There have been some really useful things coming across my screen lately when it comes to planning your garden for spring — which I know will be just around the corner despite this wildly cold spell we are having here in Germany right now. Thinking of spring and seeing the tulips I planted indoors coming up while it’s about 0°F outside is really keeping me going…not to mention all the wonderful sunshine we’ve had with this cold.

I thought I would share some useful pins from the last few weeks that will hopefully get you inspired and thinking about what your garden will be like very soon. You can check out more of my gardening pins on Pinterest along with my other interests.

This one I actually shared on FB as well, but it’s just so fabulous that I wanted to make sure you didn’t miss it. I really great visual guide to companion planting, this is one of those charts you’ll want to reference often when planning your garden.

Thinking about putting together a compost bin but just aren’t sure how to get going? Here’s a tutorial for a great 3-bin compost system that will have you creating rich, perfect compost in no time. (We seriously need to see about doing this ourselves since our current system isn’t cutting it.)

Short on planting space or just have an old dresser you want to find a new purpose for…how about turning it into an herb or flower garden?

Or maybe you’d prefer to turn some old galloshes into planters? I think this idea is really fabulous and would look great near your entry to your home or garden.

These little garden markers caught our eye the other day and are too cute. They also wouldn’t be too complicated to make with a little bit of artistic ability.

What inspiration have you come across lately? Do you have your own collection of gardening ideas on Pinterest you’d be willing to share with us? Just scroll down to link up below. 

Want to join in the garden fun and link to your own blog or images online? You can share about anything related to gardening, old or new posts, from recipes to harvesting to grow reports to DIY projects or inspiration.

Here’s how this works:

PLEASE READ THESE GUIDELINES, especially if you have never linked up before!

That’s it! Share your garden with us by linking up below!

Have you ever awakened one morning to find your plants covered in strange little black bumps? Or sprayed the aphids from your plants for the 100th time but still don’t seem to ever successfully be rid of them? Would you like to know how to once and for all deal with insects and diseases of all shapes and sizes on your plants with natural and organic methods without searching online for hours? How about being able to check out detailed photos of what your plants might look like right now with solutions nearby of how to deal with the troubles?

Wow. That totally sounded like an infomercial. But that is exactly what I’ve found myself using this book for. The Organic Gardener’s Handbook of Natural Pest and Disease Control: A Complete Guide to Maintaining a Healthy Garden and Yard the Earth-Friendly Way is my go to book whenever something goes wrong with my plants. I not only used it to get rid of funky black scales on my houseplants, but also to save my rosemary bush that was becoming infested with furry mildew. If it’s not in there, I know I’m in trouble because we’re being attacked by aliens.

There are tons of websites out there with information about organic remedies for your garden, but in my experience, I’ve often run into a lot of conflicting advice as well as stuff that was just downright wrong. So it’s nice to have all the information I need in one 500+ page book that has (so far) never steered me wrong.

I actually have the 2006 version and I’m not really sure what the difference is between the two, aside from the fact that you can get the newer version new for a better price, the covers look different and they’ve made the tagline of the book more trendy. Don’t you just love the idiosyncrasies of books?

The Nitty Gritty

Basically, the book is broken down into four parts: Plants, Insects, Diseases and Organic Controls.

• In the plant-by-plant listing, you’ll be able to flip through alphabetically (by common name, not Latin) to get an overview of what issues you may be facing with your plants. Glean some tips on how to grow the plants, what conditions they like, how to get the best germination rates and then the meaty stuff about disease and pests.
• Then you can get a closer look at common insects that may be harming your plants — but will also find an overview about bugs that are fine or even good for your garden. This book is quite thorough, and explains things like the life cycle of pests plaguing you, what they look like exactly (including images), where they are generally found in the world (so you know if you really need to be worried about boxelder bugs or not), what sort of damage they do and how to control them. I’ve found this to be extremely helpful not only in getting rid of bugs I already have, but also in knowing what to watch out for and giving myself some room for prevention.
• The Diseases section nicely describes how diseases are spread, how to control them, and most important, how to prevent them from even taking hold. You’ll figure out how to quickly recognize common diseases, as well as be able to see a detailed list of diseases with images, symptoms, what types of plants it affects, and prevention and control guidance.
• Part 4 is all about Organic Controls, creating a plan for your garden to keep it healthy and how to go about implementing the plan. There are numerous tips in this section of actual remedies like how to get rid of slugs or make compost tea for getting rid of mildew. They also cover beneficial insects, common household items, companion planting, crop rotation and more.

