Two of my first goals are realized: transforming my (far too) little suburban garden from the boring setup of the previous owner (mostly lawn and thuja hedges) into an island of biodiversity and transforming the studio of a stone mason (said previous owner) into an unheated greenhouse. Ongoing is, obviously, the finding out which of the species I fall in love with can be brought to return this love. I seem to have a soft spot for Iridaceae in general and tribus Tigridieae in particular, but have ongoing experiments with some Amaryllidaceae, Alstroemerias, Kniphofias, terrestrial orchids and many other as well.
My area is considered USDA hardiness zone 7a (drifting towards 8 these days), yet the true challenge for any plant is the variability of my winter climate, which produces warm and wet phases as well as sudden severe temperature drops, often without a protective snow layer, depending if we get Atlantic climate from the west or continental climate from the east. Probably the best way to understand the surprise element of my weather is to compare average min/max temperatures to absolute min/max in this diagram based on my self-collected data of 2018 to 2022 (this also includes the temperatures in my winter-heated shelter)
Besides my gardening, I enjoy playing and modding computer role playing games - mostly after it is too dark to garden. In rare cases I can combine both of my passions, e.g. through modeling and adding plants like these crocuses (picture) as alchemical ingredient to one of my favorite games. In this other world, I'm known as (pmm)Garak, so this is my alias on the PBS List as well.
I'm part of the PBS Wiki team, providing both content and some extra PHP coding like the experimental tag search engine. Since fall 2020 I'm the operative half of the PBS EU Seed Exchange (with Uli Urban being the organizational mastermind), which has put me on the Board of the PBS. Other volunteer work I do includes being Spokesperson for the LGBT*IQ Network of my employer.