Another drive Tuesday, about an hour outside of Vienna, to
Arche Noah.
It means "Noah's Ark" and they specialize in preserving heirloom seeds, biodiversity, and organic gardening / education. It was the most impressive collection of vegetable and herb gardens I've ever seen. There's a shop where you can buy all kinds of gardening books, heirloom seeds, or plants. B bought some strawberry plants.
The place is set in a tiny village overlooking a beautiful valley (where the
next village is---easy to see from the gardens.) There's a cool old building on the grounds, which originally was probably used for storing stuff when this area was part of the castle garden (there's a castle right across the street, as opposed to sitting high on a hill like most other castles in Austria.)
Part of the garden at Arche Noah.
Chilies! They had many varieties, including habaneros.
Surprising, because I thought chilies liked hot dry climates.
Well planned gardens, with plenty of space to walk between them,
and plenty of space in the gardens themselves to get at the veggies.
Cool old building on the grounds---used as a classroom / meeting place.
Interior. Note exposed woodbeam roof.
A smaller version of this building would make a great living space.
The gourd garden.
Each garden had informative plaques telling about the plants, and each plant variety was identified.
I like the way they did these tomatoes. Each vine was supported by twine,
tied to the ground with a stake, then twisted loosely around the vine and tied at the top to a wire.
Note also the plants aren't really bushy with leaves---more pruning = more fruit? Dunno.
Bell peppers.
How'd you like to have this in your back yard?
There were orchards behind the house---apple trees, plums, etc., all bearing fruit. There was also an interesting bee hive. Arche Noah cut part of an old tree trunk in half lengthwise, then covered the cut with a Plexiglas window. Then they put a door over that, to keep the hive dark inside. You could open the door and look at the bees through the Plexiglas, working inside. There was a warning posted inside the door about showing the bees "respekt," which is a good idea if you don't want your ass stung off. I looked inside for a few minutes and the bees ignored me. I kept my movements slow and easy and didn't make loud noises. Respekt.
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We drove to the next village to take a look at the Kittenberger Gardens. This is essentially a display of more than 20 back yards, all done in different styles to show you what kind of landscaping / gardening options are possible. There was some great stuff there and I got a lot of ideas.
A cozy Japanese garden.
A view of the village from one of the many "back yards."
A little backyard house with benches and table. Made from an old wine barrel.
Creative use of a framed-in woodpile as a yard divider.
Rooftop garden on a patio building in one of the "back yards."
A "fire art garden." The "matches" were purely decorative but there were steel fireplaces.
I think it would be neat to light three or four fires at night in these fireplaces, grab a chair, and watch the fire.
Pendulum House. It's suspended about six inches off the ground.
They explain that when you step inside, you're kind of independent of the rotation of the earth.
Which I more or less feel more or less all the time, anyhow. Neat sensation, though.
The idea here is, a wall covered with these planters helps keep the house cooler, while giving the plants a place to thrive (southern exposure) and providing beauty / edible stuff. Smart, I think.
Yard art. Painted and stacked wooden chairs.
Interior of a space made of living willow trees, planted in a circle and woven together.
A pit in the floor holds aromatic evergreen branches, which are kept fresh by a drip system.
You lay in the hammock, hear the wind blow through the branches, and smell the evergreens. Nice!
Exterior of the willow house.
Fire pit made of old plate steel.
A pond full of carp. Nice deck, nice view.
Nice (expensive) grill. A competent welder could custom-make an approximation of this for about 1/4 of the price. I like the curved arm the pot is hanging from, allowing you to position it just where it needs to be for proper cooking of the yummy goodies within. See pic below for closeup.
The grills adjust up or down over the firebox, and you can hang a pot over the whole works to keep the beans warm, or whatever. The firebox needn't be as fancy as this one; a simple barrel or box would do.
I guess I'm getting to be an old fucker, with all this interest in gardening and yard art and all that shit. Next thing you know, I'll subscribe to cable so I can watch Home & Garden TV, and B and I'll be going to the fucking Home Depot every week to buy shit we don't need so we can "fix up" whatever it is about my shack that needs fixing.
Or maybe it's a backlash against the rush of technology we've all been riding through for 35+ years----a desire to watch things move slowly, instead of at lightning speed...like seeds to seedlings to plants to vegetables to harvest to eating / preserving.
Maybe it's the idea that creativity doesn't have to involve time spent on a computer with Autocad or Photoshop or Garageband or Final Cut Pro, all the while viewing insipid "Tweets" or checking that stupid fucking Facebook every five seconds----sawing and gluing lumber, or hammering / welding steel, or re-purposing old junk into "art" can equally satisfy your creative urges.
