chroniques d’une fraise

The Daily Show’s Holistay bit is great. I had a brief “heh?” moment when John Hodgman snootily says he’s going to Monaco, not necessarily because it’s a 20-minute, 10-euro train ride from where I live, but because it’s a rather boring place to visit. I worked there over a period of a year; I know all too well! But of course it has its cachet with rich folk. It does feel strange sometimes to think that I can actually call the French Riviera home. Not a bad place to have a “holistay” at all!

My cherry tomato plants are in various stages of blooming, and now little green tomatoes are forming. A big summer batch of strawberries is in the making as well, since all of my plants have an amazing amount of blossoms. Malo still hasn’t used the cat door — he thinks it’s a cat window, since it’s transparent — but he’s been enjoying the terrace anyway. I should have it clean enough for some decent photographs tomorrow.

EDF, the main French electricity supplier, finally hooked me up yesterday (Monday), meaning Malo and I fully moved in just then. All of my things had been moved two weeks earlier; luckily I’d kept essentials — and Malo — at my old place just in case any unforeseen problems arose. A simple yet big one did just that: I realized that I have a macerator on my toilet. Toilets hooked up to macerators do not work without electricity…! For the last three weeks I’ve been going back and forth between furniture and appliance deliveries, work, moving smaller things to and fro, watering plants at both places, and chasing after EDF trying to get the electricity turned on.

Helpful advice for anyone in France needing electricity: do not use EDF’s website. I got a grand total of one reply to my request to be hooked up, and then… nothing. I had to phone them twice to get it straightened out, because their “email service and telephone service are separate”. Meaning that a customer request via email, cannot be handled by telephone. Which makes no sense, but whatever. Just phone EDF, that way you’re sure to be hooked up. However, pay attention to the contract offered! Use their website to read up on the different offers before phoning so you know exactly what to ask for — and how to say “no, I do not want X and Y.” EDF are particular pains in the rear end when it comes to making perfectly innocent-sounding assumptions about the contract you want, never once asking you anything more than the power level you need.

A very positive note was the incredible rapidity of my internet provider (Free). They switched my line in four days! Of course, without electricity, I could’t use the modem… but on Monday it was among the very first things to be turned on. I still haven’t managed to reply to anyone’s email though!

As a result of my exhausting running around and juggling far too many things at once, I also haven’t taken very many photos yet. I’m taking a short vacation next week (to be spent chez moi), so more will come soon. In the meantime, in addition to monsieur le chat Malo perching contentedly on the bar:
o New refrigerator in its nook — omigod I am in love with my refrigerator. It’s quiet, bright, the perfect size, and I thank myself every time I open it for paying the extra for a fridge-on-top, freezer-on-bottom combination. I also love the layout of my kitchen: the refrigerator and bar shelves are right behind the stovetop, meaning everything is right within arm’s reach.
o Terrace / patio before replanting. My now-previous landlords said I could take the bougainvillea with me, which is great since it should be quite happy with room to climb. I could hardly believe my eyes when I saw it and the other plants on the new patio — they filled my previous balcony, but look downright tiny at the new place!
o The terrace / patio after replanting shows the same: you can barely make out the bougainvillea in its new home.

When pulling out the old, dead trees to replant, I was surprised at how crumbly and healthy the earth felt. Then I came across an old friend I hadn’t seen in eleven years; one I saw all the time, often carousing about underground in groups, when gardening in Oregon. An earthworm! One of my new neighbors stared at me quizzically when I burst out, squiggling earthworm in hand, “mais il y a des vers de terre ! C’est super !!” (”There are earthworms! Awesome!!”)

I’ve had a hankering for baked potato with chives, which helped remind me that chives are easy to grow. Once again I walked to the Fiol gardening store, and once again I was tempted by other plants as well. On a tight budget now with my imminent move, I only fell for one: the thym de Provence shown here, which is also called farigoule in Provençal. It has a strong smell, sweet and tangy with a touch of mint, that makes the mouth water.

I now have tomatoes, basil, chives, thyme, lavender, myrtle, strawberries, and access to a wild rosemary plant that’s been growing out of my neighbor’s gutter for the last three years. Ah, the romance of living in southern France, where rosemary grows out of gutters… Rosemary can be grown from cuttings, so I’ll be taking a cutting along with me when I move. I photographed nearly all my plants to show how much I’ve been able to do with a small city balcony. Thyme and chives are perennials, so will always be around, and they were surprisingly cheap at three euros a plant. So for six euros I’ll have thyme and chives for as long as they’re alive!

