A newbie from Germany

[Kasbek]

After having joined PBS in autumn 2023, I now finally managed it to register to the forum as well. I chose Kasbek as nickname – some of you might know me from Garten-pur Forum in Germany, and that's my nickname there, so it seemed to be logical to use the same one here. (In real life, my first name is Roland – so you can choose which one to use when communicating with me.)

I live in Germany some kilometres south of Leipzig, 175 m above sea level, zone 7a on the border to 6b. Despite the climate change, there is still a certain influence of cold air from Russia in some winters, leading to night temperatures of below -20°C for sometimes more than a week. The last time that this happened was in Feb 2021 – luckily, there were also 30 cm of snow making a good isolation.

In my garden, there's a lot of different plants – some trees ans shrubs, some vegetables (potatoes, beans, peas ...) and lots of flowers. Unfortunately, there are rodents as well, and the soil is holding water quite well. Thus, for example my entire collection of wild tulips can be cultivated in pots only. Furthermore, I fight a permanent battle against Aegopodium podagraria. If any work in my garden would stop suddenly, it would take only a few years until it would have been transferred into an Aegopodium monoculture (with only the trees and some shrubs and some of the most robust perennials as survivors between it).

Most of my other bulbs live in pots as well. There are slowly growing collections of Crocosmia cvs as well as Habranthus and Zephyranthes as well as several other plants from Arisaema to Zantedeschia. Some of them grow really well, and I'm happy to donate some of them to the EU exchanges (which I already did in the second round of the Autumn 23 exchange).

Besides of plants, I collect music CDs and books and work as a project manager and proofreader for a publishing house here in Germany. And for anybody who wonders about my nickname: Yes, I go mountain-walking and -climbing, and I successfully climbed Mt. Kasbek (in the Caucasus) in August 2010. In summer 2024, we will go to Kyrgysztan doing some tours around Sary Chelek Lake and on the north side of Lenin Peak.

I hope that my English is understandable as I am no native speaker. If anything in my posts is unclear, just ask, and I try to explain what I mean.

Happy growing to all and best regards from Germany!

[Arnold]

Roland

Welcome.

Your English is just fine.