“Schone Weespad” Garden, Summer and Fall 2025

Garden overview (click on photo for full view, readable).

Garden overview, fruit trees.

Summer and Fall 2025

Elevated flower bed

In May a cubic meter of garden soil was deposited on the front lawn to form a heap. The plants did very well in the fresh soil, so did the weeds.

New gras field below the fruit trees

In 2024, this 100 m2 area with fruit trees was neglected and full of raw weeds, esp. nettles, ivy and ground elder. We used a 10 cm deep soil cutter twice to kill the roots of the weeds. For removing comfreys, we also had to use a spade to dig out their 20-30 cm long roots. Whenever we see another one, alert, spade action.

New kitchen garden, early June. Pumpkins are fast growing, same for Romaine. Gooseberry bush on the right.

Sunflowers

The giant sunflowers grew to giants in only one season.

Giant sunflowers

Magnolia protected by a Stonehenge replica

The small magnolia on the lawn was crushed by Peter's grand child just after I removed the protective street stones.

We decided a buy a bigger one, and protect it with stones again. I still had natural stone slabs of granite, diorite and marble used for kitchen countertops or tables so I decided to have them cut up in Overveen in many pieces to duplicate the Stonehenge lay-out. The marble stones are flat lying and reflect the sun, just like the Egyptian pyramids 4500 years ago which were fully covered with marble.

Stonehenge replica: White marble upright slab right, mid summer sun dawn (50 degrees from North); White marble fla-lying slab left: Mid winter sun set (330 degrees from North).

Early August, potatoes

The yield of the small plot with some 6 potato plants was disappointing, in total only 1 kg, with 2-3 potatoes from each plant, most were small. Normally a single plant yields 5-10 good size potatoes or 1-2 kg.

2 September:Conference pear harvest

We have two pear trees, both with edible Conference pears. Total amount is around 5 kg. One tree is partly overhanging at the neighbors, across the wooden fence so we used a butterfly net to recover those. The pears still need to sweeten by waiting 1-2 weeks but don't wait too long, they could rot. The other pear tree has very green pears, we will try to cook them for preserving for the winter.

Conference pears

Conference pears, conserved

3 September: Grapes harvest

The first two buckets with grapes

This year the amount of grapes are enormous and the grape size is good, some 25 buckets or baskets, around 150 kg. This created a commitment, just pick them all. With a potential of 75 liters of grape juice, we started thinking of buying a proper grape press and wine fermenting bottles for next year. This year we will try 5 liters.

Thinning the vines and green bunches may have helped in the spring but likely the wet spring and dry August helped in creating the nice grapes.

As the amount is large we did the following:

Offer free grapes at the gate, one bucket a day
Create grape juice, one 10 liter bucket with 6 kg grapes gives 3-4 liters of juice. Two hours of work.
Create molasses
Ask friends to pick a bucket

I picked around 10 buckets and created some 15 liters of grape juice and conserved them using an old recipe, see below. They will last for one year.

Recipe to conserve grape juice.

Every bucket had a snail or a beetle that climbed out of the bucket.

Free grapes at the gate.

6 kg grapes taken of the bunches for 3-4 liters of juice.

First 6 liters.

Tomato and green beans harvest, August and September

Twice a week we picked green beans and tomatoes. The cherry tomatoes were early.

The garden beans and haricot vert plant died quickly, only a small harvest.

Beans, initial growth looked promising, but only the green beans survived.

Stakes made from branches of the willow tree

Tomatoes

Green beans and tomatoes

Rice with heated cherry tomatoes, they burst when eating which give a strong taste.

Raspberries, gooseberries and blackberries.

Of the three bushes we planted in the spring, two have fruits. Once a week we pick them, some 10-15 each time. The other fruit bushes planted, did not yield any fruits.

We also have mature gooseberry and blackberries bushes, producing some 1-2 kg per bush. A few others are still small without berries, even after so many years. Decided to care for them, e.g. remove the grass around them and regularly water them.

Row with various fruit bushes next to the balance bar, planted in the spring, includes raspberries, blackberries, blueberries and cranberries.

Raspberries

Passionfruit

The passionfruit plants are old, some 25 years. They have red fruits inside but are not sweet. Still, looks nice.

Passion fruit.

Passion fruit, red fruit inside, mildly sweet, with seeds.

Pumpkins

The pumpkin harvest is excellent, we have around 11 pumpkins, two round ones are already large.

Two large round pumpkins

Five pumpkins

Pumpkins, final 2025 harvest, 11 in total.

Beetroot

The beetroot harvest is poor, most are too small, only three have a good size but two were eaten by woodlice.

Snail and other lice kept a distance, likely due to the marigolds.

Two of the three large beetroots.

New Gingko bush

A Gingko 'Marieke' bush was planted next to the Rhododendron. Both can reach a height or around 2 meters but this will take 10-20 years.

We have several 25 cm high Gingko saplings that germinated from nuts. Distinction between male and female will not be known until they are mature trees and and the female trees start to carry fruits.