our own organic garden

One of the first wants was to have our own vegetable garden. With Claudia being vegetarian our taste for fresh and natural food has more and more developed and hence the drive to find a place in the Provence which allows us to be self-sufficient, self-supportive and in control of what we put on our table.

In the summer of 2009 we spent one week on an organic farm in the Drôme, La Ferme du Pescher, a small collective with 2 vegetable farmers and a goat farmer who also makes delicious goats cheese. Claudia learnt more about the planting, growing and harvesting of the various vegetables and fruits and their seasonal cycles, while Jim became fromager and single-handedly ran the fromagerie. In June of 2010 Jim and Claudia will again spend one week at this farm, to help and enjoy the lifestyle.

In our garden we have a mature fig tree, a prune tree and a cherry tree, to make jams with natural jelling agents like agar-agar and a small amount of sweeteners, like rice syrup or agave syrup.

With seeds from the organic farm La Ferme de Sainte Marthe we grow courgettes, tomatoes, lettuce, fennel, cucumber, leeks, carrots, onions, garlic as well as an herb garden with mint, basil, coriander.

With our own organic garden we want to be independent and also be able to offer our home-grown products at our table d’hotes.

first observations

First observations about the soil here on the Plateau de Valensole: the soil is hard and does not retain moisture well. However, the garlic which we planted in January has not needed one drop of water and is now, the beginning of May, already 30 cm high.

Our initial hesitance to water our plants too much and to deplete our earth of this precious resource has been amended to give our plants a chance. We take our water from a nearby bassin, which is fed by rain water only and is/was also home to Vincent the Frog. This allows us to close the cycle of rain water irrigation and at the same time using only as much as is needed.

The cherry tree has grown very large, with an amazing amount of cherries on it, without any diseases or parasites. We will have to trim it, though, as the net, protecting the cherries against the ever-present birds, is difficult to mount and does not cover the whole tree.

Our vegetable garden has produced some remarkable results! Jim loves courgettes which in turn appear to love the soil and full sun. The different types of lettuce including roquettes didn't do so well; the small lettuce plants I had bought this spring, however, did really well. Maybe the location is too sunny? Observation: lettuce is a cold weather plant did well in the cooler fall and also in the winter

Beginning of August I am preparing the soil for some late-summer planting which will result in a harvest in the fall.

In October I will prepare the beds for fall planting for harvesting in the winter. Observation: it is important to use the seeds according to their planting times. More luck next year.

the second season

Starting seeds indoors is definitely possible, even without as much sun as we usually have in the winter here in Provence. The courgettes are growing like crazy as well as broccoli and winter leeks; the eggplants are a bit fickle, though. Garlic grows really well here, the cloves I planted in November are doing very well, and the ones from January are well on their way - super!

Unfortunately the courgettes blossomed before they were transplanted so that they may not carry any fruit this year.

It is the middle of May and we just harvested our cherries, this year almost 4 weeks earlier than last year! I also think that the figs will be ripe sooner than the usual middle of August.

We installed a summer garden for cold weather vegetables in the shade behind the house. We planted lettuce and roquette in the shade, coriander in the half shade, and some type of courge, given to us by Magdalena. All that's missing is a beautiful lavender bush in the middle and in full sun which we can then look at whilst looking out the kitchen window.

July: a little update on the previous observations. The garlic grew well but the cloves stayed small. We will need to plant them less deep next time. The courgettes, all of them including the weak ones which had blossomed early, are doing fantastic! We can harvest our first ones. And the lavender bush behind the house was planted a while ago so the summer garden is complete.

	July 6, we harvested our first juicy ripe cocktail tomatoes! Both tasted superb!
	And the courgette, or: zucchini, are well under way; we are going to have an abundant harvest this year.

the third season

After two seasons of having to transport the water from the bassin to the vegetable patches we have decided to move the potager, which is French for vegetable garden, next to the bassin. An existing stone wall which has been crumbling down over the course of time is used as a boundary on one side; the stone wall which had been torned down we redid in the traditional method of dry walling using the actual and original stones only, no cement or other fillers used. We also installed 2 large flat stones which serve as a place to observe, rest and reflect.