Germany, Part Three, The Bountiful Garden

To begin my third post on German gardens, I chose this wonderful shot taken while standing in my cousin Ingrid's garden. Ingrid is a popular name in my family and I have an aunt and two cousins with this name. This photo was taking in Ingrid and Egberts garden in Krukow, just down the road from my Tante Inge & Onkel Heinz's charming farmhouse.

Imagine having a view like this every day, pure heaven.

Ingrid and Egbert have a wonderful collection of plant material. A huge assortment of beneficial herbs, a top notch collection of tropical plants that they overwinter in a lovely garden room attached to their house and most importantly, a dazzling array of food plants.

My brother Michael and I were just astounded with the wealth of food that we found in each garden. Michael lives on the West coast in California and I'm on the East coast here in New York but we both had the same impression of this garden. We were just so impressed with the practicality of growing trees, shrubs and plants that look great in the landscape and at the same time offer a bounty of food.

Here you can see one of my favorite snack foods, red currents.

Just in case you don't believe how much I love these little gems, here's another photo :-) It seems I took quite a few photos of red currents, they looked so lovely hanging on the many bushes. The funny thing is I knew for sure I've never seen these in my local gardens. When I came home I did some research and found out that many states have laws against growing, buying or selling the various current bushes.

Thankfully, New York does not have that law and I'd really like to add some to my garden here.


Another favorite were these black currents that are extremely high in Vitamin C. Yesterday I found Black Current juice at a local health food store and I bought a bottle home to try. I'd much rather get my hands on some bushes and plant them in the garden too.

Apple trees were everywhere. Not one kind of apple, many different kinds. If I remember correctly, Ingrid had 5 different varieties in her garden and she told me that it was her favorite snack while she was working outside.

It seems I also took quite a few photos of apples in Germany, none of them show insect damage on the apples and I forgot to ask if they are sprayed at any time during the season.

This year's apple crop was so huge that a whole limb came off a tree while we were at the farm. It was just too heavily loaded with apples for the tree to hold upright.

Today is a "two for one" day with a second garden included. This is my cousin Mirko's garden. Mirko has a "many-hundred" year old farm house along the Elbe river with the most amazing views. I don't know why I don't have a photo of those views, you'll have to take my word for it.

We spend a delightful Sunday afternoon sitting in the rare sunshine having cake and coffee. It doesn't get any better than this. When we arrived we found this charming scene waiting for us, tables loaded with flowers, fresh juice, coffee, and lots and lots of cakes :-)

There are 4 or 5 different buildings on this large expanse of property. Mirko has been restoring the historic buildings and now has several appartments in one of them. There were lots of nooks and crannies in the garden so that different groups of people could enjoy the outdoors and yet have total privacy. They are thinking of eventually opening a Bed and Breakfast on the property for the many cyclists that tour along the river.

I fell in love with this rough and tumble country garden with the distinctive beach chair. While walking around you could see why some areas were left to grow wild. Parts of the ground were quite marshy and wet due to the nearby river.

Right before I took this closing photo a pair of Storks flew over head. Neither Micheal nor I were ready with our camera (phooey).

Here's my mom, my brother Michael (smiling at the camera), Paulo (Mirko's 15 year old son) and just the back of Mirko's head (sorry!). Mmmm, what I wouldn't give for another piece of that delicious cake...

More to come soon, sorry for the long delays between posts. We have been going through some health concerns here and the typical summer crazies.

A Different kind of Harvest

After nine months of growing!

Gabriel William Clay has been born!

Germany, Part Two, up North

The third day of our trip to Germany, mom and I spent the day traveling with the ICE Bahn (Germany's fast trains) north to Hamburg. As soon as we arrived at the main station in Hamburg we immediately bought ourselves a bratwurst (one of my all time favorite foods). We continued east on local trains, splitting up so that my mom stayed with her sister Eli in Rhinebeck and I stayed with my cousin Edith in Geestacht.

This opening photo was taken on the balcony at Edith's brand new penthouse home. Edith had just returned from seven weeks in Australia and her newly planted boxwoods show the stress of the heatwave that swept the area while she was away. I can only imagine how lovely she'll have this balcony looking by next year :-)

While this photo is not artistic, I wanted to remember the boxwoods that I saw everywhere, often planted in clay planters like this. While these type of planters do not survive our New York winters, I think I'd like to plant boxwood this way.


Looking straight out over the balcony railing, I couldn't help but be drawn in by the amazing tapestry of evergreen trees in every direction. You would never know that this penthouse was only one block from the town center in Geestacht.

Edith was a wonderful host to me and my brother Michael who arrived two days later. She drove us all over the area, most often, to the tiny town of Krukow where we all had more family.

As a child, my most favorite place in the world was my aunt and uncle's farm in Krukow, just east of Geestacht which is just east of Hamburg. A community of only 250 people, every house looking like a postcard image.

So often when revisiting places as an adult, you find your memory played tricks but not this time. I still would list this town as my utmost favorite place in the world and would love to spend a year of my life living there.

