During the
last ten years or so, my husband and I became city gardeners, despite the fact
that we live in a co-op apartment building without a balcony or terrace on which
to set out plants and flowers. Of course we wish we had one, because we love to
experiment with growing different plants from seeds as well as buying new
plants at the local plant store or at Plantasjen, the larger garden center. Our
kitchen, living room and dining room window sills are filled with different
kinds of plants. My husband loves to nurture his orchids, and has about six
orchid plants at home and about as many in his office at work. He is the only
person I know who manages to get orchids to bloom more than once, and he has
his weekly routines for spritzing them with water and keeping them happy. I
prefer nurturing food plants; that is to say, plants that produce fruit or vegetables.
I have grown tomato, pepper, orange and fig trees in our apartment, with some
success. Right now I am the proud parent of an orange tree that is very
fruitful, as well as a fig tree that manages to produce about three to four
figs per season. My husband brought home a small cherry tomato plant at the
beginning of the summer, and it has grown to some height and has produced (so
far) about five cherry tomatoes. We also have a small coffee plant in the
kitchen; the leaves smell good but we don’t expect to find coffee beans on the
stems one day. But it looks nice in the window and one can of course dream.
The first
vegetable plant I ever purchased was a small pepper plant; the peppers looked
like small chili peppers but I don’t remember if we ever got more than the five
or so peppers that hung on the plant when I bought it. In the summer of 2005 I
grew tomato plants from seeds; only one seedling plant really took off though
and I did my best to keep it happy. It even joined us on vacation that year; we
rented a cottage on the sea, not so far from where we live, and I took it with
us in the car and let it stand out on the large terrace that overlooked the
ocean. It was there in the morning that it got a lot of sunshine. I think we
may have gotten several tomatoes that year; the problem is that the plants don’t
always get enough sun, or get it long enough. Summers are short in Oslo and it
amazes me that my orange tree produces the numbers of oranges it produces. We
got about twenty-three oranges off the tree the first year we had it; the
second year saw only a yield of about four oranges, whereas the third and
fourth years have been very fruitful—with yields of about twenty-five and
thirty-five oranges (this year) respectively. The oranges are not large and sweet, they are
small and sour, but they are beautiful to look at and during the flowering
season before the oranges begin to grow, the smell in the room is wonderful.
The white flowers that will produce the oranges produce an intense sweet smell
that dominates the room. I use the oranges in the smoothies that we make from
fresh or fresh-frozen fruit each morning, and I have used them in marmalades to
add a kind of ‘bite’ to the sweetness. Last year I made pear/ginger/pineapple
marmalade and added a few small oranges to the mix—it was a heavenly result and
the marmalade disappeared rather quickly. I’ll probably do the same thing this
year.
We often
debate the advantages and disadvantages of moving into our own home; one of the
advantages would be that we could have our own garden. We know for sure that we
would fill the backyard with fruit trees and plant a garden, both flower and vegetable.
So why haven’t we moved by now? That’s a good question. Part of the answer lies
in the fact that we don’t have the time we would need to tend a large garden,
at least not in the way that would be required. Also, we would like to live in
Oslo and not commute into the city each morning; traffic is horrendous and we
would like to avoid that. But to buy a house in Oslo is not really a viable
option—houses cost a fortune; we’re talking upwards of 800,000 USD for a
decent-sized house (two bedrooms, two baths, kitchen, living room). It seems a
tad unrealistic to want a house in order to have a garden. There are so many
hidden costs attached to owning a home. The garden has to supersede all the
problems of owning a home in the city. Time will tell. In the meantime, we have
our gardens in the different rooms of our apartment. I’m waiting for the day
when there won’t be room for any more plants or any more room for us. I believe that day is coming
soon.
 |
| Ripe oranges |
 |
| My orange tree |
 |
Our tomato plant
|
 |
| My husband's orchid plant |
