Fruitful Garden

I was invited by a colleague to visit his house in the countryside this weekend. He's been bringing apples, walnuts, plums etc. to work whenever it's harvesting season, of course I'm curious to see what kind of garden he has and was definitely thrilled to be invited. An hour and a half train ride brings me to his lovely house in the flat green behind a local community owned pond.

Bee in flower, love this picture

Driving down a small road filled with beach stone, a small delicate yellow brick house with white window panes sits quietly between the pond and a large horse field. We had some lunch together, actually long lunch, plenty to chat from 12:30 until 15:00, then a garden tour starts.

The garden is categorized into sections based on its used. Vegetables (potatoes, carrots, cabbages, lettuces, onions, green peas, corns) and strawberries are planted in two big sections side by side, surrounded by beautiful flowers (and huge sunflowers); tall trees (walnut, pine, 'Christmas tree' and some huge evergreen trees) are intentionally planted at the outer most ring of the garden to provide natural fence towards the horse field and also the neighbours. 

Some of the beautiful flowers in garden

A hazel tree is planted next to these vegetable areas along side with one of the walnut tree. I have always known hazelnut as the way they are available in the supermarket (only the nut) and was totally amazed with how it looks like when it's still enclosed, hanging from the tree. On top of these plants, apple trees, pear trees, plum trees (he has 3 different types of apple & plum tree each) and cherry tree are scattered around the garden as well as some black & red current trees with strings of fruit.

From top left (clockwise): pink apple, pink pear, hazelnut (in  husk), walnut (encapsulated in green outer shell) and wild berry in the centre

A 10mx10m green house with cherry tomato, cucumber, red & green jalapeno, grapes and bigger tomatoes situated beside a small pond with lotus and some fishes and even a small bridge across the pond (my colleague dug a hole to create the pond) with a few benches placed strategically around the pond, simply beautiful. Some bamboos are plant on one side of the pond. I could sit for hours in this picturesque setting if the weather is nice.

Vegetables in the garden

We continued out to the community owned pond (where my colleague actually takes care of) and discover some frogs, duck, trace of fishes and wild mushrooms. I have absolutely no courage or intention to try them but they look stunning in the pictures. There are also some red leave plants in his front garden, so there's definitely something to see every season :)

Poisonous looking black mushroom

More wild mushroom, love the orange colour

Aside from the flora, fauna activities are not lacking in this garden. Three large chicken (that loves peanut) lives in a fenced area, plenty of room to roam around. A small water container with squirrel statue strategically placed outside the dining room window to enable birds watching when they come for drink or take a dip into the water or even eating from one of the many bird feeders placed around the garden.

The happy chicken family, what happen to 1 wife policy?

Snails, snails, spider & ladybirds.

More insects are found during my visit: different types of snails, many different types of spiders, bees, ladybirds, birds, fish, frog, lizards...the garden is definitely lively. At last, the garden tour ended after 1hr50mins, I didn't even notice the time slipped away so fast, explains how huge the garden is ;). As a guest, I  was given the privilege to pick something (anything) from the garden so here's what I got:-

That concludes my wonderful, eye opening and fruitful visit (and the best cherry tomato that I've ever tasted). If I have a garden (and a gardener), I'd love to have a garden like this. To the least, the pond is a must have, too lovely to let go in any garden planning ;)