an aussie in austria

This year marked our first summer in the house, and therefore, my first chance to start my own ‘vege patch’.

I was an expert gardener, I proclaimed. My younger days helping my dad in the garden obviously meant I knew everything about growing vegetables.

As a kid I entered into a fantastic agreement with my parents, whereby they would ‘pay’ me for all the vegetables I grew. It worked great for them, because whenever mum wanted something for dinner I would happily go and pick it; and it worked great for me because every time I did, they had to pay me for it.

At around $5 for a pumpkin… it was a gold mine at that age. And pumpkins basically grow themselves!

So back to the story at hand… me… the vege-growing expert…

Guess what I discovered?

I’m no expert.

It seems like while I thought I did all the work raising those little seedlings into flourishing plants, dad was most likely out of sight behind the scenes, watering, feeding and basically ensuring that my childhood neglect didn’t kill them.

So here’s Part 1 of our Austrian Gardening Story.

We decided to grow some seedlings indoors to get a head start. After all, growing season is much shorter in Austria than it is in Australia. My husband was their main carer, ensuring they were happily watered. And they grew like the happy little seeds they were. Inside… on a heated floor… protected from the elements.

Gleefully I made use of my mad gardening skills to plant the new little babies outside. And then we stood back to watch them grow.

24 hours later. This.

So sad.

Turns out, we spoilt those poor little seedlings. They got used to the protection of the indoors but had no idea how to make it in the real world. What we should have done was progressively moved them… a few weeks under cover outside… a few weeks with partial sun… an so on, rather than doing it all at once!

And so we started again. Outside, with seeds. Back to square one.

And how did we go? Find out in Part 2 – coming soon.