A really nice feature of The Organic Gardener’s Handbook of Natural Pest and Disease Control are the What Goes Wrong and Why images throughout the book. The You can get a really nice visual representation of what is happening with your plants and what steps you need to do to save them. Naturally, these diagrams are just a jumping off point, because once you actually pinpoint what the problem is, you can flip to the following pages and read more about what exactly you can do to control the issue.

My final thoughts

This is one of those books that you reference over and over again but would not really read cover to cover. There are a lot of good things to learn in the introduction to plants, and of course in the Controls chapters as well, but I don’t know that anyone would want (or need) to go through and read about every bug or disease that could at some point assault your garden. Who needs to live in constant fear?

I highly recommend The Organic Gardener’s Handbook of Natural Pest and Disease Control for both newbie and seasoned gardeners. It’s a really well thought out book with everything you need to know about keeping your garden in great health, without dousing it in chemicals!

Just made your seed wish list? Starting seeds for winter hearty veggies already? Got a great recipe to share for garden goodness? I’d love to have you link up below! You can share about anything related to gardening, old or new posts, from recipes to harvesting to grow reports to DIY projects or inspiration.

Here’s how this works:

PLEASE READ THESE GUIDELINES, especially if you have never linked up before!

That’s it! Share your garden with us by linking up below!

There was quite a bit of discussion on Tuesday after I shared my “what I don’t like about Hessen” post…and apparently I got a lot of people thinking that I absolutely detest living here and should leave as soon as possible.

Let me state for the record that although living over here has certainly had its ups and downs, I am happy living here and there are certainly some great perks to being in Germany. Yes, of course, I get homesick and I don’t know that I’d want to stay in Germany forever…partially because I want Mackenzie to experience other cultures as well. But after 10 years, we’ve certainly become more used to the German way of life.

What’s cool about living in Germany?

• Like they say in Eurotrip, Europe is practically the size of a postage stamp. I mean not literally but visiting various countries over here is a bit like driving to another state in the US. So any time you feel like escaping, you can just hop on a cheap flight to Spain, France, England or anywhere else you like and make a weekend of it.
• There’s a lot of nice day trips outside of Frankfurt…as well as cool places in the city to see and photograph. Palmengarten, Frankfurt Zoo, Opel Zoo and Hessenpark are some of our favorites. The Senckenberg Museum of Natural History is also high on the list after our first trip there last year. And when you drive outside of a city, you are generally in the forest or other types of pure nature within an hours drive. And of course Bavaria is a little slice of heaven!
• Curbside recycling is commonplace in most larger cities and you don’t even pay for pick up of paper, plastics or other packing wastes. Each town usually has a recycling center nearby and they will generally take your items without cost, as long as it’s not something too huge. There are also recycling trashcans at every gas station, airport, shopping center, etc. Special free collection days also exist for old furniture as well as chemicals or old paint, and most cities also have someone you can call to come pick up your old electronics for free.
• It’s really easy to be green here. Aside from the great recycling practices I mentioned earlier, there are all sorts of things in place here in Germany that make it easier to be kind to Mother Earth. They’ve been reusing shopping bags for decades because otherwise you have to pay for a new bag every time you go shopping.
• Stores are closed on Sunday. Yes, that is a real shock to the system at first…but I actually prefer it. After they extended the shopping hours to something normal (most stores are open until 8pm, some even until 10pm), there became no reason that we couldn’t get the shopping done, even while both working full time. Not being able to shop on Sunday is a great feeling because although you might discover you need something, you just can’t do a thing about it. So you learn to plan better as well as take a day exclusively for yourself and/or your family.
• Privatized healthcare is not only affordable but incredibly good. The public healthcare system here is alright…better for the consumer than the doctors. But it has serious faults. After recently switching to a private healthcare, I have to say that the service you receive is far above and beyond any other service you receive, and the costs are extremely reasonable…especially compared to the insanity one encounters for care in the US.
• Germans know how to party. If Oktoberfest, the largest, most popular, two-week long event to celebrate the royal wedding isn’t enough to convince you, go to just about any local Fest and you will also find a bunch of people living it up. Frühschoppen is a huge tradition around these fests, which basically means you get up in the morning and start drinking. I’m pretty sure it’s to curb the hangover you undoubtedly have from drinking late into the night the evening before…
• And their beer is the best in the world. Drinking beer in the US is and will never again be the same. Nothing compares to the hearty, full body beers of Germany — and the fact that every one of them from each brewery (large or small) has their own distinct flavors. Augustiner, Schneider Weisse & Altenmünster are some of our favs.
• Finding quality food is easier, and often local. In the US, it can be a real challenge to find a real butcher who can cut you a slab of beef just the way you want. But in Germany, they are around every corner. Our town of 2000 people has 2 butchers. Sometimes you might have to ask more questions but our small town guy will even give us US cuts if we order in advance…and he grows the cows himself. There are often little farmers’ markets in each city, although that doesn’t always equal organic or local produce — but at least you are supporting your local businesses.
• People are better at living within their own means. So many Americans have a complete dependency on their credit cards and have absolutely no clue how to live on a budget, nor why you’d want to. Germans by nature are very wary of credit debt and many places don’t accept credit cards — or even ATM cards for payments.

