroom window. Silky Soul said it was the aliens coming to get us (we had just watched the movie The Fourth Kind), but it was this little girl who finally found us and lied down to rest on a table beneath the window. I was touched. The next day when we loaded the car, she hid underneath it. I gave her the last meal I could share with her. She sat down at the edge of the road and watched us get in the car. She looked sad and lonely. I cannot get her out of my mind. Her serious, big eyes. Her little mouth, half-open all the time. The ribs under her skin. The way she looked up to the sky at a bird she will never be able to catch.

gardenless gardening inspiration

2010-06-08T05:23:00.000-07:00

Recently, when reading a post about how balcony gardening gets contagious on the balcony gardening blog the 6×8 garden, I remembered some photos that I took in the past during my travels that have inspired me with how much can be done with just a little.

Barcelona, Spain:

Krakow, Poland:

Madeira, Portugal:

Since I became part of the community of fellow gardenless gardening bloggers, I have found inspiration also with the urban organic gardener, especially his former fire escape garden, he offers good practical tips.

In his own words, Anything’s possible!

I have also enjoyed exploring ideas about roof top gardening or parking strip gardening, and I fell in love with the subversive concept of guerilla gardening. If you have 2 spare minutes, do not miss this touching video about a very special guerilla gardener.

A piece of good news at the end, renovation on our house is finished, the weather is warm and sunny and our balcony fully inhabited again. Sadly, now my old camera is on strike, so photos next time…

two days of (some) sun

2010-06-02T05:53:00.000-07:00

We were lucky enough to get two relatively bright days last weekend. This spring is very cold with flooding rains in our part of the world, probably due to the effects of the Icelandic volcano. We loved it when the eruption gave us several days of clear blue skies unpolluted by airplanes. We hate it when it gives us weeks of cold, wet weather. So, with the little sunshine that we did get, all other plans were put aside and we set out on a trip to Arboretum Šmelcovna near the town of Boskovice, then continued to the town and visited the old Jewish cemetery.

Silky Soul says this picture reminds him of a zen garden.

I think a zen garden is a great place to rest.

life on Silky Soul's office balcony

2010-05-26T10:07:00.000-07:00

Silky Soul’s practice in the centre of the town has a little balcony facing the inner space surrounded by ugly grey buildings with just one tall tree in the middle. Quite a dreary view.

So, Silky Soul decided to add some life to it. As the rays of sun never reach this corner, here is what we furnished it with:

hostas and heucheras

coleus

begonia

fuchsia

Perhaps it is no surprise that we were not the only ones who noticed the difference.

They probably chose the most natural looking spot in the long sight but what would you do? Some people warn, Pigeons are dirty, overpopulated and spread diseases, get rid of the nest, again and again, before they hatch. Others say, We should be thankful for at least some sign of nature, we want everything our way, clean and aseptic, but it is us who messed up the animals’ natural environment … Silky Soul tried to get rid of the twigs repeatedly but the birds keep coming back with so much determination I think they have overpowered him by now. To me they look quite touching. Will keep you posted.

life on the balcony

2010-05-12T13:08:00.000-07:00

I have never had a garden. My first opportunity came six years ago when I moved into a tiny flat with a small balcony. I wanted to grow everything! Soon I had to own up to what seemed the sad reality of little light and little space. The balcony faces west and any possible sunlight is shaded by tall birch trees.

Over the years I have come to love shade-loving or at least shade-tolerating plants such as fuchsia, begonia, coleus, fern…

…and my absolute favorite - hosta.

Apart from many plants I have also collected three cats in the meantime. They are all rescue cats adopted from a shelter or directly from the street. I have tried to create a trauma-healing haven for them (and anyone else who shares the flat with them, including myself). The balcony is adjusted to their needs, so there is a climbing tree, a net all around the balcony, and a cat flap in the balcony door.

Since the beginning of this year we have been blessed with the presence of Silky Soul who has become my partner in gardening, cat loving, meatless cooking and endless conversations about the mysteries of Life. He is the one who has encouraged me to create this blog and provides me with more and more ideas on how to make the world a better place to be.

You may have noticed by now that in my opinion nothing looks better together with plants than a cat or two (or three).

Second to them is a Buddha statue which I don’t have. (Photo taken at the Upaya Zen Center, New Mexico by Ottmar Liebert)

One thing to never have around plants is a kitchy plaster gnome, of which I have two (balcony size).

And how does the balcony look right now?

All the plants, all the cats, the cat climbing tree and the net had to squeeze inside our tiny flat; a new façade is being put on our block of flats, and the balcony is completely empty now.

I hope that all of the afflicted will survive this inconvenience and we will soon be able to get back to our normal balcony life.

update on the one-afternoon-garden

2010-05-03T11:20:00.000-07:00

Just one week after the memorable afternoon during which this whole garden was created, see how the plants have nicely settled

sedums, sempervivums, saxifragas and ganesha

sempervivums

sedums and sempervivums

sempervivum

sedum

saxifraga

sedum owl

rock garden ideas

2010-05-03T10:18:00.001-07:00

Do you have a sunny spot with little space? Let yourself be inspired by these tiny rock gardens from a local Brno exhibition

how to make a little garden in one afternoon

2010-05-03T05:05:00.000-07:00

before

after