In summer…I love this time of the year. The days are gradually getting longer, they are also getting warmer, and slowly it feels like we are leaving winter behind us and moving into the spring. Sure, there is still the odd dump of snow on the Jura and the Alps are still white, but in Geneva, where I’m based, there are daffodils and crocus pushing up through the lawns and green spaces in town. Little yellow and purple and white reminders that spring has almost sprung.
And it’s with this renewed enthusiasm for the year ahead that I’m starting this blog. I’m not sure what it is going to become, but for now, I’m starting with a roof terrace, a box of seeds and a whole heap of ideas.
Currently, I garden on an 80sqm roof terrace. Although that sounds like a lovely lot of space (and it is), there are a lot of restrictions upon it. For example, there is nothing between my roof terrace and Lausanne, some 90km away. As a result, the wind rips through here regularly, not only causing the temperature to plummet but also upturning plants. I’m not allowed to fix anything to the walls of the flat or the balcony, which means you have to be quite considered when planning. And the extremes of temperature also make it an interesting space to work with. In the winter it can drop to minus 10°C, and in the summer we’ve hit 45°C. In addition, the terrace wraps around the building in such a way that it gets the sunshine most of the day, so plants must be able to withstand that. Finally, we will move one day, so we’ve always got that in the back of our mind. The rule of thumb is, however, if it doesn’t fit in the lift, it can’t come up.
But I am certainly not complaining. The majority of the housing stock here is flats and apartments, and no one I know of has as big a terrace as we do. We’re very lucky, we just have to work around a few things.
My day job is pretty creative, and it allows me the flexibility to write and garden. But I’d like a passion project of my own, and so I’m starting this blog as a creative outlet.
I’m not a gardening expert. I don’t really like plants if I can’t eat them, and so that’s why I’ve started the blog… Plant, Eat, Repeat… because that’s mostly what I spent my time doing.
I hope you enjoy reading, and if you have any comments, suggestions or just want to get in touch, please do.
Happy growing.
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