Dear Mackenzie,

Wow. Thirty-eight months old and you definitely have the world on a string. You have gotten almost as many presents in the last month from two of your godfathers as you got at Christmas. So many people love you so very much — you are an extremely blessed little girl.

One thing I learned in Florida is that “the birdie” (my hand making a bird-like head and me talking with a silly accent) will get you to do just about anything. While sitting at dinner, you were totally uninterested in your food (which happens a lot lately) but with some help from the birdie and a bit of time, you managed to gobble down everything on your plate.

We both learned that jet lag sucks. Your schedule was completely turned upside down in Florida and we had a few mornings where you were up at 5:30am — but it did allow us to go look for shells super early without any competition. So once we got back to Germany, we had to get you back on track yet again.

Your own DIY ball pit with PlayMais

Although you are full of energy when you wake up on your own in the morning, you are the sleepiest little girl I have ever seen when someone else gets you up. Thankfully, after about a week, all was back on track. Since you can get out of your bed in the mornings, you are up between 6 and 7 am, raring to go. Quite honestly, I would appreciate a bit more sleep…but I guess I’m just going to have to find it somewhere else.

You are officially sleeping in a big girl bed (and you fully helped your daddy convert your crib to a bed.) We found out that one of the best ways to keep you in bed is to let you know that your stuffed animal friends are so, so tired…and if you don’t stay in your bed so they can sleep, they’re going to come and sleep in our room. It took a few days (and some tense moments of trying to get you to stay in bed) until I came up with that scenario, but once you’ve had a refill of milk and had your diaper changed, you usually settle down pretty quickly.

While we were in Florida, you got to visit the beach for the first time. You loved splashing in the waves, despite it being just a bit chilly in the water. And we also built our first sandcastle — which was totally awesome! You’re quite the construction worker.

You’ve become quite adventurous with food lately and have basically not turned down anything I’ve offered you in a while. You especially love foods that you’ve cooked yourself — and your absolute favorite meal right now is a mixed salad with tuna on top and a light vinaigrette.

Speaking of helping me make food, you love, love, LOVE helping us do things around the house. And you’re actually starting to do them without causing a mess in the process. Stirring things, helping to add ingredients to pots, using a screwdriver (you helped your daddy put together our new PC a few weeks ago and have definitely got the screwdriver thing down pat) and all sorts of other good stuff. It’s just crazy how far you’ve come in 3 short years.

