"My Beautiful Garden" - gardening magazine writes about Nastrojowy Ogród, my other blog in Polish.

News, news.... in current editon of gardening magazine "Mój Piękny Ogród", which translates to "My Beautiful Garden" there is entire half page about my gardening blog, that I write in Polish - Nastrojowy Ogród - and also one of my posts is published.

This is the largest gardening magazine in Poland in number of copies sold every month (140 000 pcs).

Editors have picked my Eremurus himalaicus post, that I have written and published in May 2009.



"My Beautiful Garden" belongs to Burda and is published in many European countries.
Probably you are very interested how it happened. I will not keep it secret.
It was beginning of May, when somebody dropped me a comment that my blog was nominated in the competition organised by Burda for bloggers.


I placed information about it on the blog and then my blog readers were voting and that's all.



Competition is not finished yet - it lasts until the end of July. So, it has not ended yet. The award is something around writing for them, meeting the team, visiting the offices and learn how they prepare every edition.



You may also vote if you want to be part of Polish gardening magazine's scene :) Let me put it this way: I will be your candidate!



Just click here and press the blue button 'głosuję' ('vote') - I will be very, very grateful. This is so much fun! I will report next events and how things are evolving.


Thank you for voting!

Cat in Dior

On sunny Saturday morning, Atomik came back home after 2 days of being absent, with severe wound on his back. We took him immediately to vet. The wound looked horrible! it was so deep....
I think that Atomik was really aware how serious is the situation - I could read it in his eyes, when he was patiently sitting on the vet's table that was ugliest thing on the planet for him and probably smelling awfull. He was sitting there: calm, without any sound, scared like hell, his eyes were big and glowing - while doctor was cleaning the wound after local anesthesia.
I looked at Atomik and I could see that despite of stress and pain, he knew that we do all to help him - this is why he was not moving and not disturbing vet to make her job.
She decided to not make stitches, because of the depth and not being able to know how fresh is the wound. So it had to stay open for natural healing process.

After all vet said that she has not seen a cat sitting so quite during similar treatment.

Atomik got antibiotics and painkiller, but how to protect the wound from dirt and licking? Most popular are plastic collars, that make cats look like disgusted satellite dish, but still it doesn't protect the wound from dirt.

It was vets idea to use stockings to make kind of dress that keeps the plaster in place and protects the wound from being licked. Maybe Atomik was not very fond of this idea, but it was perfect solution and made the job.




If you need to use on your cat (which I don't wish you), use entire stocking, only remove the foot part. Cut out small holes for front legs and little bigger holes for back legs.
It took some time and few pairs of stockings to figure out what works best - the foot part of the stockings should go to neck section of the cat, while thigh goes to back part of the body - this way it fits best cats proportions.

On the picture above you can see Atomik catching some tempting smells getting inside from the garden - which he is missing so much. This is already 4 weeks since the event and since he was not out.

As you can see he was pretty comfortable in his new dress, although he was not big fan of it.

The wound is healing well and looks that Atomik will be able to GET FREE tomorrow. He doesn't wear his sexy tights anymore, but he wore it for 3 weeks.

After this sad event is coming to a happy ending, there is only one question left in my mind. How a cat can get wounded so bad?

Most beautiful June flower - what's your pick. GBBD'09

I tried to choose single one most beautiful June flower, but this is not easy.

Rose flowers...?





or peony flowers?









But what about modest beauty of Alchemilla mollis....



..... or Digitalis ......



...... or Geraniums ......





..... or Heuchera ....




... or Irises, which story you may read here .....







.... or Philadelphus coronarius ....



... or Lobelia with hardy Geraniums ....



... or pansies ...



.... or wax begonia ....



This is really difficult to choose - do you have your favourites?

Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day is kindly hosted by Carol at May Dreams Garden - thank you Carol.

Compare 2 Brugmansia Cuttings

Continuing thinking about my 2 identical brugmansia cuttings planted few months ago in March,

on the picture you may see exactly the difference and understand what do I exactly mean.

Those 2 cuttings taken in the Autumn, have spend most of their time in identical conditions. Same water, same light amount, same compost.

The only difference is the temperature in last 3 weeks only.

The bigger plant on the left has spent last 3 weeks at home on the windowsill in steady temp. around 20C/68F, while the smaller plant was growing outside in the garden, where temeratures were dropping at night to 9C/48F.

What a difference, ha?

Can't wait for them to bloom and share the gift of fragrance and look so beautiful like those I've spotted while walking in an old aristocratic district of Warsaw.

PS. I forgot to tell you, that I have painted my garden furniture to white with some old lace decorations. Do you think it looks nice?

Brugmansia cutting expansion

Do you remember my Brugmansia cutting I took in November?

4 months later, in March it rooted already.

Just 2 months later, today it looks like it plans the world domination.

Look at the bottom of the picture, see mobile phone for size reference?

After I placed it on the windowsill, my husband said, that it looks like CGI (computer generated image), not real one.

What do you think?

I keep it at home, while the other cutting is outside since 1 month - temperatures are not too high - rarely exceeding 20C.

Viburnum plicatum 'Cascade' is blooming for the first time

This Viburnum plicatum was planted 3 years ago as a 1 ft / 30 cm high plant - finally it decided to bloom for us....

Flowers of Viburnum plicatum "Cascade" are lasting long - already 3 weeks and still look fresh, without even a sign of fading...

Flowers are sweet looking, white, not fragrant and on lower part of the shrub.

Possibly it has to be moved to different place so the full grace and size can be exposed, because it will reach the hight of 10 ft/ 3m, and width 12 ft / 3,5 m. This is very beautiful, low maintenance, deciduous shrub with cascading stems. You may plant it in polluted areas, at seashores and on the slope. Blooms late spring/early summer, hardiness: zone 4, it will grow great in partial shade and full sun as well. Tolerant to soil pH 4,5-7, prefers sandy loam to clay and doesn't need extra watering.