That is the other most asked question I get now that I am leaving...'What are you going to do with your garden?' I fear that I have become a bit of a green thumb during my Schwebergarten (allottment garden in German) period here in Switzerland... we all know it.

The good thing though about the system here in Switzerland is that I just rented the garden. I rented it indefinitely and would have paid for another year come Spring if we were staying, but as fate would have it, we are not and I will be handing the land back over to whomever the next lucky person on the waiting list is. I will give up my key, and my soil, and get my deposit back... but leave with a lot of good memories...

When I get back to Australia, I have big gardening plans, so stay tuned on the new blog. I love Australia native plants and I intend to go to town in the backyard, creating my own little (dog friendly - or rather dog proof if that is possible!) native oasis... And I intend to get a colorbond/aluminium raised garden bed to try my hand at some fruit and veg in Australia, too. It all comes down to the dirt in Australia - it is really sand - so you have to bring in the good stuff (compost rich and dark), preferably in its own area or pot, which I will do, to make a success of it... and WATER A LOT!

Until then, let's remember the good times, with a few photos of the last weeks of the garden - also when my brother was here and he let me use his fancy macro lens to capture a few shots. Thanks, Nate! A lot of these photos are his. So please contact him if you would like to rip off his work. heheh :)



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It is true. It is officially Fall and while the garden is slowing down, I by no means am. Things seem to be getting busier and busier. I am little sad though that the garden will soon be shut down due to the change of seasons... I will soon pick the last pumpkin. I will soon load up the compost one last time before winter. I will see the last sunflower fall. The garden teaches us much, does it not? But until then, let's enjoy it shall we?





There are still a few cherry tomatoes and zucchinis left. I am hoping the last of the corn will also make it through and a few last beans. The chilies (as in chili peppers) are hot and coming thick and fast - time to make some spicy oil for my favorite pizzas! I also seemed to have planted way more gourds and pumpkins than one can humanly handle. But I am enjoying placing them around the house and filling big bowls with them. I can't tell you how many times though people at work think the three I placed on display are fake! Hoot! Doesn't it just look like a Fall garden now? (Ps. Sid - is it possible you gave me a sunflower plant? I will take a photo this weekend! ;)

One of my garden neighbors actually totally beats me hands down when it comes to growing pumpkins - even if I only bought the small varieties! Check his out...
And a shot for comparison sake... mine on top of his! HOOOOooot! ;) That is a baby bear on the left on top of his giant pumpkin and a little wee one on the right on top of his monster one!

Enjoy the Fall weather my friends... just remember - it could be snowing soon! ;)

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"Oh Fräulein ..." Am I dreaming? Or did I hear something? I am definately the only one out at the garden at this time of night, I thought, as I snapped away with camera on my new fancy tripod, trying to capture my beauties in the last minutes of precious twilight.

"Fräulein ..." said this time a bit louder.

What is this? I asked, pulling the camera trigger and adjusting my eyes to look around. Am I suddenly in the Sound of Music and nobody told me? Who thinks they can call me 'Little woman?' I looked around, and that is when I saw the neighbor, a garden neighbor whom up until now had avoided me like the plague, and I was fine with that after my run in with creepy Italian. But this time he was the only one around, and he seemed to think he was calling my name.

"Fräuuuuuuleiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiin..."

I squinted across the tomatoes and what has quickly become a pumpkin patch now that the beans are all frozen and tucked away for another day and the onions are mostly pulled up. There, standing just on the other side of my personal yellow marigold boundary, was the neighbor, holding up a bag obviously swollen and heavy with something, nodding that I should come over and get it. Slowly, I walked over...

"Fräulein... would you like tomatoes? Me too many. Soon I need pull them all out. Two weeks all gone. You take."