You also love to tell me all the time that you don’t need me anymore for things. While I’m happy that you want to express your independence, it is rather sad for me that you’re growing up so darn fast.

As I sit here finishing this up, you are launching plastic building blocks across the room…which makes me thankful that you’re pretty good about cleaning up after yourself. Apparently that is the best way to find the pieces you need to build a house. I guess I didn’t know. At least they’re bigger than the little packing-peanut-sized PlayMais you also love to throw all over the place.

While we were in Florida, you got to spend a lot of time in the pool, and we were working on teaching you swimming. Although your fear or water is next to nothing now and you are getting the dog paddle down pretty well, we still have a little ways to go before you’re ready to start swimming on your own. We had hoped to start you in your first swimming-related course next week, but it was all filled up before we could sign up. So I guess we’ll just have to hope for better luck the next time around.

You came inside a couple days ago after playing in the courtyard and announced you were looking for a little ball. When I asked what color it was, you reponded, “It’s got black hexagons and white hexagons.” Oh sure, cause that’s how every kid would describe a soccer ball, right? I think hexagons must be your favorite shapes right now — but everything from pentagons to decagons gets identified as a hexagon.

And your daddy FINALLY managed to get you to wear a pony tail for more than a few minutes. In fact, you even ask for it now. All he had to do was tell you that wearing a pony tail makes you jump higher and you were sold. Speaking of which you are also now a master hopper, jumper and can even balance on one foot for 5 seconds or so. Maybe you’ll join the circus…

“Yo” is apparently the funniest word ever. On the rare occasions that I say it to you, you laugh hysterically a if I’ve just started tickling you with feathers. But you have one of the best laughs which is just filled with heartiness and thrills. You throw your head back and just surrender yourself to the laugh…which is often induced by the round of tickling that you so love and actually even ask us to do.

I can hardly fathom that  next week you and I will be heading over to your preschool for a meet and greet with the teacher and the kids. I know it may be a little bit of a challenge at first (for both of us) since so much is going to change…but you’re going to love it. Especially once you get that crazy German language nailed down!

My deepest love,

Mama

Wow. We have had a seriously productive weekend around here. Actually, it was mostly a seriously productive Sunday because that is when things from David Allen’s book  Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity started to really click in our brains and lives…and when Stefan started implementing most of what he’s read so far. You see, I got the book and started reading, then I got caught up with other junk…and now he’s encouraging me to get back on the bandwagon.

But before this turns into a massive long story about decluttering (which in a way it still is), I’ll just hold off on the next group of decluttering progresses for another day. And instead, I’ll get to the point of why I so love Evernote to organize recipes. If  you’ve been keeping up with me on my new blog, Who is Tiffany, you probably caught my post about why Evernote totally rocks.

I started using this free note-taking software (although there is a paid upgrade) several months ago and it has really revolutionized the way I take notes and keep up with paper clutter. Little by little, I have been going through all of my old handwritten notes about future projects, tasks, ideas and so on, and putting them into Evernote. All of your information can be synced across multiple platforms (PC/Mac, online, iPhone, iPad, Blackberry, Android, etc) or you can just use the software offline.

Now remember the bookshelf full of magazines I posted about in my decluttering in 2011 roundup? Well, I knew that the process of going through those magazines was going to be daunting. And I also know that my willingness to try new things is not quite as great as Stefan’s — so I decided to get him to start marking the recipes he found interesting on Sunday, just when he had a few minutes and wasn’t really doing anything else. As you can see, we made some steady progress on tagging what needs to be scanned.

Evernote for Recipes

As I’ve mentioned in the past, my MIL recently shared an idea she had about scanning her recipes so she can have her favorites with her whether she’s in Germany or America. She was just keeping them on her laptop, until I told her about Evernote.

The beauty of Evernote is that you can make the filing system complex or simple. But really, you don’t need to go overboard with putting things in folders and so on. I just set a few essential tags (like breakfast, dinner, beef and so on) and let the built in search features of Evernote do the rest of the work.

