Fair-y frenzy

I did think I'd spend more than two hours at the Helsinki Spring Fair. It was my first time, and it was interesting but rather different from what I expected. I thought there'd be more stuff for small-time gardeners, tools and such, and opportunities to buy e.g. soil, border stones, yard carpentry work and so on at a discount. I expected a heavy presence by Plantagen and Bauhaus, selling houseplant gear, garden furniture, and decorative features. Instead, it was mostly manufacturers' booths featuring power tools, outdoor jacuzzis, entire log cottages, and presentation pieces showing entire small (extremely fake) gardens of unimaginative design. There were half a dozen booths where you could buy plants, and they were very crowded. Flower shops sold tulips, scillas, daffodils and other typical spring plants at prices higher than your average supermarket.
Mr Thumb and I had a good time, though, even though we're not in the market for a jacuzzi larger than our bathroom and sauna combined, or a stone patio, or a robot lawnmower. We looked at solar panels for the cottage (... and I'll talk more about that later!), found out that there are incinerating toilets with the heart-breaking brand name of Cinderella, and laughed our arses off at those jacuzzis. I mean really, one of them was fake marble! :D  I'm sorry now I didn't take a picture.

Nice plants, nice water feature (which to Mr Thum looked
like a mortar shell), nowhere to buy such water features.

This one I want. This is awesome. 

This might be a nice thing to put in the middle
of the lawn in the back yard.

This is what the turf bricks that make up the
flowerbed now falling apart must have
looked like when brand new. 

Mr Thumb bought me tulips, once I had gently hinted that I
wanted some. I subtly said: "Buy me some of those tulips."

Bulbs, roots, things... I may have lost it a bit.
Also, I have no idea at this point what it was I bought :D 

I'll leave you to simmer in anticipation a bit longer, waiting for the post about that cottage...

More spring greenery

This spring is very different from last year. A year ago I was still waiting for the snows to melt, and after they did I had to clear the flowerbeds of a layer of slimy brown plant matter. This year, I'm busy wondering if the greenery that the melting snows reveal will just carry on from where it left off in the autumn, seeing as it looks completely alive!

The front yard is still covered in snow, though.

But in the back yard, everything is pushing up through the soil.

I'm astonished to find that these things survived the winter!
They're potted hydrangeas I was given last year and planted
"temporarily" just to see what would happen.

Woodsquill (Scilla siberica, idänsinililja).

Daylilies.

Daffodils.

Crocuses are cropping up all over the lawn
because hey, that's where I planted them!

The skunk currant (lamoherukka) is putting forth leaves.

Yesterday I very inexpertly trimmed two crabapple trees, but left the sourcherry alone because we returned Mr Thumb's dad's handy extensible trimmers and I couldn't reach the branches.