Just as I enjoyed finding and taking pictures of Kosovo gardens, I also had a lot of fun walking the streets of the Greek neighborhood where we stayed and finding great gardening ideas to share with you all. Of course I didn’t have to walk far, because all of the photos you see above were from the courtyard of the four-apartment building where our friends live. Their landlady’s family built the apartments years ago and takes care of the courtyard plantings.

There is a large marble tile patio and the freesias in the bottom photos are in a marble planter. And that’s the first thing I noticed about all of Greece, actually:

There is marble everywhere!

Patios, apartment floors, balconies, fountains, planters, benches – even the streets and curbs (!) – are made out of marble. And guess what? They all want wood floors in their houses instead of marble! It’s all a matter of what is plentiful, I guess.

In this courtyard, I love the way the owners made the driveway disappear by enclosing it in triple arches made of iron from the patio side and then created an arched pergola over the drive (attaching to the arches on that side and a fence on the other). Since it wasn’t blooming, I’m not sure of the flowering vine that covers it – but look how sweet it makes a utilitarian metal garage door and driveway?

Oh, and those freesia smelled heavenly! Between those and the blooming orange trees, there was always something lovely in the air.

Many driveways were covered in some sort of metal pergola – this one is white and covered in grape vines. This was one of my favorite houses on the walk – the combination of stone facade, arched window with small panes, roses and grape covered arbor was simply lovely.

Almost all of the houses and apartments in Athens only had yards the depth of a car – enough for a driveway on one end and a little square of front yard (always enclosed by some type of fence). As you can see, many people make the most of it. I couldn’t believe how big this wisteria was – look at how it is being trained along the third level balcony! I would estimate it to be 50 feet long or more.

Think of that the next time you see wisteria planted on every column of a porch, as I once saw in Portland – for about 4 years I would drive by and watch the plants slowly engulf the roof and upstairs…until they finally chopped them down!

Some of the places I loved were pretty low-maintenance, like this house with permanent plantings of only some grass, roses, and a couple large bushes out front. The color comes from the pots lining the rail and at the foot of the stairs. Simple and sweet. Of course all those cute shutters add to the whole look, too, don’t they?

Now this yard stopped me in my tracks – mainly because it was out of the norm for the houses in this area to be so trimmed and higher maintenance. But it is lovely – and you see they add color with some pots by the door, too.

As I walked along the sidewalks, I always had to dodge these orange trees that were planted in the middle of the sidewalks (not in planting strips like we’re used to – smack dab in the middle of the walk). Yep, the sidewalks in Greece are for trees and not people, apparently. And while they look lovely along the streets, they make it difficult to walk and the fruit is only decorative – can you believe it? Our friends told us that the fruits are bitter and full of seeds.

One day when Brian and I were walking together, we found this incredible blooming tree leaning over the fence of one of the yards. Have you ever seen anything like this? The leaves are mottled and the flowers are light orange with yellow highlights. I have no idea what it was, but even Brian was amazed at the beauty of this flowering tree.

In Thessaloniki we spent most of our time in the heart of the city where balconies and container plantings ruled. On a climb to a fortress above the city, I had Brian take a picture of this roof top garden – it looked like an oasis in the middle of the city. And it was only a simple iron-pipe trellis covered in grape vines and a few planters with evergreens.

My biggest take-away overall? Like Kosovo families, the Greeks seem to use what they have to make even the smallest postage-stamp sized space lovely and usable. Metal rods, iron fences, plentiful marble, and simple plants go a long way to making a liveable garden. I also liked their use of pots, pergolas and arbors to provide color and a framework for plants.

What garden idea could you see yourself incorporating from one of these Greek gardens?

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***Here is the link to your FREE Ebooklet:***
Click here for the PDF version of Spring Dinner Menus to view in browser or right-click and save to desktop.

Oh, dear readers, you can’t know how wonderful it is to get this monkey off my back and be able to tell you that the last installment in our seasonal dinner menu-planning ebook series is here! Thank you all for your patience, as our recent travels put this about a month behind schedule. Oh – and the link to download the ebook will be in the update that goes out to all of AOC’s loyal subscribers – unlike last time…woops.

Like the last three seasonal menu ebooks (Summer, Autumn, & Winter) Spring Dinner Menus: Simple, Seasonal, and From Scratch has all the same great information on the whys and hows of frugal menu planning (read: if you’ve read the first books, you can skip right to the menus and shopping lists), with all new menus and recipes that reflect the season.

Inside you’ll find five full weeks of menus and shopping lists with links to corresponding AOC recipes. And spring is a season where we celebrate all the lovely produce of the new gardening year like spinach, asparagus and peas, while still incorporating what we have left in our freezers and pantries from last season like frozen corn and berries.

As always, you can visit this page to get more information and you would totally make my day, month, and year if you were able to share about this – tweet, pin, status update…whatever ! You can point your friends to that same page to link to if you do, and if it’s helpful to you, here’s an example of what you could tweet (simply click on the link and a tweet will be created for you!):

Have you signed up to get 5 wks. of FREE seasonal dinner menus yet?

Yes, the Spring Dinner Menus ebooklet is still free, just like the previous seasons, for all subscribers to An Oregon Cottage!

How can you access the ebook? It’s easy:

• If you don’t already subscribe: simply enter your email address in the green “Subscribe & Connect” box in the sidebar (right under the “welcome” box) OR on the Dinner Menus Landing Page (located in the green menu bar above under the title “Free Ebook”). You will receive an email asking you to verify your subscription and once you do that you will receive the next AOC update which will include the link to the FREE ebook at the bottom of the email.
• If you already subscribe: look for the link to the ebook at the bottom of your next email or rss update from An Oregon Cottage.

Oh, and remember that AOC’s blog updates go out in the mornings only after a new post, so they aren’t immediate after newly subscribing and verifying. Subscribers can find the link in the bottom of the next email update, as well every new one after that.

It is my hope that those who’ve been using the menus are finding them inspiring and helpful towards leading a cost-saving (and sanity-saving!) menu-planning lifestyle.

Some of you have asked me what is next or how you can get the previous editions of the menus. One of the goals in releasing these ebooklets has been to motivate me to actually write, instead of just thinking about it (which is all I had done the previous year…) with the end-goal of creating an actual ebook that would include all the menus, lists, tips, as well as some new material.

Since getting some reader feedback, I have decided that I will combine all the menus and shopping lists into one ebook along with my whole-food weight loss tips – to offer here as well as on Amazon, in order to reach a wider audience. It makes sense to combine these, since the way I eat and plan is one of the keys to maintaining my healthy weight (along with a biggie: portion control!) and I’m excited to be able to tell more people how easy it is when you eat simple, whole, from scratch, and seasonal foods.

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***Here is the link to your FREE Ebooklet:***
Click here for the PDF version of Spring Dinner Menus to view in browser or right-click and save to desktop.

We like our beans a little dryer (I just don’t like a ton of bean juice oozing over the whole plate!), but if you’d like yours juicier, it’s simple to add a bit more liquid in the form of water or broth.

I hope you make these to enjoy at your next get-together – I think you’ll love them, and how easy they are – just load all the ingredients in the pot, stir, and turn the cooker on. Using a slow cooker means no hot ovens or worrying about enough space on the stove, plus I find they’re easier to transport, too!

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The post Slow Cooker Honey Baked Beans {and Maple Variation} appeared first on An Oregon Cottage. Thank you for subscribing!
***Here is the link to your FREE Ebooklet:***
Click here for the PDF version of Spring Dinner Menus to view in browser or right-click and save to desktop.