Because Evernote can search images and PDF files for words you search for, you really only need to list those tags which are not already in the recipe itself — or in my case a translation since I have a lot of recipes in German but can’t image typing in “Hänchen” instead of “chicken” when I’m looking for dinner inspiration.

The Evernote Recipes Hack

All of my recipes are in one folder together and meals / meal plans in another. As I mentioned before, Evernote has such powerful search capability that you don’t need to go overboard sorting things out –unless you just really have too much time on your hands. And in that case, you can come to my house and help me get organized. I find this extremely practical because I always have a bit of trouble figuring out where to stick certain recipes.

And, using a single folder also makes this next little tip work like a charm. There is a really cool feature that I only recently learned about (thanks Honey!), which actually speeds up the scanning & entering process significantly. There’s a lot of software and special scanners on the market just for Evernote (yes, it’s seriously that big) and these will add items directly into Evernote for you without any extra action. BUT you can do this with the basic functionality of Evernote too — it’s just that most people don’t tell you how!

What you do is go up to Tools –> Import Folders…

You’ll get a dialog that looks something like this:

Now what you want to do is click on the “Add…” button and navigate to the folder where you are storing all your recipes (or projects or whatever it is you want to import into Evernote) and select it. Then you will tell Evernote what Notebook you want that information added to and if you want the files you are importing to be deleted when done.

This feature is so fantastic and works great. Although I have had the problem that Evernote is adding images while I’m scanning them (should likely close Evernote while scanning) and duplicates get added. This is not a huge deal because you can just through and delete them quickly, but it is a bit of a pain.

Hop over to Evernote.com to learn more and get started.

What sort of system do you use to organize your recipes? Do you feel like you’re missing out on using a lot of your recipes because they are closed up in books and magazines…or even packed in a box somewhere?

As you may recall, I recently went into a long dissertation about why heirloom seeds are important to our future when I was mentioned the Seed Savers Exchange. But if you’re not really sure what an heirloom seed or plant actually is, let me break it down for you.

Heirloom seeds are those which have been passed down from generation to generation. They may be plants which have been growing in your garden for many years or they may be something you buy yourself to get your gardening going. Sometimes, heirlooms will actually be given an age of at least 50 years old.

Now why are heirlooms so special? Well, for starters, heirlooms allow gardeners to grow plants that are native to their area, which ensures a better success rate of growth and great produce. Using the Seed Savers Exchange, a member could actually zero in on specific gardeners in their own area based on the plants they want via the seed yearbook. Or just buy directly from their own organic fields.

But in general, heirlooms usually show a resistance and tolerance to climate changes, soil conditions, pests and overall changes in nature as they have naturally developed over time. There is no fear of GMO or adaptations by large seed producers who primarily want to make sure that you keep buying their seeds and other products year after year. Learning how to harvest seeds from your own heirloom varieties allows you the ability to completely control your own seed source and you’ll know just what your plants have been exposed to as well as how they do in your own growing environment.

If you have decided to go with heirloom seeds this year, there are tons of options. Your local farmers’ market may have vendors selling seeds or you may find them at local farm stores. And there are plenty of online sources as well. Here’s just a few popular ones in the US, as well as a couple in Germany.

• Seed Savers online store
• Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds
• Landreth Seeds
• Victory Seeds
• Seeds of Change
• Amishland Heirloom Seeds
• El Dorado Seeds (they ship worldwide)
• For those in Germany: Bio-Saatgut
• Also in Germany: Sortenbuch des Samenarchivs (this on is kinda special with over 2800 kinds of tomatoes, 500 kinds of peppers and more — a bit like Seed Savers in Germany since you can actually trade your own seeds with the guy running this HUGE operation)

We’d love to know what is going on in your garden right now. You can share about anything related to gardening, old or new posts, from recipes to harvesting to grow reports to DIY projects or inspiration.

Here’s how this works:

PLEASE READ THESE GUIDELINES, especially if you have never linked up before!

That’s it! Share your garden with us by linking up below!

