Random Things

I need a proper macro-lens. I love this little guy. I just had a good laugh after googling his name in English. A tit, a Eurasian Blue Tit. I think I prefer Blaumeise. He's always there when we're having breakfast or dinner.

Found this packet of seeds for catnip on the basement floor.
Now it's living in the fruit bowl until I decide: start it indoors or direct seed?

I finally joined the rest of the world. A smart phone!
Now I can snap decent shots on the go without lugging the SLR all the time.

Garden Centers ...

... are like IKEA. You go in to "have a look". You go out with your hands full and your pocket a lot lighter. My trip this past weekend (a getaway from the kids) is making me think of imposing the same rule I have used in the past on the Lindt factory shop. I cannot under any circumstances go alone. I have to have someone along so I feel self-conscious enough about the amount of chocolate plants I'll buy.

This is what I ended up with after a LOT of self restraint: flat-leaf parsley, sorrel, Mojito mint (hahaha - love the name), lemon thyme and lemon balm (Zitronenmelisse). This last one is delicious in teas or sparkling water.

I also restrained myself to only two types of lettuce. That's 18 potential heads, but I doubt I'll let them grow to full-size.
These are setting in the pots where the begonias will eventually go.

Some became neighbours to peas, some to garlic, and some are saving the spot for a Hokkaido.

A Gardenia! I simply cannot resist the scent of gardenias. Sigh. It's a really finicky plant so fingers crossed it'll not die out on me. I've got the acidic mix almost ready and only rhododendron fertiliser for this baby. I'm even saving the water from the dryer for it. And today I picked up some ph-strips from the pharmacy. 

Botanist in Training

I'm a city girl. Born and bred. Unfortunately the city where I grew up, though on the Mediterranean, suffered war and chaos that living things other than human almost all but disappeared.

Real parks were a tough find. "Wild" life consisted to stray cats and dogs, and the occasional brave pigeon. The situation was so bad that when I moved to Germany, I thought there were two kinds of ducks in the park. The brown ones and the colourful ones. Yes. That bad. Martin was laughing so hard at me it still stings a little. I grew up with very little nature.

No matter. One can learn and here I am.

The problem is when my little girl points at a bird and asks: "What's that?", all I can offer is "Errr, a bird." Duh, she knows it's a bird. Same with plants and flowers. Her father on the other hand, knows his birds, flowers, trees, wild berries and even mushrooms. He takes us on mushroom and berry collecting trips. So to redeem myself in front of my three year old, I've acquired two books on birds and flowers. Next up, a class with a local wild foraging walk - that will have to wait though until the baby can do without his milk for a few hours. Maybe a book until then, but I keep thinking of Mark Twain and misprints and dying...

My first try. I see this yellow flower everywhere and the book tells me it's a "Scharbockskraut", less celandine in English (Ranunculus ficaria)

Note to self: instead of picking the flower, next time take a picture. Much more informative. And also, poor flower! 

Random Things

The first problems manifest themselves. Some sort of white mildew was covering the apricot tree bark. I wiped it away with hydrogen peroxide and water mix before I took this picture. Missed a tiny spot there. I just checked tonight and boo, the mildew is not retreating.

Pea shoots make an otherwise boring sandwich kinda fancy.

Said sandwiches were enjoyed on a sunny bench in the petting zoo :)

A Watched Pot

I think I have googled "how long until lilies sprout" more times than you can count on one hand. Way too many times. I hate waiting and with those bulbs, it is even harder. You can't dig around to see "is it working? Anyone alive in there?".

For a couple of weeks now, every single day I obsessively check the pots for signs of life.

Nothing from the lilies. The first sprouts of Begonias have showed themselves - I may or may not have jumped like a silly little girl. Seriously though, when do I give up on the lilies?

Yesterday I planted the "Dark Angel Pretty Woman" Dahlias (Who comes up with those names?). So one more pot to watch...

The lilies are in the big pot. The dahlia in the small one.

Baby begonias!

A Sunny Day in March

In a rare appearance this week, the sun shined nice and strong on the terrace. So I snapped the camera and took a few shots of all the new growth suddenly appearing everywhere. I love spring and its promises.

Hanging strawberries. New leaves are popping out everywhere.

Wild strawberries.

The medlar tree (Mespilus germanica).

The blackberry shrub.

The blueberry shrubs

The hokkaido, tomatoes and eggplant are living bigger in the sun.

Lettuce and spinach

Digression: Birthday Cake(s)

This years birthday was looking to be a miserable day. Things turned around when at 9 pm in the evening I opened the door, pjs and messy hair, to old friends I have not seen in years. They brought good company, delicious food and wonderful cakes.

I think everyone went "OMG" at the first bite. Absolutely delicious apple cake.

Another awesome cake. And I'm not even the biggest marzipan fan.
Alina has the right idea there in the back :)

I've decided to try and keep that cake sort of alive. I picked one of the Physalis fruits and now it is in a small pot under the bathroom sink. Maybe one of the many seeds will sprout!

I'm not sure if the fruit was ripe enough for the seeds to be viable. There's only one to find out!

On Plastic

How many excuses and laments start with "If...". Here is one.

If I had a really deep pocket, or a little bit less space, I would've LOVED to use custom-made wooden planters made out of oak or even better ipe wood.

But I don't.

And even the reasonably priced fir or pinewood planted are still too expensive for this terrace of ours. So we were left with two major options: terracotta or plastic. The only thing going for terracotta is looks. I don't appreciate the "breathability" factor because most of the time it's a problem keeping the mix in it moist. Much much less, I don't appreciate the weight of those pots. I already resented the 30cm wide terracotta pots. If we fill 50 or 60 cm ones, that's it. There is no more moving those pots around.