This was harmless, I realized. And free bounty. He was my new best friend. I knew we would get along just fine. So I took the bag and asked about 100 times if he was sure, before I realized that if I kept asking I might just get a tour of his garden. Too late... he did have enough and I was happy not to refuse his bounty of perfect plum tomatoes, cucumbers and aubergines. All things I did not grow. Coincidence? I think not. So I took the items and thanked him - then he asked what I was doing and I explained in slow German that I was photographing the plants. He was surprisingly unalarmed and showed me some beans he wanted me to take a photo of, and I promised I would. Then as I was getting my camera, he disappeared into the night - leaving me with my camera and at least 10 pounds of produce.

Just call me Fräulein Gardener. As long as you come with produce in hand, I don't mind one bit.

What's left in the garden?

• Sweet corn - yum!
• Chilis - two types
• Lots of basil, parsley, dill and spring onions
• A few more pickling onions and large yellow onions
• A million marigolds, both the large ones and the small mixed variety
• Pumpkins galore - orange ones, gourds, little baby ones... I am a sucker for the pumpkins and love finding the gourds hanging from the long ago blossoming sunflower stalks
• Zucchini - but not for much longer
• Salad - the late varieties are coming now along with the spinach and winter cabbages and Asian salad variety again
• Tomatoes - although I got hit by the blight that everyone warned about, I have had a few handfuls of the cherry tomatoes and there are more to come, still hopeful
• And a few more things that I cannot remember... but the dog days of summer are gone, replaced by mosquitoes and a very big compost pile... ;)

Not too shabby for planting it all from SEED! Is it?!!! ;) (Except for the potatoes and onions...)

Have a great weekend and enjoy the lovely weather!
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So the garden is in full swing and that means harvest time! All the Swiss plots are full of great fruit and veg and the plots are a flurry of excitement as everyone rushes to harvest their crop at the best times - having garden parties to celebrate the bounty... and me too! Here's the run down on what I am harvesting at the plot this week:

• The beans are in full swing - yellow and green - and lot of them! They are a bit small at the moment, but I figure if I pick them over time I will get some small and some big ones and it will even out. Yum - fresh beans!
  
• The onions are ready - I have spring onions, pickling onions (which I will try to pickle for Jace - fingers crossed that I don't end up with a moldy grey jar of vinegar - it can happen!), and regular big ol' yellow onions. They are coming up over time and eventually I will lift, dry and store them all.
• We have carrots! For some reason, I figured I would totally fail with the carrots as the soil has to be just right, well draining, forked through and perhaps a bit sandy. I have great soil so I thought I would have forked carrots. Not so! They are awesome - both red carrots and orange.
• Um, see those huge green things on the right - those are zucchini and yeah, I left them for a bit too long. Can you say zucchini bread, zucchini brownie (so yummy!) and ratatouille? Oh yes, and then some. After making all that, I still have these big daddies. Bread em' and bake them, Mom says. I think I might have to tomorrow.
• Chilies (hot peppers I mean) are coming. So are the tomatoes. I had to move the chilis this last weekend actually because the tomatoes and pumpkins were drowning them out. They are happy living where the peas used to be, I hope. I hope moving them so late was not a mistake!
  
• And how can forget those potatoes? They are all up now - and although they are not huge there are enough of them to last until winter if they store well (paper sack, in a dark, cool place)...

Honestly, I still cannot believe I have grown all this! It has been a lot of work - but it has been worth it for sure. More is still to come - fresh sweet corn, pumpkins (to eat and to decorate), lots more carrots, onions, radishes, chilis, tomatoes, beans, spinach, chinese cabbage, and more!

Enjoy some photos of the harvest - and check in again soon!

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Ok, so I know these are not photos of Prague. I had a lot (of lounging around doing nothing) to do yesterday, it was my birthday after all, so I did not get around to editing my photos from the trip. Alas, you will get them tomorrow. I promise! :) Until then, how about this bounty from the good ol' garden? They're mine... all mine. And actually, since this photo I have had a few more potatoes out of the garden, and peas, and zucchini! It is all coming along swimmingly. Thanks for asking. :)
I know this is out of focus, but I had to pull up a carrot to check them and this is what they are looking like. Isn't he cute?