In case you don’t know by now, we went to Florida for two weeks over Christmas — and 4 of those days were spent in Orlando. We decided to visit SeaWorld and had the absolute best time. We really couldn’t have asked for a better vacation — and to think we almost wasted it on an intimate getaway for just Stefan and myself to celebrate our 10-year wedding anniversary. Not that celebrating that way would have been lame or unappreciated — but being able to go to SeaWorld with Mackenzie and spend that quality time as a family was priceless. Not to mention we all just had an absolute blast and can’t wait to go back.

So what really rocks about SeaWorld?

1. Unbeatable prices on vacation packages

We got an incredible deal for our hotel and 2 days of SeaWorld plus one day of the All Day Dining at just over $500. If we had decided to go to Animal Kingdom or anywhere else Disney for just one day, we would have paid $275. Even if we’d bought the tickets for SeaWorld outright, we wouldn’t have come close to $275. I know Disney is the greatest, but really? Those kinds of prices are just unwarrented. The only way we’re going to where the magic happens is if we stay for an extended period of time since the tickets become cheaper then — and if Mack is much older so she can enjoy the rest of the elements of the parks. And if you’re worried about what might happen while you’re out and about, worldwide travel insurance is a great thing to help you stay protected wherever you go.

2. All Day Dining

One of the days we were at the park, we had free All Day Dining passes. I have to say that this is seriously one of the coolest ideas these parks have yet to come up with. Basically you buy the dining pass and get an armband. If your kiddo doesn’t want to wear it, no worries — you can wear it for them. With that pass, you can go through the dining line as many times as you want during the day for food and drinks, breakfast, lunch or dinner. Each time you go through you can pick up one appetizer, one main dish and one side or dessert. Bottled water and soft drinks are included — not alcoholic beverages.

But if you’re thinking that you wouldn’t possible want to feast on burgers, nuggets and hot dogs all day, have no fear. Of the 6 restaurants that are part of the program, you can have your choice of salads, wraps, pizza, pasta, burgers and more. And the food is GOOD. I mean like really good. Especially the death by chocolate 8 layer cake we happened across one day. I would like to see a few more options for the kids like an optional salad (since mine isn’t a huge fan of hot dogs and chicken nuggets), but otherwise we were totally happy with the program. In fact, we liked it so much that we bought it the second day we were there as well.

3. The Quick Ticket Stands are GENIUS!

We booked this vacation online, so we not only got an awesome deal, but we also didn’t have to wait in any ticket lines. Before you go, you are emailed your e-tickets which you print out. Once you arrive at the park, you scan one of your tickets (if you bought multiples at the same time, you can redeem them all at once automatically), it verifies you and you get a little printed ticket. Then you’re good to go.

4. Reasonable prices in the park

Most of the time when you go to an amusement park, big or small, you can be sure that you’re going to get ripped off. But we didn’t feel that way at all in SeaWorld. Stuffed animals, food, souvenirs, etc were all comparable to what you’d pay in a regular mall. In fact, we saw some stuff they were selling at SeaWorld at another shop in Naples (some fish statues) and they were actually more expensive in Naples. That’s definitely never happened to us before.

5. Super friendly staff & very knowledgeable

It seemed that everywhere we looked there were staff members around cleaning things up or just waiting for your questions. In most of the aquariums, you could ask questions about the fish and animals you were seeing. And one of the exhibits that Stefan remembered was missing — so when we asked about it, the employee quickly responded that he not only knew what we meant but that it would be open again in a few weeks. In Germany, the answer would have been short and sweet: “It’s not here.”

6. Tons to see and do for a toddler / pre-schooler

One of the reasons we ended up going for SeaWorld instead of another amusement park is because most of the information we read online said that SeaWorld was a much better fit for toddlers and preschool-age kids…and I couldn’t agree more. Mackenzie absolutely loved the shows and the sting ray tank where you can pet the rays was a HUGE hit. We almost couldn’t get her to leave there. A lot of amusement parks only focus on the rides, but SeaWorld is more about the shows as well, which made it just perfect for us.

