Gardening in Greece...via Munich

Hello, dear friends,

It is the first day of May, today, a day of fun and celebration of nature.
In times past, people used to ride on horse-drawn carriages and head to the fields to celebrate spring. Then, they'd come home and make wreaths and hung them in the front door.



We used to do that every year. I mean not exactly, but close. You may want to take a look here and here.



This year, it was quite different. J is home bound and he will be for another week to ward off fears of pneumonia. C took that into consideration and he bought a flower wreath from the florist's. I like it, but I'll take a picture tomorrow, as it gets dark now. So, we stayed at home and it so happened that we did some gardening, which is a nature related activity, which is so much related to the month of May, which is great!



We did some weeding and mixing in some new soil (but we soon run out and have to go back and get some more). We planted some flowers and we planted some seeds that we had bought in Germany. I also have some British salad seeds that I can not find here.



What surprises me in Greece (one of the long list of what surprises me in Greece) is that people do not plant in their gardens as the Americans or the British or the Germans do. You'd think that with all the mild weather the gardens would be blooming everywhere as in the garden of Eden. But, no. There is lots of expensive to upkeep grass, and not much more. I know about the upkeep because we have a back patch that needs watering in the summer. Why am I not turning it into a vegetable garden, you ask.



Because the front patch is a strip of grass, really, and there is not space to place a chair and table in the shadow, unless you want to do some extensive people watching. Which leaves us with our own little piece of heaven in the back garden. But I am planting in containers in the living room veranda: tomatoes, cherry tomatoes for the first time, and some salad leaves, which will hopefully carry us through the summer.



I can't tell you how much I wanted a garden! We could have bought an apartment in a more upbeat neighborhood with fancy decor etc. but this was one of the few times in my life that I stumped my feet and asked for a garden. Small? Ok with me. But I can take my shoes off and walk on the just rained upon green carpet: bliss.


Are you blessed with a garden of your own? If you do, you know how great it is to take your shoes off and walk on the land itself. It is so, well, grounding.

If you don't have a patch of land to call garden, do not wait for another minute.
Go to a nice public park (another species that is nearing extinction in this blessed land of Greece), wear flip-flops, and discretely take them off and walk like a light headed film star.



The air d' insouciance is needed, in case a warden wants to ask why you took your shoes off. Which reminds me...oh, I'll leave that for the next post.



Happy 1st of May!

(All pictures Munich, and the Munich vegetable and flower marker, April 2009)