Although we arrived in Hamburg in the evening, Edith drove me straight to the farm where we suprised a whole gathering of aunts, uncles and many cousins.

I credit my Tante Inge and Onkel Heinz for making me the gardener that I am today. The idealic days I spent on their farm as a child I learned organic methods of farming (lots of manure) and the love of the outdoors which imprinted my soul.

This photo is one I will stare at many times in the coming year as it is my aunt standing at her doorway (with two more aunts in the backdrop). See all the boxwoods in the garden, they really were everywhere.



Growing against the doorframe was this stunning passion flower. While the summer temperatures in Germany are generally much cooler than we experience here in the USA, the winters are milder and I was amazed at the plants that overwinter in Germany.

Not to be outdone by other homes, you can imagine what a delight it was to sit under this roof, eating delicious food in the fresh air as a light rain fell just a few feet away from you.

Tante Inge's Clematis were a wonder, everybody had to comment on them.

Tucked into the cracks and crevices of the retaining wall were a wealth of plants. I wish I could share back and forth with my aunt as I know she would love the plants in my little rock garden.

Lots and lots of sempervivum were in the garden, some whole beds were bordered with them. Tante Inge had cut off some of the bloom scapes and was holding them over in a bucket of water. I wonder what kind of craft they will end up in.

A small glass house was chock full of runner beans, tomatoes, salads, and more.

Here you can see the tomatoes in the back of the greenhouse. We had lovely ripe tomatoes to eat with our meals before the tomatoes in my own garden here are even close to turning red.

As a closing shot, I thought I'd include a family pose in case some of my cousins are visiting here. The internet will hopefully bring us all close together as my mom, brother and I are the only branch in the USA.

From left to right is Onkel Heinz, next is my cousin Ellen who lives outside of London (another branch that moved away), I'm the tall one in the suit and at my right is my Tante Inge. This is another photo I will really treasure.

Time to wrap this up, I hear the rumble of thunder coming close and think it's time to close down this post.

What to do While in Labor

I started having contractions last night – finally! - but by this morning they were still irregular. So, I fiddled around with garden photography alongside Chris to get things moving.

We have some lovely bounty coming along out here. . .


We ate one of these with some lovely hand-made mozzarella.



One of the winter squash vines that I tried so hard to kill has got an apple-sized fruit on it.



Holy cow, I can’t wait for these to ripen!



I thought the Swiss chard would be bitter after all the hot weather we’ve been having, but it was delicious. Plus when washing the leaves, I got a bit of a surprise. . .


Out of the rinse-water popped a momma spider with a sack of eggs! If someone dunked me unexpectedly into a pool of water right now I’m sure I wouldn’t behave as politely as she did. Chris returned her to the chard patch, where with any luck she will give us many offspring to protect our tasty veggies.

After being a photo-monkey, Chris and I tried braiding onions. It turned out to be a piece of cake – especially with Chris cleaning the onions and handing them to me, so that I didn’t have to bend over. Of all the silly things to do while in labor!

Gardening and Labor

Another week has gone by, and the garden continues to grow. All of the rain was good for the garden, and it is lush and beautiful. A few tomatoes split from all of the extra water, but mostly they're looking happy if not yet fully ripe.
This morning I harvested some swiss chard, a cucumber, and some various cherry tomatoes. We had the cucumber for lunch with some fresh mozzarella, and the combination worked really well. One of the cherry tomatoes was a fully ripe black cherry tomato and it was heaven. I wish I could have recorded the look on our faces. The first taste of the tomato was good, what we would expect from the previous ones. About 3-4 seconds later, however, this wonderful second burst of flavor hit our taste buds at the same time and both our faces lit up.

When I added labor to the title of this post, I literally meant that Michelle is in labor. Now what would you do in the early stages of labor? Run to the hospital? Nap? How about sit in the garage with your husband braiding onions? Ding ding ding! We have a winner! We had never done this before, but Michelle taught me how to braid on some string and we both went to town after I cleaned off the onions. I did the mega braid in the middle, while Michelle did all but one of the smaller braids. I think hers looked nicer overall.

Here Michelle is brandishing her belly, and some of her nicely braided onions. Now lets see how long they last!

Tomato Hornworm

I've always approached hornworms with a mix of awe and hate. They really are pretty when they get big, but they're also amazingly destructive. I spent the afternoon out in the garden scanning leaves for poo, and then looking for damage. That is the best way I've found to actually zero in on their location at least.

This guy was the biggest of the bunch, and he had obviously done the most damage. He was actually very hard to pull off as he had his feet stuck to one of the support strings. It amazed me how strong such a little bug could be.

These five display the range of sizes that you might find when they are younger. I'm happy to say none of them made it to full size before I nabbed them.

The big guys had defoliated whole branches, while the smallest one had just eaten part of a leaf. Definitely best to get them while they're small!

This hornworm has been parasitized, and he was the last one I found out in the garden today. I left him right where he was, as I want a large a wasp population as possible. I could, in theory, just leave all the worms out there and hope they all get parasitized. I like to stick to the rule that if they find them before I can then they stay put.