7. The animals rock

After seeing the shows and the animals, we wanted an aquarium at home more than ever. A BIG one. But I don’t think we’ll be bringing home our own Shamu any time soon. The animals, fish and mammals at SeaWorld were just incredible. It’s amazing what animals can be trained to do with just the flick of a hand…and bit of fish. The sea lions were some of our favorites…probably because they were silly and goofy just like our Newfie.

8. The park is easy to get around

Our second day at the park, we felt a bit like we’d been going there for years. The first day took a bit of navigating. But after we’d gotten the lay of the land, we were able to move around the park and hit every show we wanted without any trouble. Two days is probably the perfect amount of time to spend at SeaWorld at once — because there is virtually no way to hit all the shows plus check out the exhibits in one.

9.  The shows were totally awesome

I was pretty amazed by the variety of shows they had at SeaWorld, from huge dancing puppets (oh my word did Mackenzie love this) to dogs and cats rescued from local animal shelters to dolphins and whales. There was so much to see and do. And even Santa was there. One of the most impressive shows was Blue Horizons (we saw it both days) which involves a bunch of dolphins, big birds, some incredible costumes and impressive aerobatics. Seriously fantastic.

10. SeaWorld at Christmas is magical

When I was about 5, we went to Disney. It was just incredible with the parades and decorations. But SeaWorld is no less magical. Ok, they don’t have a parade. But the whole place is decorated really nicely and we gained so many ideas for our own decorations for years to come!

Have you been to SeaWorld? What was your favorite part? Or what would you really love to experience there?

There is no doubt that one of the hardest obstacles to overcome when you decide to move to Germany is the language…assuming you don’t speak German already. Those who speak other languages like Spanish, Italian or French may find the sentence structure similar, but very few of the words sound anything like you hear in the more guttural German language.

The first sentence I learned in German was, “Finger weg du geiler Sack!” This essentially translates to, “Paws off you horny pig” — which was important for a 20-year-old American girl in a short Dindl at her first Oktoberfest.

My first real interactions with German were during an intensive course which occupied 8 hours of my day for 5 days. I learned a lot of the basics in that course…and I’m certain that if we’d already been living in Germany then (or even thinking of moving here), I would have retained a lot more. But it was actually just a way to occupy my time while my husband was at work all day doing an internship and I was visiting him over the summer. So when we returned back home and I hardly used what I’d just learned.

Nearly a year later, we were actually making plans to move overseas and I was thrust into the abyss.

When you live in an international city like Frankfurt, you’ll actually find that you can get along for a long while without really learning any German at all. I know people who have lived here for over 10 years and hardly speak German at all.  But that’s definitely not the path I would suggest anyone takes if you’re serious about immersing yourself in the culture.

One of the first things I made sure to learn was how to order food and what was what in the grocery store. A girl’s gotta eat, ya know? And from there, it just became a matter of actually getting over the fear of totally screwing up my sentences and sounding like a fool. So it’s always nice to try out your German around other foreigners so you know you really don’t sound that horrible while you’re trying to get your thoughts out.

German is not one of the hardest languages to conquer and words are WYSIWIG (what you see is what you get). So if you learn a few basics of the way letters are joined together and those strange umlauts (with the little dots over the letters like ö and ü), you can sound things out really easily…and even spell things out yourself pretty well. Oh, and there’s always the fun words that are compound words strung together.

Have you ever learned a foreign language? What’s your tip for anyone who’s giving it a try? What languages have you always wanted to learn?

This post is part of the German Roundtable of expat bloggers. Hop around to the other links below and read more inside scoops on language in Germany.

As you probably know, I’m an American expat living in Germany since 2001. I’m originally from Texas but went to high school in Virginia and U of Miami in Florida (the latter of which is where I met my husband).

I started blogging back in 2006, when I was looking for a way to keep all of our family and friends around the world up to date about our newest addition to the family…a Newfoundland puppy named Ayla.

Here on No Ordinary Homestead, I regularly write about our expat life in Germany, parenting, sustainable living, recipes and the like. I also happen to be very entrepreneurial and my husband. In 2001, we started a  natural bath & body care company because all of our friends were spreading the news about our products to all their friends. About two years ago, we began our digital marketing business and just last year, we decided to reach out to other small- and medium-sized businesses like our own who need guidance achieving their dreams via arma communications. And now I want to share that information with more moms like myself who are looking for guidance.

