Things change quickly in the garden. A recent festival and a few long talks also changed our plans for our future. Now, growing winter wheat is more than a pointless experiment. Winters were never part of the plan. Now, we might stick around. Permanently.
Having two large gardens is a trial run to see if my body can handle it. So far, I haven’t missed a deadline. I adapt the techniques and tools to what my body can handle, but the most important lessons were on patience, pacing, and perfectionism.
My neighbors think these aren’t worth the trouble. I disagree. The blackberries in the surrounding abandoned gardens were in full swing. So I harvested what I could. And then I made jam from what we couldn’t eat fresh.
It has finally stopped raining here in North-East Germany, and the garden is loving the much-needed reprieve. There are no fewer tasks in the garden, though, and with the good weather, I get to take care of them.
Hiding from the rain outside, I turned our first berry harvest, mint and lavender we grew, and edible flower blossoms from the garden into syrups (or non-alcoholic cordial if you prefer). I don’t want to buy juice anymore and needed an alternative to elderflower syrup, as those are out of season.
Mulch is a lazy gardeners best friend. I might not be lazy, but I sure like efficiency. Now that my friend and I had weeded the tomatoes, it was time to mulch them. I am a huge proponent of heavy mulching, so today we’ll talk about mulch. A lot.
A scorching hot break between heavy rain storms gave me a chance to finish the carrot bed. A friend came to visit for a few day. Her visit was jinxed with bad weather and my period being particularly painful. Nonetheless, we harvested and processed cherries, dug for potatoes, and weeded the tomato bed.
Despite rain and mosquitoes, Pepper and I get a lot done in the garden. After checking on what my husband did the day before, we harvest some currants, string-trellis some tomatoes, cook a delicious dinner from volunteer potatoes, and return the next day to continue a new bed.
Almost every day brings fresh rain around here at the moment. Many days, we are forced to work around the weather–and take breaks when it rains. Or we ignore the weather and go to the garden anyway. On a rainy day, we made strawberry jam, then rescued the garlic from the non-stop rain by harvesting it and sorting it in my living room.
The garden was weeks behind, so I spent every free minute catching up. Every gap in the weather was spent in and around my beds. Everything was a rescue mission against clocks set by weather and wind. When it rained, I turned the tops of the onion I’d harvested into green onion pesto and planted the greenhouse.