Hello from Germany

[Simone Pennington]

Hello everyone, I am very happy to be here, can't wait to see what's going on in people's gardens. I live in Germany and probably will never be able to grow any of the plants you have in wonderful Australia, my latest project is a passion fruit tree from seed which is very slow going indeed. Kind Regards!!

 

[DTK]

Welcome Simone, and good luck with your pasionfruit. You will no doubt read various opinions regarding growing passionfruit from seed v buying from nursery; personally I grow from my own harvested seed often; maybe purchased plants do better but I am happy with mine. Best wishes,

 

[Simone Pennington]

Hello Dan, thanks for your message. I think I would be very hard pushed to find passion fruit plants over here. It will probably fail, I am sure Mark mentioned in one of his videos that the seeds are covered in a small membrane and hence they might not grow. Maybe that is why I am finding it difficult. Heat here is not the problem, they are in our polly tunnel with the tomatos. Everything else is thriving, do people on here like it when photos are put up? Thanks again for the nice welcome note! Kind Regards, Simone

 

[DTK]

I am not the boss by any stretch of the imagination but from my personal perspective, photos are always welcome.

 

[Vicky]

Hello and welcome Simone, you would have a much shorter growing season but your poly tunnel should make a lot of things possible. Was your passionfruit seed fresh? Did you soak it at all? I've never grown them but a quick google search says these two things are good, older seeds take longer to germinate apparently. What else are you going in your poly tunnel? Pictures are always enjoyed

 

[Simone Pennington]

Hello Vicky, thanks for your reply. After I made some jam , having used the passion fruit juice in addition, I was left with the seeds. I just left them for a few days and stuck them into the soil, they were still sticky as hell. Prior to this I tried Mark's method of drying the whole fruit for ages, breaking it up and then putting the crunched up remains into the soil, that did not work either. I now have pathetic little plants trying to grow, but at a snails pace. The other veg is growing like mad, the tomatos have doubled in size after just a week. This year we have ten different types because I love the different colours on a platter made up into a salad, in the tunnel there is also 6 different Chili varieties. If I manage to put up some photos, these were taken about 10 ten days ago, we went yesterday and the growth of everything has just exploded, it is wonderful. We are in our third year now, still trying out new methods, but our farmer lady who owns the land is very happy for us because she enjoys the achievements and loves the fact that we enjoy the garden and ultimately keep it looking nice for her too. Hope you like the photos. They are from two weeks ago, every day we go to the garden, it all looks different. Kind Regards, Simone

 

[bizhat]

wow!
thats one beautiful (and well planned out!) garden u have there!
> in respect to the passion fruit attempt, maybe grow the plant inside the house for the first few years, until it can survive outside. -or in a Terrasse / Wintergarten if u have one

 

[DTK]

Great photos Simmone; thanks for sharing. All the best.

 

[Geo]

Hi Simone! Welcome!
Your pictures show a very well built up and organized space, I hope you'll get a lot of food from it this year

 

[Mark]

G'day Simone and thank you for becoming a member of our forum!

my latest project is a passion fruit tree from seed which is very slow going indeed.

I like to experiment and push the boundaries also because it's often surprising what success you can have when the "book" says you can't do.

Nina and I were lucky enough to spend a few days in Munich last year and are now very keen to return to Germany to explore your country properly (especially the amazing food).

Anyway, I hope you enjoy your time here on SSC.

 

[Simone Pennington]

Hi Simone! Welcome!
Your pictures show a very well built up and organized space, I hope you'll get a lot of food from it this year

Hi Geo, thanks for your nice comments, we are very happy with it, it is our third year, I take photos every other day, when I have not been to the garden due to work, I am always amazed how much everything has grown. Right now, we are harvesting Broccoli, Kohlrabi, Radishes, Zuchini, Cucumbers, lettuce, pointy cabbage, tender beetroot leaves and just today we had our first tatties out of the garden. I am loving my time with SSC, I have been quietly watching the videos since last year. Australiens are very lucky to be living on such a beautiful continent. Kind Regards

 

[Simone Pennington]

wow!
thats one beautiful (and well planned out!) garden u have there!
> in respect to the passion fruit attempt, maybe grow the plant inside the house for the first few years, until it can survive outside. -or in a Terrasse / Wintergarten if u have one

Hi, well that project failed, I will try again and maybe I need to not do it from something as fresh as that. I will keep trying. Doing it at home where I have more control must be the way to go. Kind Regards!

