New European Food: German garden

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It’s a bright, spring day and not too warm. You’ve got money in your pocket, time on your hands, and hope in your heart. Doesn’t include the blond in the convertible that stops to offer you a ride…and so much more. I said ‘hope’ not outrageous expectations.

Wanna sit in a garden, sip some honeyed tea, nosh on scrumptious cake, laced with ripe berries, and slathered in cream, gaze over rows of brightly dancing flowers, and take some well-chosen greenery home with you?

Oh, the cakes and pastries....

Even better than it looks!

I just covered, drinking, eating, gardens, sunshine, shopping, and dreaming. How much more Springtime planning can a mere mortal do?

You’re in luck. Got just the place for you. Only problem is, it’s about an hour and a half from the beaten track. Matter of fact, if you mention the beaten track to locals, you get blank stares. Nevertheless, it’s worth the drive through a brilliant array of fields and flowers, dots of towering green trees, and the country allure of narrow, heart-pounding two lane blacktops. Make that one and a half lanes.

Of course, I’m speaking of the Staudengärtnerei Gräfin von Zeppelin (Garden and Nursery). A Countess? Yes, Helena (1879-1967), the daughter of the famous Ferdinand Adolf August Heinrich Graf von Zeppelin (1838 –1917), inventor of the airships that carried his name.

The question arising is: how did von Zeppelin’s daughter get connected to the garden and nursery. Sorry, no answer from this guy. However, Helena was quite active in German gardening during the early to mid 20^th Century. She’s given credit for cultivating lambs’ ears, those loveable little plants with fuzzy, silvered leaves. Some varieties even sport red flowers. Quite easy to propagate, by the way. My own garden’s overflowing. Can’t clear out the little devils to save my life.

But, back to the Baroness’ garden center. The first thing you notice, after you notice the joy and wonder of finally seeing other humans, is the great expanse of flowers and plants. You can walk right into the rows, or you can go through the garden shop, which is arrayed with everything every gardener needs, or doesn’t. Attached to the shop is a small, glassed-in, airy café offering a limited menu, which thankfully includes a host of teas and coffees, beer, wine, cakes, and pastries that would make an anorexic Vogue model drool. I chose the porch, overlooking a scenic village and church’s bell tower.

Not being a gardener, unless you count wishing and hoping, I needed stern botanic counseling. Fortunately, garden gnomes roam the area, friendly, smiling, able to translate Latin and make suggestions from spoken scraps of disorganized information. A gnome is a necessity for someone stuck with pantomiming words like: tallish, bluish-aqua-purple, sounds like whiffer-dill, rhymes with tendonitis. The gnomes did well. Translated the entire Caesar's Commentaries on the Gallic Wars, then took my money faster than an online blackjack dealer.

Well, ok, I devoured cakes, sipped tea, and spent money, but how did it turn out? All I can say is the plants went in the ground easy enough. Too early to proclaim anything more definite. However, my lambs’ ears are still doing splendidly.

Gräfin von Zeppelin

Garden Center

Weinstr. 2

79295 Sulzburg

07634 69716

What's a garden without lilies?

Flowers without number...

Even a quick glimpse is a pleasure.

A little serendipity always helps.

A carelessly beautiful arrangement.

Germans, like the English, are wonderful gardeners. Don’t believe it? Drive through any German village, town, or city and see that every nook and cranny is bursting with flowers. Must have been women who did those. Window boxes. Front yards. Back yards. Along driveways. Flowerpots by the door. Bicycle baskets still on the handlebars. Yes, I have seen these. Inspiring.

I am not a gardener, but I have friends who are and some are even German men. For a bier and a wurst, they’ll willingly share the secrets they’ve gleaned from their years of playing in the dirt; which is a polite way of saying, put a beer in their hand and they’ll spill their gardening guts. But, after a few hours of pils, who’s equipped to remember Latin names, or the best time to plant rhubarb, and why slugs don’t make good escargot?

Well, I remember a few secrets, such as: plant flowers in the sunshine, except for impatiens, which apparently adore some shade, as I do. Details fade. Beauty lingers.

Which brings me to the expression ‘nook and cranny.’ Anybody know what that means? Nooks are small, out of the way spots only women know about, and crannies are small crevices even more difficult to find. All of them are evil. Would I use the phrase in a sentence? Of course. My wife finds nooks and crannies to be great organizational tools, which is why I’m developing a nook and cranny eradicator.

In fact, men are born hating nooks and also express great distain for crannies, preferring to place eyes-only items, such as the receipts for the new shotgun and full surround sound media center, in more secret places. Twice locked strong boxes, labeled ‘Only to be opened in the case of my death,’ for example.

But, back to my friend’s garden, which is a delight and shows great foresight in avoiding the use of nooks. Also, back to two of his best secrets. Secret one: When you have a bare spot in your lawn, lightly till in some dark earth. Next, put grass seeds in a watering can and fill it with water. Then water the patch and the grass seeds will spread evenly. Secret two: To figure out where best to plant flowers in your garden, take twenty years of trial and error, and never give up hope.

You can tell if you have a really good garden. It’s like a living painting you can sit and stare at for hours. A place to enjoy your morning cup, or to relax with a sherry at dusk. The question is, what makes a garden good? What takes a little greenery and a few bursts of color out of the realm of mere plantings and into the world of living art? One thing I’ve noticed is that pockets of single color anchor a well planted garden. Diaspora of types and colors is great, but only if balanced by strong monochromatic patches that draw the eye. There must also be a balance of differing heights and backgrounds of various shades of green.

If none of this comes naturally to your eye and imagination, visit some professional gardens, check out internet photos, or diligently spy on your neighbors, while ignoring their habit of nude sunbathing. Careless balance, of form, size, and color is the key. Yep, takes a lot of time and work to achieve carelessness.

Time for another beer, while you lovingly gaze at some photos of a wonderful backyard garden. Meanwhile, I’m taking a fly swatter to those beastly crannies.