The hornworm egg that I'd been watching was actually parasitized, and you can tell this because its turn dark black. I'm really happy to see this, as it is even better than when they're parasitized once they're larger. This way there is no damage to the tomatoes. The downside is since I was using this as my warning to start looking for hornworms I didn't catch the first batch before they did some damage.

Germany, The beginning...

For those of you who are new here, my mom and I just returned from a wonderful two week tour of central and northern Germany (where we have many relatives).

Our first two days were spent in the charming town of Heidelberg. Our intention was to spend two days on our own as our bodies acclimated to the time, weather and food changes. It was a good idea and worked perfectly for us.

This first shot was taken from the castle, overlooking the town and the Neckar River. Our hotel was ideally placed at the left end of the historic pedestrian-only bridge in the center of the photo.
Although we knew there was a botanical garden in Heidelberg, we never made it over to that area but no worries, there was plenty of flowers for us to see. It seemed like everywhere we turned there were balconies just dripping with wonderful annuals.

In most cases the plants were ones that would not survive the summer heat and sporadic droughts here in New York so I imagine it would be the same for most of the USA. The ivy Geraniums in this photo were the number one, most popular plant we saw in all the German cities we visited.

It was hard to decide what to photograph. The storybook-like historic buildings built into the hillsides or the plant material that so gleefully took hold in every possible nook and cranny.

Corydalis lutea was like a weed, it filled the surface of so many stone facades and still had quite a bit of bloom in July.


Walking out of the tourist areas, where the locals lived, we came across balcony after balcony just loaded with blooms. Wisteria was fairly frequent, trained to grow up the sides of the buildings.

Also popular were these Hibiscus syriacus shrubs which were the most amazing shade of lavender blue. Unfortunately I took many shots but my camera just couldn't capture the true depth of color.

It's funny, I see these shrubs all over my neighborhood and yet I always had the feeling from gardeners that they were kind of "junky". Now of course I want one for my garden and I'll have to start shopping around for the right color.

The hotel we stayed at was a total surprise. As we rolled our heavy suitcases along the cobblestone streets, we were exhausted and our first impression when we saw the entrance was "uh oh". It turns out that our impression was totally wrong, the place was total perfection in our experience.

Inside the simple doorway was a cozy courtyard just filled with gemutlichkeit (German for comfort, warmth, ambiance and so on). The owners of this hotel bent over backwards to make sure we were comfortable, even lending us umbrella's as the skies darkened.

The tables in the hotel were all filled with simple arrangements of fruit. We learned quickly that the German people love their fruit and I must say that we ate an abundance of locally grown, organic, freshly picked fruit in every part of Germany that we visited.

Last stop in Heidelberg was the train station, this was just a corner of the bicycle parking lot. Watching all the pedestrians and cyclists, made me wish for a similar lifestyle here on Long Island.

Stay tuned, next stop on our tour is up north in the Hamburg vicinity.

Here Comes the Rain

We've had several thunderstorms roll through the area, and with the return of rain and the bonus nitrogen from the storm the garden has put on another spurt of growth. I've been somewhat hands off lately because the bunnies got in through the fence again and ate the beans just as they were starting to flower, in addition to leveling one of the carrot patches and de-leafing the cucumbers and summer squash. I've accepted that until I get up a real solid fence I'm just going to lose.

I suppose hands off is relative though as I've been spending a good deal of time trying to wrangle the tomato plants that aren't being supported by the florida weave. The little bamboo supports did not cut it, and its been a race to keep them nicely support. A race that I've lost from time to time especially when they put on a growth spurt.

The rain last night actually toppled some of the purple Cherokee plants as it swelled up their massive fruit set, and they just could stay upright anymore. Luckily I don't see any splitting yet on any of the fruits. With another storm tonight, there's no telling however.


We did finally get some Black Cherry tomatoes, and they were quite tasty. Perhaps not the best I've ever had, but with the soil not being perfect yet I can imagine they'll only get better in the coming years.


During one of my squishing sprees I scared a flea beetle right into the web of a tiny spider, and since the picture came out I figured I'd post it. Like the previous time it ran over and stung the beetle, then retreated and waited for the inevitable.


Early blight has shown up on some of my plants, and I'm both surprised and not surprised. All of the beds are new so crop rotation has nothing to do with it, its just there and I'll have to hope they hang on until the tomatoes on them are ripe. I do plan on disposing of the infected plants either through burning or some other means than adding them to the compost pile, but that's a long time coming.


I found the first tomato hornworm egg on one of my plants late last week and I've been keeping a close eye on it. I haven't found any others to date, so I'm using it as a measure of when I should really do an intense survey for them. When the egg hatches hopefully I'll catch this one before it does to much damage, and it'll let me find the others. I am considering putting up one of my plants with early blight as a sacrificial lamb of sorts, placing the worms on it so they can be parasitized by wasps. Last year every hornworm was nabbed by the wasps, so I'm hoping they have a repeat performance this year.


In this photo from this weekend the caterpillar is more clearly formed, I'm thinking it shouldn't be to long now.