Potatoes are all ready to come out I think. All the leaves are dying which I think means I need to take them out soon. Does someone know? Swiss Garden specialists? Hello? The onions are drying nicely, too, and will be ready for storage soon.

These peas are also very gratifying. A lot of work to cull but extremely tasty. Yum, fresh peas.

Stick with me. More garden updates to come. All is in full bloom and ready to burst. Ahh the joys of a Swiss Garden.

Read more about my adventures gardening in Switzerland through these posts:

• Adventures in Swiss Allotment Gardening
• How does my Swiss Garden grow?
• How does my Swiss Garden grow, you ask?
• Have I lost the plot? My Swiss Garden plot
  

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Funny story: So the other day, I forgot my keys for the garden at work, but it was so sunny out that I just had to go tend to it. So I thought, for sure someone will let me in when I get there, right? So I walked the 10 minutes or so to the garden to wait for someone to let me in...

And I waited... and I waited. No one was around. How can this be? The weather was great?! The sun was shining. No one. I could see people in the distance but I did not want to force them to come a running to let me in. So I did what anyone would do...

I jumped the fence... and just as I was relishing in my amazing strength and prowress, my cat like nature to evade the enemy and glide over an obstacle, my flip flop slid from my foot - landing on the other side of the fence, naturally just out of reach... so there I was, a fugitive in my own garden, with one rubber flip flop.

No worries, I thought. I am pretty skilled. I will just go barefoot and do a few things in the garden and get the shoe later. No problem! Then I realized...

The same set of keys for the garden have the keys for the shed. DOH! There was not much I could do then but harvest a bit of lettuce and make a run for it - with one shoe. So I went to go back and jump back over the fence, but there was a couple on the bench just outside now. My plans were foiled!

At that point, I saw a fellow gardener by the gate and decided to work my magic on him... but before doing so, I took of my remaining flip flop and shoved it into my bag. Everyone gardens barefoot, right? He would not notice a thing! So I hobbled across the stones to the gate, pleaded for him to let me out, which he did, and...
... scrambled to get my flip flop, saying hello to those on the bench, like everyone just randomly loses shoes these days and picks them up on their way home. And then I scuffled back to the house, vowing never to forget my keys or my sanity again. The things we do for fresh salad, I tell ya.

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Living and Working in Switzerland, 12th Edition: A Survival Handbook. This is an essential for anyone thinking about living in Switzerland. Buy it now via Amazon UK or pre-order your Amazon.com copy today! Thank you for supporting Swisstory by shopping on Amazon.

Things in my Swiss allotment garden are going splendly really. Here is a quick update for all of you that love to hear about my 'Green thumb' adventures in Switzerland.

I have finally planted the full garden, meaning I am using up almost every available meter in my 6 x 16 meter space. At the moment, the only produce I am harvesting is salad... and boy am I ever harvesting salad. There is so much that when my Swiss garden neighbors stop by, all they can say is... 'That is a lot of salad.' And 'Man, you could sell that salad on the market.' And by the way, the word for lettuce in German is 'Salat.' So I had to translate it like it sounds in German... 'Salad.'

And they are right... I do have a lot of (lovely, lovely) salad. And feel free to read this in the Bubba Gump voice I am using in my head as a type this... There's...




All the plants are coming up swimmingly, I am getting lots of (unwanted but nevertheless friendly) advice from neighbors about how my potatoes are not going to make it and my onions are sick and how my tomatoes are all going to get blight and die. Joy. And some old man came onto me the other day and insisted that I have a coffee at his place and get an Italian boyfriend... but besides all that I am really loving the experience and cannot wait to eat more than salad from this fine piece of Swiss land.
More updates, coming soon. :)

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Living and Working in Switzerland, 12th Edition: A Survival Handbook. This is an essential for anyone thinking about living in Switzerland. Buy it now via Amazon UK or pre-order your Amazon.com copy today! Thank you for supporting Swisstory by shopping on Amazon.

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This is an essential and the latest edition is due out in July. Pre-Order your copy today! Living and Working in Switzerland, 12th Edition: A Survival Handbook