May I invite you? To a trip to the dreamlike garden of Martha Besseling in Luxembourg.
Martha and I met many years ago at my first bookstall at the Luxembourg Book Fair. We got talking back then about the little booklet "Shortbread", which has become a little baking book classic in
its fourth edition by now, and a wonderful friendship developed out of it. I have the feeling that the joy of cooking and the passion of gardening are often very close to each other. They are all
the beautiful themes of life! The enjoyment and the sense of beauty really do connect a lot!
Next Thursday evening, the focus of our monthly Instagram LIVE series will be on gardening. So I'm really looking forward to an evening stroll through Martha's garden. Her signature touches me
deep in my heart, as her love for plants is everywhere with her!
"My passion for gardening - it's in my DNA - my love of nature and everything that flies and crawls, I owe to my parents, who were great hobby gardeners themselves. The time spent in my parents'
garden with family and friends is indelibly imprinted on me." Martha
And so our walk was like a little journey.
Martha followed her great love from her home country Austria to Luxembourg in 2014 and was initially very conflicted in her heart. On the one hand, there was the sadness of saying goodbye to her
family, her friends and her much-loved garden in Austria, and on the other hand, the anticipation of a new chapter in her life in a hitherto rather unknown country. But, in every new beginning
there is magic - with this hope, full of confidence and love, her life in Luxembourg began on Valentine's Day 2014.
A really good day that has brought her happiness to this day.
At the first garden fair in May, a rose pavilion was bought - that was the start for her new garden and for the planning, which was quite quickly transferred from the sketches she had made herself into reality. It was to be a garden with different spaces and since the already existing "garden" (hedges, meadow, conifers, walnut tree) offered a lot of design freedom, Martha could really let off steam in terms of gardening. Conifers were felled (but still had their last appearance as Christmas trees in the community), paths and seating areas were paved, a formal pond was created, new hedges were planted as dividers for the garden rooms, hundreds of box trees were given a new home and numerous roses, perennials, shrubs and trees were planted.
In the first few years, Martha still grew vegetables in the boxwoods with great enthusiasm - but the root pressure of the green border has unfortunately put an end to this passion.
So, peu à peu, a green living room has been created, which was completed for the time being with the last building activity, the erection of a garden house.
Buchempfehlungen:
PIA PERA
Die Weisheit meines Gartens
Die Früchte der Gelassenheit
BARBARA FRISCHMUTH
Marder, Rose, Fink und Laus
Löwenmaul und Irisschwert - Gartengeschichten
JAKOB AUGSTEIN
Die Tage des Gärtners -
Vom Glück im Freien zu sein
MEIKE WINNEMUTH
Bin im Garten
PETER JANKE
Mein Garten im Wandel
Pflanzenempfehlungen:
Annabelle - Hydrangea arborescens
Buchs - Buxus
Kandelaberehrenpreis - Veronicastrum
Brandkraut - Phlomis
Knöterich- Persicaria
Staudenclematis
Lampenputzergras - Penisetum
Ziersalbei - Salvia „Blue Angel“
Spanisches Gänseblümchen - Erigeron Karvinskianus
Bartnelke - Dianthus nigrescens
Hosta
Eisenkraut - verbena bonarisiensis
Dahlien
Akanthus
Basilikum - African blue
Astern
Phlox
Glyzinie - Wisteria
Seerose - Nymphaea
20 g butter
1 teaspoon capers
Some pepper
2 hard boiled eggs
plus baguette
2. serve the spread on fresh baguette & garnish with edible flowers.
3. enjoy!