My neighbors across the quiet residential alley from my balcony probably wonder why I contort myself so strangely to take photos of plants: every once in a while I’ll spot someone staring at me oddly. Today I got on my back to see my first nearly-ripe strawberry at eye level. This photo shows how attractive a strawberry plant crown can be — the crown is the center of the plant just above the soil. I’ve been removing about half of the flowers, which you’re supposed to do with everbearing strawberry plants until June (it spares growing energy for the plant itself), wanting to leave others on just for the fun of watching them develop. Only three days ago, this little bunch of strawberries looked like so; they’re ripening quickly.

My air plants arrived this week. They’re too small to put in the glass candleholders I’d found, but were just right for the two bonsai pots from the same secondhand store. I also got a bell cup to hold one of the tillandsia. Air plants care gives better information than I’d seen elsewhere; I’d been under the (mistaken) impression that a very humid room would be all right, with sprinkled water occasionally. But they need more water, and more directly than that!

There are larger photos of the rectangular pot with its brachycaulis abdita and three different ionantha, and the circular pot with its albertiana and ionantha rubra.

Photos: before (left) and after (right) repotting plants

Ever since finding my new apartment just over a month ago, I’ve been bitten by the gardening bug. Since it’s the perfect time — spring — to buy new plants, I haven’t wanted to wait until the final deed is signed in early June. Two weeks ago I got six strawberry plants, which have grown very fast since. I realized they needed to be repotted, so decided to repot all the other plants that needed it too. In the “before” picture on the left you can see that my red maple and myrtle (the green plant with loads of new growth) look too big for their pots, which is always a reliable sign that a plant needs a bigger home for its roots. The strawberry in front also shows clear signs of needing a new pot!

I found a bunch of true lavender plants (lavandula angustifolia) at the store where I bought pots and earth. Lavender repels insects naturally, and of course it smells wonderful and is a beautiful flower. I took home one of them, it’s the very light green bush on the left in both photos. In the “after” photo on the right, it’s pretty clear that the lavender plant and maple tree look much happier. The lavender plant inherited the myrtle’s old pot — this photo shows the myrtle better in its new pot, and here are some strawberry plants in their roomier new homes. Brand-new cherry tomato plants can be seen sprouting in the bottom left there. I planted thirty-odd seeds in two pots, thinking not all of them would sprout… but they all did! I moved half of them into two other pots. It should be interesting to see how the city gardening experience works out; this is the first time I’ve tried growing fruits and vegetables in pots. When I lived in Oregon there was plenty of land to go around.

Translation: “Strawberry has strawberries.” Hmm… Strawberry strawberries strawberried Strawberry strawberries. English is great. Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo! But I digress.

I was browsing a “nature products” store here (Nature et Découvertes) last week, waiting for a bank wire to come in that finally arrived this morning, and noticed they had a wild strawberry kit. At €16.50 I didn’t think it was worth it, so used the free inspiration to go to my favorite gardening store near Cours Saleya in Vieux Nice. Every time I’ve gone there they’ve been friendly and helpful, advising about plants and diagnosing the fungus malady that ravaged my maple tree last year — as seen in this photograph, my red maple is now healthy again. The store is Fiol Graines et Semences, 12 rue Alexandre Mari.

Their strawberry plants were only €1.50 a piece, or a tray of six plants for €6, and they had five different varieties from which to choose. Some strawberry varieties only give fruit once a year, while others produce throughout the summer and autumn. I chose these everbearing Ostara plants because their fruit is small (and tasty), and they do well in flower boxes. I could only find a commercial link about them: ostara strawberries.

To my delight, also in the store were peonies of all sorts! I fell in love with the flowers last year when I bought a bouquet of peonies on Cours Saleya. I decided on the “Sarah Bernhardt” variety shown in the photo above. It looks gangly now, but it’s still only March. I chose it because I liked the tree peonies less, and it says “pink” (rose) on the tag. Apparently the Sarah Bernhardt peony is a lovely one!

The owner also said they’d have tillandsia in another two weeks. My current apartment is going to be overflowing with plants before my move… (early spring is a great time to find plants.)