 

[Simone Pennington]

G'day Simone and thank you for becoming a member of our forum!


I like to experiment and push the boundaries also because it's often surprising what success you can have when the "book" says you can't do.

Nina and I were lucky enough to spend a few days in Munich last year and are now very keen to return to Germany to explore your country properly (especially the amazing food).

Anyway, I hope you enjoy your time here on SSC.

Hello Mark!
Thanks for the welcome! I was just telling my husband about your video having been on holiday for 5 weeks and there you were drinking a huge beer in Munich. I have never been to Munich myself. If you are looking at coming to Germany again, consider the Moselle Valley at the German side of it, the end of the Moselle is at Koblenz where it joins the river Rhine. Koblenz is a fantastic city and if you follow the Moselle towards Trier, eventually you will end up in France. Just a short drive from Koblenz you come to Winningen which hosts Germany's oldest winefest and has the steepest vineyards in Germany. There is much to see. The towns and villages along the Moselle are very pretty. We have been holidaying/hiking there for decades. Anyway....
My passion fruit project is dead, I started it from fresh seed after making jam, I also tried your version of drying the whole thing into mummification and that did not work either. I will keep trying!
I found your videos by chance last year when we were keen to broaden our gardening skills from the year before. Your property is vast in comparison to what we have on the farm and you are lucky to keep quail, ducks and chickens. I was in discussions with our farmer lady, she would let us do it but at the end of the day, we are not there everyday and it would be unfair for her to deal with some of it. Also, there are foxes and other rodents that will have a go. We would need to build a Fort Knox style set up!
It is very hot here already, nearly 30 degrees C, the last two summers were like this and it looks like it will not change now.
We harvested our first potatos today and some green leaves for dinner. The potatos were a disappointment last year, mainly due to lack of water (we were away on holiday!) and a slight infestation of the Colorado beetle. We have now looked into companion planting and have put mint through the potato patch (in a container) and have not found a single beetle - 20 metres away on the farmer lady's patch, she found one culprit. She does not have any mint...
I very much look forward to being part of this forum, I just have to learn how to use it properly Photos attached are todays harvest. Best wishes, Simone & James

 

[bizhat]

infestation of the Colorado beetle. We have now looked into companion planting and have put mint through the potato patch (in a container) and have not found a single beetle..

would you perhaps have a picture of your patch, ie how one would have to plant / containered the mint with the potatoes? (around, amoung, together?)
> I've been seeing my aged neighbour breaking her back every evening for the past week gathering those nifty bugs, but all I came up with was garlic, Kaffeesatz and some other flowery purple plant.
> that would be verily helpful

 

[Simone Pennington]

This is our 3rd year growing our own veg and we have in general been very satisfied with our harvests. Each winter we have taken the time to research how to encourage a greater yield from a small space. I was intrigued by the idea of vertical planting and my husband was captivated with the concept of companion planting. So last winter hours were spent on internet videos, various web searches and the odd book purchased. We are not experts and this year is, for us, very experimental trying new ideas.

I can only generalise upon James’s notes about potatoes. So here goes.

• Potato beetle is attracted by the scent of the potato plant. Change, hide scent?
• Companion planting: Horseradish and catmint (Garden mint can work but not as well as cat mint but he remembers as a boy his grandmother always had garden mint growing with her potatoes. Now he thinks he understands why). Catmint, - risk of all the farm cats invading the garden!
• Bush beans and sage can also help but we opted not to mix in with the potato patch for fear of overcrowding and harvesting difficulties.

One encouraging note is that when we water the potato patch you get a wonderful scent from the mint wafting in the air. Personally, we do not eat horseradish and the seeds are very cheap so we have no guilt using them as a sacrificial plant that will end up on the compost. The Mint is planted between the rows in flower pots so it can be rotated to next year’s patch, that is, if we do not cook all the mint with the potatoes. There are a few photos attached taken today, I hope you can see the mint clearly. It is in a clay pot, as otherwise it will spread through the patch rampantly.

I hope some of this helps your elderly neighbour.

 

[bizhat]

it is a huge help! Thanks
.. now I also understand why we never have any of those bugs + cats manuring our garden - my Ma has mint of all sorts on the borders of the entire garden patch.. so it was them all along, hah!

those are some very healthy looking potatoes + boy, what a cutie of a dog u have there :3