Spring into real Spring

Where I am located, the month of May is really one of the most beautiful time of the year. This is the time when every single living plants are sprouting and growing in a hurry to set blooms for the month of June. July will be too hot for most flowering plants and everything including me will just turned limp with the heat and go into short dormancy period until the temperature come down again.

Everything is prolific right now that I even have onions growing in my kitchen. Even though they are in a special breathable terracotta container and practically in the dark, that doesn't stop them from sprouting and turning themselves into spring onion!

(left) ornamental garden alium, not edible but also in the onion family.




We call this one Bärlauch, pronounce as bear-lauch with silent C.

Other people call it Allium ursinum or wild garlic. The picture here is showing them already in their flowering stage.

They can be found growing in the undergrowth of damp, cool and shaded woodlands.

I have quite a patch of them growing at the edge of my woodland garden. The leaves smells very similar like garlic but eating it doesn't make your breath smell like you have eaten garlic bread or garlic chips. I'm not kidding, there is such thing as garlic chips. I've never used it in the garden but Cyndy used them to keep the deers from eating her roses. (By the way, Cyndy, its wonderful to see you here. My bareroot Darlow Enigma has gotten to 3 feet tall! )

In early spring, when the "bärlauch" first unfurl their young leaves, we usually collect the very fresh young leaves and prepare them into bärlauch pesto.

It is very similar to making basil pesto, pine nuts and mixed with extra virgin olive oil and eaten with spagetti or any kind of pasta with grated Italian cheese such as grana or parmigiano.

I will start adding recipes to my other blog, so you all can try my cuisine. Very simple and straight forward cooking style.

I am not a couch potato, but I love potatoes. I have planted a basketful of potatoes which sprouted out during late winter, Potato sprouting: Signs of Spring
but every year in autumn, I always forgotten to harvest my own home grown potatoes!

Since I eat a lot of potatoes, boiled, mash, wedges or hash brown which is called rösti over here, my kitchen is never without potatoes. Last week, I bought some more but since the days are getting longer and brighter, those potatoes, even though they are in a special basket that blocked lights, they still turned green and sprouting little growth from the eye buds. When they have turned green, that means they are not more good for eating, due to the high alkaloid solanine contents, which is toxic and can cause gastrointestinal discomfort or even heart damages if ingested excessively. That's unbelievable isn't it? I mean food that give us strength and energy can also kill us!

With so much rain last month, the weeds and the grasses are growing so fast. They have reached up to my waist level. Its like walking in a grassy safari somewhere in the exotic land, but I am still in my own garden reality and I can't see those short rose bushes at the moment. The dandelion are at their peak. Some are already making their fluffy white seed heads. Soon there will be thousands dandelion seed flying around in the air. I have given up trying to eliminate them from the garden. They are all over the place in my neighbourhood.

Sometimes, I wish I have a pet goat or sheep to eat up all the grass and the weeds....

Azalea is working hard making buds...


The Tireless rose or Unermüdliche first bloom. O joy...my rose season is here!

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