It's Not So Bad Really, Gardening

This weekend we've done a big clear up in the garden. During Autumn all our time was taken up with raking leaves and picking up fallen walnuts, so we never got round to tidying the garden before the weather got bad. 

The combination of a dry weekend and having no plans led to us deciding yesterday morning that we would attack the garden. Literally attack it. We have been hacking away at bushes and trees as well as burning off-cuts of heather and sage. 

I am no garden expert. I wouldn't even say that I particularly like gardening, but I do love being in the garden. And the work does give me feeling of having done something good and useful. 

Breaking for a cup of coffee to be drunk outdoors while reviewing the work done and to be done. Holding an impromptu picnic by the pond, wrapped up in our wellies and fleeces. It feels so good. It tastes so good.

The nest Number One built with bits
and pieces found in the garden today.

Yesterday while cutting back lavender and sage and ripping out dried up marjoram, I enjoyed the scent they gave off and left on my hands. Raking up walnut shells and leaves revealed vibrant green moss beneath. The clumps that got stuck in the prongs of the rake got set aside for decorating with and for the children to play with. 

That's another one of the things about the garden that makes me happy - us all being together, but doing our own thing. Working, playing, getting creative or just sitting down for a snack outside. Easy, unforced, old-fashioned family time.

As the Bavarian chopped branches off the kiwi tree in an attempt to tame it (it grows 4m long tentacles in summer), I gathered up the ones that had become intwined in one another and separated them, carefully twisting them apart and ending up with curly wurly lengths of branch, perfect for a wreath or some Easter decorations. 

Ah, full days outdoors, at last.  

I suppose it is not so bad after all, gardening. 

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My German Garden

There are many downsides to being an emigrant but I am the kind of person who finds it easier to look on the bright side. One of the things I enjoy most about my life abroad is that it allows me to have a garden full of fruit without an awful lot of effort. 

The part of Germany I live in is very humid, making it ideal for growing figs, and the mixture of sun and rain means that I don't need a glasshouse for my tomatoes and peppers. My pears and various berries sweeten nicely and we can even grow kiwis. 

To be honest, my only problem fruit is the humble apple. Our apple tree, like most of our garden, was planted by the previous owners of our house and they managed to prune it into a highly peculiar shape. It is very tall and slim and quite unlike a fruit tree. It is so leafy that you can hardly see the apples at all, but we know they are there because from June onwards a few fall to the ground every day or two. In fact our neighbour got quite a shock when one dropped as she was standing by the tree today, narrowly missing her head. 

Last year's bumper crop. The apples were visible for once!

As the seasons move on and Summer becomes Autumn, the windfall apples become larger and sweeter and are always bruised, due to the tree being surrounded by a patio on two sides and a wire-covered pond on the others. We rarely get to pick them straight from the tree because they are so flipping hard to find in all that foliage. 

Apple Danishes

Despite all these problems, I wouldn't part with the apple tree. The fruit can mostly be salvaged and we manage to use them up without feeling we are eating apple dishes all Summer long. 

Teamed up with elderberries for hedgerow jelly...

...and with rosehips for rosehip & apple jelly.

As well as making crumble and stewed apple, we make bake danishes and fry fritters. We're lucky too to have an elder tree, a walnut tree and rose hips in the garden, providing us with great flavour combinations for syrups, jellies, chutney and cakes.

My first home, my parents and my grandmother gave me a fantastic grounding in growing and in home cooking. My second home, Germany, has given me the garden to allow me to pass those skills on to my own children.

Apple Fritters

This year's walnuts

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This Week I've Loved....The Garden, Party Planning and Paddling

July is always a busy month in our house. With two birthdays to celebrate, holidays to pack for, fruit to be harvested in the garden and high temperatures luring us to the pool or the lake, we are kept on our toes. 

The past week has been especially busy but in a fun way - the ideal kind of busy. 

Our apple tree has been dropping hard, unripe apples all week, our kohlrabi plants are ready for harvesting and our Turkish plum tree has come into crop. The boys and I have spent a lot of time in the garden, alternately picking fruit and paddling in the paddling pool. With temperatures well over 35°C, we had to keep in the shade as much as possible. Where better to do that than under a plum tree?

