And then there will be another Christmas,

just so very different this time!

What a tough couple of months it has been.  First on Easter night my appendix was taken out and on July 12 we had to say good by to someone so dear to us - our dad.

As I realize we are not the only ones who have lost, it brings us somehow more closer to all the ones who are facing a different Christmas this year.

But we all have to find a way to move on and build our lives with a sadness that will always be.
So in this letter to you, we are sending an extra hug to all who may need it.

As every year, we are sending out our blog to let you know about the coming Artisan Christmas Markets. 

Mark on your Calender:

  DEC 2 & DEC 9 for the craft markets
Are you looking for a special Christmas gift?
Make sure to come out and see what these 
vendors have available for you

NEW this year will be:

The Taste of Christmas on December 16.

There will be several food vendors and ourselves preparing different snacks.  Stop by that day between 11 and 3 to visit with friend over a delicious bite to eat.

The Coffee Nook 

is a cozy place where you can come for sweets and coffee/tea.  

Open from 9 to 6 during the week

Our store is filled with unique gift ideas for the coming Christmas season and the greenhouse is filled with color!

I would like to close off this blog with a picture of our parents.  This year we will not have Santa stopping by the markets.  For us, our dad was the best Santa we could have had.  
We will miss him.

We wish you all a Merry Christmas and send you our best wishes for the new year!

With the promise to keep blogging, we greet you

Koen and Inge De Herdt

To all the moms in the world!

Wishing you a Happy Mothers day!

This special day will be here soon again and a lot of us wonder what to give to our moms.

If  you are looking for something special, we offer lots of unique gift ideas in our garden center.

Or, if you want to take her out for coffee and pastries, it is definitely worthwhile to visit Elieneke's Bake Shop.

In case you have not yet heard, we have a beautiful Coffee Nook set up inside the store AND our patio inside the greenhouse will be open as well.

And just so you can make a special memory, we have set up our own photo booth.  You can take your pictures or you can ask us as well.

We are very excited to show you all the improvements we have added to our garden center.  They will hopefully make your visit so much more enjoyable.


As always with the promise to keep blogging, we greet you,

Koen & Inge 

Yes chef!

For those who watch all theses cooking shows, you know what I mean.

I do not want to say it too often, but have to admit that when I am helping at Elieneke's Bake Shop I am on unfamiliar territory and have to listen to instructions.

Which sometimes seems like pay-back time for all the times your kids had to listen to you being a parent.

Elieneke's Bake Shop is the newest addition to De Herdt Gardens.  In the very capable "baking" hands of our daughter Elien.

Today, on again a very snowy day, (it seems like these are the perfect days to blog) Elien is preparing for the Easter season. 
Chocolate Easter bunnies big, small, milk chocolate, white chocolate, so many to choose from.

And lets not forget the chocolate eggs filled with little jelly beans inside.  Brings back memories from many Easter egg hunts.

While all this is being done on one side of the building, we are preparing a fun workshop for April 8.

You will be using the chalk paint to give your plant box a beautiful color and afterwards antique it.  Following we will be planting the succulents while enjoying a cup of coffee/tea and a pastry provided by our own bake shop.

Cost per person $ 25.00

Registration and payment can be done at the store before April 5.

As always with the promise to keep blogging, I greet you.

Koen and Inge

Back sooner than expected.

Good morning to you all!
It is snowing outside so I thought to distract you from this by showing you some of the new items we will have this spring season.

West Coast Seeds. 

A company that offers organic and popular varieties.

SUPER NEW ARE MICRO GREENS!!!!

Livingston Seeds

This display will offer you heirloom varieties. 

And to get you really excited for spring, here is Koen with a beautiful petunia called Night Sky.
It is available to pre-order.  Just call the store 780-674-2844 and we will write it in the book.
(pre-orders will have to be pre-paid please)

So after this small sneak peak, I hope to leave you with a little bit of a spring feeling.

With the promise to keep blogging, I greet you!

"We Believe You Deserve The Best".

It is time to get Blogging again!

