Living out of the city (but not quite in the countryside) has a lot of upsides. It naturally also has a lot of downsides but that’s not the point of my post today.
I’m lucky. I know I am. My parents have a garden and while it’s not huge, it’s plenty of space. It was big enough for water fights and tents for a camping sleepover when I was a child. It was secluded enough to have a fire pit to roast marshmallows. It’s great for lazy afternoons, lounging on the terrace or for our cats to act like fierce predators when they creep up on blackbirds.

Since this spring it’s also hosting two raised garden beds. It’s a dream come true for my mum, who has wanted one of them for years now and fills up the dead space in the back of our garden perfectly.
A couple of weeks ago we went to a small town in Lower Austria because an organisation there sold plants and vegetables that weren’t all that common. They specialised in rare plant species. Vegetables that are almost forgotten and things that you can’t get in just any garden centre.
So we went home with chard, spinach, three different kinds of salad, zucchini, corn, eggplant and cucumber plants. We got strawberries, rhubarb and four different kinds of tomatoes. Oh, and new herbs, of course (just those that didn’t survive the winter. Most of our herbs have been really good and are already flourishing. Mint and sage are growing like crazy again (even though we harvested all of it last autumn to dry it and make tea!).

But this is not enough. We also have an apple, cherry, plum and fig tree. Two blueberry bushes, a place where raspberries are growing and our grapes are looking good as well. It’s an urban farm jungle and we couldn’t be happier.

Some mornings the first thing we do is brave the chilly air, cup of tea in hand, and make our way to our veggies. Cold toes be damned, we want to know how our garden is doing. Soon enough this will be my first way for an entirely different reason because I cannot wait to be able and pick berries fresh from the garden for my breakfast.

This is happiness. This is the good life.