Number Three was fascinated with the paddling pool and couldn't get enough of it. He was so brave, standing and splashing away with his hands, even though he is barely ten months.

We also celebrated Number Three's birthday with a Lego Movie themed birthday. Despite it being near 40°C we had a brilliant afternoon of fun with him and six of his friends. I find the German birthday party rule of thumb great - the number of children should be approximately the same as the age of the child. Number Three turned seven and invited six friends  - seven children. It makes for a manageable party and since most people go by that rule, there is no pressure to invite the whole of his class at school. 

Those were the highlights of my week. Tomorrow's bake sale at school should be lovely, seeing all the children queue up for cake with a Euro or two in their hand. This is my contribution (sorry for the bad photo). Dolphins are the latest craze with my boys. 

A Vlog Tour of Our Garden

I'm not quite sure what came over me in the garden on Saturday, but I ended up making a little video tour of the fruit, veg and herbs in our garden for you. It was a lovely blustery day, the kind of weather I love but that we rarely get here unfortunately. 

As I say, I got a sudden urge to share our small but flourishing garden with you. It was all very spur of the moment and my editing skills are still fairly basic, so please forgive my little slips of the tongue. I know that tomatoes don't grow on trees and I couldn't edit out the part where I nearly said "shite". And before any of you start feeling sorry for me and my wierd tick, I don't have one. There was just a bit of coconut stuck in my tooth, so that is what those couple of wierd facial expressions are about. 

So here's me in the garden. Enjoy!

No Mess Sensory Play – Maximum Fun. Minimum Stress

Last Thursday and yesterday again, Number Three and I spent a little bit of the morning playing in the garden. He's eight months old now and is able to do so much - sit, grab, pull, bite, laugh and make all sorts of little chatty noises and squeals. 

Out in the garden we had a good look around and rooted, pulled and played with all sorts of plants. Number Three had a fantastic time as he patted, pulled and fiddled with daisies, grass and bark and watched the goldfish dart around the pond. 

The Joy of Growing Your Own Food

Since we have our house and garden, I have really come to appreciate springtime. Each year I am fascinated by how everything suddenly bursts into life with the first bout of sunshine. I love to wander around our compact garden and marvel at how the trees and plants that were dead-looking a week or two previously are now showing the first signs of the bounty they will provide us with from June to October. Around this time of year I start to think of the months ahead in terms of what we'll be harvesting and my mind begins to calculate how many jam jars, preserving jars, screw-top bottles and labels I will need. I really love that this garden gives us the chance to be somewhat self-sufficient. 

The apple tree has burst into bloom over the past three days.

Our pear tree is in full bloom now too.

The rambling kiwi bush is spreading its tentacles again and the first leaves have appeared.

The elder tree is showing signs that it will have plenty of flowers this coming May.

The wild garlic at the bottom of the garden is ready for picking and will make a delicious soup during the week.

The first flowers have come out in our little strawberry patch.

The blackcurrant, gooseberry and raspberry bushes survived the winter and are going strong. Along with the strawberry plants, they'll provide a constand supply of berry snacks to the children as they play in the garden in summer.

The first figs have appeared on our fig tree and will have grown to full size by late May, but it is the second harvest (September-October) that will produce the most succulent fruit. Eaten straight from the tree, warm from the sun, they are simply divine.

Our seedlings (rocket, tomato, radishes and peppers) have begun to sprout too. 

What you haven't seen here in the photos are the walnut tree, the Turkish plum tree and the kohlrabi plants. All going well, we'll have seventeen different fruits, nuts and vegetables growing in the garden this year (and that's not counting the herb garden). We'll also go foraging for mushrooms with my in-laws and we'll gather blackberries when they come into season too. 

Growing your own food is so satisfying, even is you only have a small harvest, as we have with our berries. The amount of work needed is nowhere near as much as I would have thought. If someone had told me a few years ago when I was growing 4 or 5 tomoato plants on the balcony of our apartment that I would have seventeen varieties of edible plants in my garden, I would not have believed them.  I am not a gifted gardener or a dedicated weeder, but I do love my food. The more I eat, cook, bake or perserve my home-grown produce, the more I appreciate where food comes from.

How do you feel about food? Do you grow your own herbs, fruit or veg? I'd love to hear how you get on.