Wow, when I looked at the last post we did, that is really a long time ago.
Time to get back on the Blogging wagon and tell you all about the new things we have been doing.

First thing to do:  Sprucing up the old blog by giving it a new look.

A fresh background with of course some flowers and my favorite color blue.

As many of you know, our daughter Elien has competed in some pretty big baking competitions last year.  So the idea of opening her own bake shop started in May of 2016.

We looked at several options, but actually the best one was to bring Elieneke's Bake Shop together with De Herdt Gardens so that we can serve our customers a real Belgian specialty.

After Elieneke's Bake Shop opened in November 2016, we wanted to redesign our store a little so we could open The Coffee Nook. 

A place where you can relax, enjoy the moment, meet with friends and even read a book.

So I will leave you today with these images of our new store and we look forward welcoming you at both De Herdt Gardens and Elieneke's Bake Shop.

With the promise of keeping the blogs coming, I greet you!

"We believe you deserve the best"!

Happy Easter !

Since Easter is right around the corner the Easter lily will take its spot as flower of the week.

Of course you will be able to find them in our garden center this week.  But we thought it would be a good idea to give you some tips about the Easter lilies.

Easter lilies (Lilium longiflorum) are beautiful with their white trumpet flowers and are traditionally given as gifts or purchased for decoration during the holiday season. This year don’t toss it away after the blooms are gone–try transplanting it in your garden and you could be rewarded with more in the Fall (if you’re lucky) or next Spring (up to Zone 6).

Did you know:
you can re-pot it in a patio container and grow outdoors on your deck or balcony.

If it starts growing up out of the soil too early in the Spring (when it will likely get killed off by frost), try covering the new growth with a few inches of potting soil.

The white trumpet flowers symbolize purity, hope and life.

Lilies are very poisonous to cats so make sure to keep them out of reach of your favorite feline.

If you live in a colder climate than Zone 6, try mulching heavily in the Fall–it might just do the trick and the lily may make an appearance next Spring.

This special coupon is only for you, our loyal blog followers. (reg. price is $ 10.50/ea)


We wish every one a Happy Easter and hopefully spring will be here soon!

Till next time !
Koen and Inge De Herdt

Christmas balls and glitter !

A few hours ago, we were still talking with a customer about 
"A possible brown Christmas".
And it seems, I just blinked and bam, it was all white outside.

So, it looks like we are going to have a white Christmas after all.
And to fit in this festive season, we want to show you what we all have to offer in Barrhead's own Christmas store.

It is surprising how many "nooks" we can create.  A good nickname for our store could be "The cozy nooks" store.!

Unexpected, we found a few more treasures for our store.

These cute vintage lamps add such "cozyness" to our store, sometimes it feels like you are entering a home.

These cookies are not for eating (although they look really yummy!).  They are wax melts and add a delicious aroma to your place.  (we tried the "minty" one in our store)

First reaction of many customers is :

              "How much stuff is in here"!

 We do hope that is a good thing !!??

After battling with Christmas balls and stars, we were able to give you a view from above in our store.

They often say "The sky is the limit" however in our store, the ceiling is unfortunately the limit.

And in the greenhouse we have a lot to offer you as well.

We have a good assortment of house plants and we expanded more making different and unique 

"dish gardens".  

And this is something we will keep working on in the future.

Small, decorated Christmas trees.  Perfect for inside during this season and in the spring you can put it outside.

(and then you could bring it back inside during the next winter to use again as Christmas tree)

Many of you have asked already about the Artisan Christmas Market and yessssssss on December 5 we like to welcome you all.

Please come out to enjoy music performed by 2 local groups:
The Madrigal Singers & Blind Dog Revival.  
(and there will be delicious baking again!!!!!!!) 

And as we read in social media about the uncertainty about wishing each other "Happy Holidays" or "Merry Christmas", let us close off this blog post by wishing everyone

                 A Wonderful Merry Christmas !!
                 from our family to yours.

We thank you all for following our blog and your support during this past year.

Till next time !

I guess it is time to face the music !

According to the radio, SPRING IS OVER !