Sigh.

It had to be plastic. Plastic had it all except looks (unless of course you get the fancy plastic pots - but those are more expensive than fancy wood). I really hated the idea at first but after a lot of browsing (mostly on Amazon), we settled on those pots. Grips, with feet, light and available in big sizes (50 and 60 cm wide) at very reasonable prices.

I'm getting used to them now. They're no custom made wooden containers but until I hit the jackpot, they'll be home to our plants.

This one became home for those two black currant shrubs.

The Terrace - March

Here's what the terrace is looking like in March:

The trees and shrubs repotted and sitting in the shade while they recover. Two cherry trees, a medlar tree, a plum tree, an assortment of berries and at the very end in the corner, a rose of a mysterious color.

Three blueberry shrubs.

Peas and beans already planted. 

We repotted a black currant and a white currant into the big container. Where the assortment of pots now is, I'm planning to make into the "herb garden". Fingers crossed it'll look in real life like it does in my head right now.

Look at that cleaned up balcony. In the back there are the gooseberries, and next to them a dwarf apricot tree. More up front is a blackberry. And up front in the big bag are four cherry laurels we got for free from our neighbours. They're already been repotted.

And the "Dump it there" corner. Sigh. 

Looking for Spring

The weather has been unbelievably amazing lately, especially for March. Any day I don't go out I feel guilty. As if I'm wasting a perfectly fine gift.

Here's early spring in our neighbourhood.

Trees still bare but flowers popping our everywhere.

I wish I knew what this one is called. A Crocus.

White, purple and yellow.

For the Birds

Getting caught up with the excitement of a three-year-old sometimes makes you forget obvious issues. For example, if you put out a bird house with lots of bird food, birds of all sorts come and tweet on your balcony. YAY! So lovely! Ewwwe, what is that? Oh, birds also tend to leave a lot behind in the form of droppings. Everywhere!

An issue still not so much on our minds: birds love berries. And we have lots of berry shrubs. Sigh.

Here is one of our regular visitors. I fancy we have become a regular hot spot for all the neighbourhood birds.

Here's our tiny visitor. Though he's not the tiniest by far.
See all those white spots on the wood? Yeah, bird droppings.

A feast in the bird house.

All day I see several birds sitting in that tree.
The moment we disappear from the balcony, they fly for a visit.

Blueberries and Garlic

Maybe that's what I should've called this blog?

Two things I'm very excited about: French garlic and three small blueberry shrubs. Maybe if you spend enough time at home with tiny kids, you start getting excited about such things.

Separating the first bulb.

Asking if Teddy would like to help.

Delegate the watering...

One blueberry shrub planted. This is the "Blue Wonder (Vaccinium corymbosum)".

Two more shrub to go: the "Poppins" and the "Blue Crop".

Chasing the Sun

I have big plans this year to grow many many things from seed (where will they eventually go is still up in the air. A shopping expedition of pots might be in order.)

In the spirit of being cheap, I decided to forgo buying something fancy like this:

Instead I spend my days chasing the sun. My baby seedlings started their life on the bathroom floor under the sink (floor heating is awesome for getting those seeds going). And then a sun chase commences: they move to the crowded tray that keeps moving from the kitchen table, to the floor, to the bedroom floor, to the bed and then back on the kitchen table. Some days it gets old.

Tomatoes, eggplant, rose mint, purple basil and sorrel.

Maybe next year I'll invest the 90€. Still feels like a lot though. 

Showing Restraint

a mostly sarcastic title.

Every gardening website / book I've read had the same advice. Start slowly and don't go overboard with too many plants because it might become too much work.

So keeping to that advice (seeing it's only our second year and the first was not so spectacular), we planted:

2 cherry trees
3 black currants
1 white currant
1 logan berry
2 black berries
1 rose
1 plum tree
1 apricot tree
4 pots of strawberries

and there are not one, not two but three blueberry shrubs on their way to us. Three different types so we'll have blueberries from July to September. That's what the catalog promised.

That covers the fruits.

Repotted shrubs and tree sheltered by the wall. 

We've also started:

2 Eggplants - mini ones for Makdoos

1 Rose mint

2 Tomatoes

2 Purple basil

and some catnip.

I'm also planning to get parsley, thyme, and lavender.

My baby plants! Their usual hiding place is the under the bathroom sink. That's the warmest spot in the place.

Don't get me started on the flower. 

I'm starting to think we bit more than we can chew. Oops...

Beneath the Surface

There was a pot of strawberries that did not have proper drainage. I was convinced they were done for. Luck would have it that Martin convinced me not to throw it all out but to try to dig them out first. 

Well look here. See how sad it looks on the top? Take a look at the massive and healthy root ball! Hopefully come summer we will have wild strawberries again (if a certain someone does not weed all the green berries).

This one really surprised me!

Look at those nice roots. This is one resilient plant.
Not exactly a surprise seeing it's officially a weed. 

Safety While Gardening

Bike helmets are recommended when repotting. Can you see it?

Look! You can see all four of us in there.

Spring Knocking Early

While north America suffers a cold and long winter, things have been different here. In the 11 (ELVEN?) years I've been here, I don't remember such a mild winter and an early spring. So we're enjoying it while we can...

Freshly planted oregano. Makes me want to knead dough and prepare tomato sauce.
Pizza anyone?

Buds opening up on the logan berry. I've never had any before so quite excited for this one!

Black currant showing sign of life. One of three black currant plants - I'm questioning why we have that many!

Looks like the cherry tree survived our brutal root pruning and repotting.
I'm not claiming we're out of the woods though. It was in pretty bad shape :(