People have often asked me how I got started blogging and how they can go about starting their own business. They want to see if they can find a way to balance their busy lives between family, work and play. And people also just want to know who the real Tiffany is behind the blog.

So I’d like to introduce Who is Tiffany? 

Get to know me better through my personal style picks (fashion & beauty stuff), my random hobbies, my relationship with my husband (who is my best friend), and hopefully getting to know you better while you discover more about me.

My dearest fellow gardeners,

Welcome to a new year of gardening! Whether you’ve been gardening for a while or are just getting started or have never even planted one seed in your life, I have a feeling that 2012 is going to be an outstanding year.

Today I wanted to share a a quick email with you from an NOH reader who has given me some real inspiration for my gardens, both in our courtyard and behind the barn. So let me just get to it:

Hello….I stumbled on your website when I was looking for a quick and cheaters version of Stovetop stuffing.  After we had dinner (the stuffing recipe was really good) I came back to your site.  I browsed around a bit, and saw your garden setup.  It looks like you have raised boxes, are trying to be self-sufficient by growing as much as you can back there, and you don’t like weeding and all the extra work that goes along with a traditional garden.

I thought I would ask you if you have ever heard of square foot gardening?  I think it would be right up your alley.  I have been doing it for about 12 years now, and I will neve go back to the traditional garden because I hate weeding, and I hate doing all the extra work that you end up doing with one of those.  And, the yield is huge compared to a regular garden.  Maybe you have tried it and dont like it, maybe you have heard of it and havent tried it, or maybe you haven’t heard of it.  I just thought I would ask.  One good year of SFG and you will probably never go back to what you are doing now…..and, you spend a lot more time in the garden than you normally would….if you would like more information on it, let me know and I will point you in the right direction to learn about it….but I think you would really love it…..Jim

As it turns out, Jim writes a pretty cool blog about square foot gardening called The Wealthy Earth. He has a lot of information there about how to do square foot gardening and why it’s so great, plus reports about his own garden.

If you’ve never heard about square foot gardening, it’s a raised bed technique in which you actually section off the space inside each bed into 1×1-foot quadrants. Then you fill the bed with Mel’s special soil mix, and plant your seeds according to how large the plants will ultimately be. Because you are maximizing the number of plants you have in your growing space, you have less empty earth for weeds to grow in. Plus, you never walk on your soil, keeping it loose and aerated…but also making it easy for you to pull any weeds that might dare to take root in your garden.

Check out this quick overview video with Mel Bartholomew about the new and improved square foot gardening system:

This system has been around for many, many years now, but Mel has revised his system (and his book) based on what he has learned over the years. These tips and tricks make your garden easier to maintain and harvest from.

What I really like about this idea is that you not only maximize your growing space, but you also are able to rotate your crops often and I think a system like this might actually make it easier to keep a garden journal because you’ll have new things going in and coming out of your garden all the time.

So one of our plans for the spring will be cutting up some of the scrap trim that the previous owner left behind for the beds in the courtyard and giving this a go. I’m tempted to try it out in the big garden as well already but we’ll just have to see how we progress there first. My goal in that garden behind the barn is to eventually rid it of all grass so it’s easier to maintain…which means there will be a lot of bags of mulch in our future.

Because we have rectangular beds instead of square ones, it may be a challenge to get just the right number of 1×1-foot mini-beds. But I’m sure we will figure something out since I don’t necessarily look forward to rebuilding all of our growing beds this year. We already have the greenhouse to recover and an aquaponics bed to build as it is.

Have you ever tried square foot gardening? Or is there another gardening method that you’ve discovered which works great for your space? 

Want to join in the garden fun and link to your own blog or images online? You can share about anything related to gardening, old or new posts, from recipes to harvesting to grow reports to DIY projects or inspiration.

Here’s how this works:

PLEASE READ THESE GUIDELINES, especially if you have never linked up before!

That’s it! Share your garden with us by linking up below!