Thursday, August 12, 2010

How to Grow Fruit: Expat Gardening

raspberry

If you are fortunate enough as an expat to move to a house with an established garden you will possibly have fruit trees or bushes or plants. As gardening is such a great way to meet new people in your host country, take advantage of your garden to use it as a networking tool–even if you’ve never been a gardener before. Asking the locals how to grow fruit means you will make friends and possibly even start a new hobby.

When you move in, firstly walk around the garden and assess what’s there. If possible, ask the agent or owners if they know the names of the plants and if there are any care guidelines. Some houses may come with a gardener. This will mean you don’t have to put in as much work, but you can still reap the benefits. And you can still ask around about how best to use the fruits growing in your garden. For example, in England cooking apples and blackberries grow almost side by side and are combined to make several traditional English desserts, such as crumbles and pies.

If you don’t have a garden, but you have space on a balcony–or possibly even a windowsill, you can still grow fruit. Strawberries do especially well in containers. And some shrub berries can also be grown in containers if watered well–but these are things you can find out from your neighbours, local farmers and people who work in plant shops or nurseries.

Gardening is a pastime many expats don’t consider as a way of meeting new people and learning a different aspect of their host culture. Even if you’ve never gardened before or if you’re only interested in one aspect of gardening or lawn care–and even if you only have a balcony or window sill, you can still gain the benefits of this unexpected hobby.

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