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...

Planning the back yard

1. This planter-y box will be dismantled in the spring anyway because it's falling apart. The plan now is to empty much of it and put in tulip and daffodil bulbs for spring colour, and move the last plants in the spring.

2. The planter at the back of the yard will be mostly emptied out. I'm thinking rhododendrons; or maybe move the hydrangea in the front yard here.

I had a tentative plan (a more long-term one) to take out the planter altogether and move the deck here, but it turns out the ground under the existing deck is basically just rock and any grass would just slide off eventually.

3. This is the back of the planter box. There are creepers here that aren't actually allowed to creep up the wall, because it's not our wall. Any solutions would be welcome. I'm considering suggesting to the Powers That Be (and I have no idea who that actually is - the housing association?) that we be allowed to put up a free-standing screen or something and only attach it to the wall at the upper end.

Mind you, the previous owners had rebelliously screwed in supports...