Part 2

The Romans considered themselves founders of gardening culture, as compared to the Germanic “barbarians”. They transformed unadorned, sparse homegardens into diverse, blooming, fertile courtyards.

Seeds found in former forts confirm which plants arrived in central Europe with the Romans. The southern conquerors brought along their own flavoring and healing herbs like chervil and garlic. Since then, we have been growing vegetables, such as beets and onions or fruits such as cherries and wine grapes, in our gardens. In the fields, barley was grown for the first time in the North and rye and oats in the South.

Some of the “Roman“ crops have almost disappeared. For example, orache or mountain spinach is rarely come across today. It has been replaced by spinach.

Do you have a homegarden? Then try out the beautiful red, green and yellow varieties of orache. It is easy to plant, frugal and has a much longer harvest period than spinach.