On my way home tonight, i saw a lot of campers on the high way.
Probably people who are trying to get the last camping trip out of this last long weekend.

For us in the "greenhouse biz", indeed the spring season has ended.

But, no sadness here !!  Fall is a beautiful season.

To show you, let us cheer you up with some pictures of plants we got in.

This is one of these "Fall plants".  HEATHER.
When we were young, we used to go for Sunday walks in the dunes.
Maybe, as a kid, we did not really appreciate these plants growing all over and showing beautiful colors.  We were more focused on the sweet treat that often followed these walks.
But now as we can offer them in our garden center, I really have to say these plants are great to create your fall center pieces.
Combined with a little "flowering kale" (which by the way we also offer) and a pumpkin, voila, there is your "Fall piece".

To add to all this, we have Fall colored GERBERAs, 
pinkish, reddish and orange KALANCHOEs,
and if you are not really ready for fall, we have beautiful CYCLAMEN.

We were often asked: When are the houseplants coming????
Well, they are here!
All different kinds and sizes.
And while I was taking a picture of one side, i got poked in my... by the plants on the table behind me.
So clearly you can guess that these are the "CACTI-families"

As many of you heard or read, we have started this new project.
AN INDOOR STRAWBERRY U-PICK FARM.
So far it has stayed very true to its name, because we have not had to pick so far.
Many have already enjoyed our delicious strawberries!!

We had to call in the help of a "bumble bee" hive to pollinate the plants.
Are you one of the few (really not!) people who read instructions properly.?
Well these bees come with them.  

It is almost like the Pandora box.  However when you open this box the wrong way, several quite ticked off bees come out.

(and Koen discovered how ticked off they were.  I would think these were female bumble bees??)

So to close off this blog, let us show you our turkeys.  

Soon there will be many served in a slow cooker or roaster.

Of course we got the seasonal garden mums in.

We wish you all a happy Thanksgiving and a delicious turkey (or maybe chicken or ham)

Anyway, what ever the meat, we hope to see you all soon again!

Koen & Inge de Herdt

spring 2015 movie

Just for all of you to enjoy ! 
Grab a cup of coffee, get a comfy chair and don't forget the sweets.

We hope you will like this (first time ever made ourselves) movie as a looking back to this already 2nd spring season at our new location.

Thank you to everyone who has stopped by, who is still stopping by, and hopefully will stop by in the future.

Have a wonderful summer everyone !!

Koen & Inge de Herdt
De Herdt Gardens

Come with me and you'll see

A world of color and beauty 
(was someone saying "a world of imagination" as the song of Willy Wonka and the chocolate factory would go??)

On this quiet evening, it was the perfect moment to take some nice pictures.
The days have sure been busy and many people are getting ready for their gardens.

So let us show you what we have to offer:

A fuchsia always reminds me of a ruffled skirt.  
They are just so beautiful !

A sunny colorful combination with million bells.  Great for a sunny location.

Yes, I climbed the ladder again.  
How else can I see what's on top of us.

And in between all the other baskets, the big town baskets are quietly growing.

Begonias like a sunny spot, BUT not the hot sun,  Best is to hang them a little bit more protected from the heat.  Great summer bloomers.

Any one fancy green hair?  No, this is green twist bamboo.  A unique addition to your garden.

Sorry, I did not dare to go higher and i got stuck in the metal arbor (don't know how i could have missed this one)

We have grown many hang baskets this season and hopefully they all get to go to a new home.

Next week, many of you will receive a flyer from us in the mail.
We are trying something new.

We are setting up the last Artisan Spring Market on May 23.
Lots of vendors will be showing you what they have to offer.

And Saturday is THE DAY of fresh veggies and freshly baked artisan breads.  Perfect for the bbq suppers and camping trips.

As my day is coming to an end, (I smell freshly made coffee in the kitchen) we would like to thank you all for your support !

Our greenhouse is a working progress and we very much appreciate your patience and understanding for things that are not all quite there yet.
(but we will work on it for next year !!)

Thank you for following our blog.
Till next time again!