A German garden

Things are always changing in the yard, and for me it's like a non-stop chain of surprises, cuz I didn't plant these things, but I get to enjoy them anyway. This post was written in June, and I am finally posting it.

Many of these plants are new and exotic to me, but commonplace in Europe.

Have you ever heard of gooseberries? I hadn't. That's the English word for Stachelbeeren. I keep eating them wondering if they're ripe yet, or how you know when they are. I have no basis for comparison. I saw a lady at church yesterday eating them on a cake, and they were green. Mine are turning red. Hm.







Red currants are everywhere - we have 3 bushes in front and they're loaded with berries now. My man took a big bowl of them to work today to give to any teachers who might want to bake with them. As an american, I'm clueless. Give me a bowl of blackberries, I know what to do, but currants? (And Aarene you're right - I compared the leaves with a friend's hops plant and they're almost indistinguishable.)







These berries are amazingly tasty - Taibeeren is the German name but I don't know the English - anyone? They're like elongated raspberries. If the blackbirds don't get 'em first, they get very large and long. Astoundingly sweet like raspberries. You'll often see us in our front yard, I'll be scouring the Tai berry plant and my man will be harvesting currants.







Doesn't that look yummy? It was! I uprooted and boiled 6 of my beets and they were so good! I never knew beets could be yummy til I tried one from a friend's garden.











Gotta get more "Lavendel" - it easily survives Germany's winters (unlike rosemary, which I had hoped for but now give up.) I brought my prized lavender plant here and put it in the ground and it died immediately! What the heck - it prefered life on an apartment balcony!? Sheesh. But this happy one makes me want more, more!!








Someday I'll have a good camera like you photographers out there. But until now, Blogger.com can thank me for not taking up so much serverspace. *giggle*










These are Astilben in German - I've completely forgotten the English word for them. I adore them, the previous owners were kind enough to plant all three colors.










"You're my favorite!" I tell them. OK, favorite for June, maybe: )










Our little street-side pond is always changing. I can't wait to see my first baby frog! (I stuck 4 tadpoles in here.)









In Germany these are called "Nelken" but that's confusing cuz Nelken is the word for cloves. These are not cloves, these are carnations! Anyone have an answer for me?










Just yesterday I discovered a bush in our front yard has berries ripe for eating, but what are they? They're as dark as blueberries but bigger. It turns out they're a hybrid of currant and gooseberry. Weird huh? (Sorry no pic.)

We have cherry tomatoes! I don't think they'll be done before we go to America, so I hope the neighbor comes over and picks them!









The tomato plants are as tall as I am. They're cunningly tied to the greenhouse wall. (After they all fell over one day before I learned tomatoes need support!)








Blogger says "thank you lytha" for such low-quality photos! *lol*










We have zucchini and I had to giggle at the little sign I put there, like someone might not know what they are?! I'm cooking them up in the frying pan until they're blackened with a little onion, garlic powder, salt, pepper. Just like my dad taught me. We have enough zucchini plants for the whole neighborhood but I have confidence I can really eat this much zucchini. I love it so much.

While weeding yesterday I got bit my a nettle very badly. Usually if I brush a stinging nettle, I'm in pain for 24 hours. For some reason I'm very reactive to them. But this one was something else - I don't know why but it stung so bad, for 24 complete hours, I honestly thought it would help if I cut the finger off. Cutting it off could not possibly hurt as bad as this nonstop throbbing. I actually drove to the store and bought a very special box of something called Natron. Very rare chemical powder in Germany that only certain stores carry. It came with a long list of popular uses and folk remedies. I laughed when I got to one of the uses:

"Popularly used in America for BAKING, the Americans call it Baking Soda."











Boy was I disappointed when I opened the box, expecting to dig right into the powder. There are only envelopes in there, of tiny amounts of Baking Soda. Ridiculous. Just goes to show that the common uses of this just do not occur here. You'd have to spend a fortune just to get enough to do one cat box. Hrmph. (But in case you're curious, it turns out you can do all your baking with 100% baking POWDER just fine.)

If anyone knows a good stinging nettle remedy, I'd love to hear it. Just please note that it won't help me if you suggest I find some plant that grows everywhere in America (sword ferns) that is unheard of here.

To be horse-related, here is a photo of a neighbor's horse in a sun suit. Remember I said summer eczema is a problem here? That poor horse!











If horses can feel shame, this one does.

***UPDATE, AUGUST

The tomatoes are going crazy, up to the roof, and we have enough that I am making salsa. Yah, I finally found cilantro in a store here. This has made lytha a happy girl!

My zucchini has blossom end rot, a very sad calcium deficiency situation. We get very very little zucchini. I fertilized heavily today with manure tea. I sure hope I did that right.

Carrots...they will take some time, they are still quite small, although it was fun to dig some up for the neighbor when she came over for carrots for her pea soup. She said, "Oh, with Baasha, I knew you would have carrots." But we were actually all out of store-bought carrots, so I had to dig some up.

Basil has mostly been donated to neighbors and family. I had way too much basil and not enough ideas for it.



Plums have been used for a plum cake, and apples will take some time still. Plum cake is a common, common dessert here.










My version needs help, but it was yummy.








My plums sank in the dough, ending up on bottom, but still it was good. Ladies at church Sunday gave me a better idea to keep the plums on top, they said I should use Quark in the dough. (Quark is kind of like yogurt or sour cream, I dunno, it's a German thing. Not that Ferengi on StarTrek.)







We ate it with ice cream AND spray-on whip cream. See how big those slices are? My man calls those "20 minute slices", if you think about the cake like it's a clock.