The first seeds of 2018

We live in zone 7b, it is a bit too early to plant anything outside, but usually around the end of March I can plant kohlrabi, peas, onions and some salad varieties outside.

I usually purchase kohlrabi plants from our local garden store, but this year I decided to try starting kohlrabi from seeds. A couple months ago someone mentioned on a Youtube channel that I watch that you can use empty toilet paper rolls to start seeds. The advantage of this method is that when it is time to plant you can plant the whole roll, the plants will continue to grow, and the cardboard will eventually become worm food.

In any case it sounded like a good way to repurpose the rolls, so why not.

Seed starting in toilet paper rolls

While I was at it I decided to try peas as well, so I planted 6 rolls with peas and 6 rolls with kohlrabi. I also planted 3 of each in some biodegradable pots that I found at our garden center.

The E-Garden 2017

Here are a few pictures of our larger garden, which we share with two other neighbors. “E” who owns the land, isn’t into gardening, so is happy when we take care of it.

The E-Garden June 2017
The E-Garden July 2017
The E-Garden September 2017

The L-Garden in 2017

Here are a few pictures of the smaller L-Garden from June and July of 2017.

Green beans and zucchini
Cucumbers
Peppers
Tomatoes
The end of July

Welcome to My Garden

Welcome, my name is Stanley Jack Niles and I have developed this site to document my gardening journey in the land of the Huguenots.

My wife and I live in Friedrichstal Germany, one of five villages that make up the town of Stutensee. Friedrichstal was founded in 1699, by Huguenots fleeing religious persecution from the north of France, and also by way of Belgium and Switzerland.

The house that I live in is an orginal Huguenot house, but sometime between 1700-1710. Our house only has a very small yard on one side, so our gardening is very limited on our own land.

Our Yard Garden

But I have been “borrowing” garden space from two of my neighbors. One garden, I will call it our L-Garden,  is approximately 20 square meters:

Our L-Garden

The other garden is approximately 160 square meters, and is part of a 500 square meter space that I share with two other families. The owner of this  land inhereited the house from his mother and has no desire to garden, he is happy when we take care of it for him. I will call this garden the E-Garden.

The E-Garden