Pilis Nemzeti Park Fella

One of the best things about buying a property in Hungary is that you can buy a property that comes with a sizeable garden without paying a fortune. There's plenty of land for the size of the population. Sure, I've done living in apartments in Budapest - I had 4 years of that - and it suited me fine as a younger single guy more interested in pubs & girls than looking after a garden. But once we got our place in the Pilis hills, I really got into gardening and it really has become one of the most satisfying elements of life in Hungary. You don't have to be particularly rich to afford a decent patch of land. The family houses in our village typically come with about 800-1000 sq m of garden, so there's plenty to keep you busy. I added on a couple more empty plots to enlarge our garden, which is something under a hectare, quite a bit of it jungle but the rest now mature garden. No bragging rights here, the 2 extra plots were not planning plots (= a bit more expensive) but orchard & garden classified, plus this was nearly 20 years ago so they were very cheap. It used to be quite easy to pick up an empty/ with shed/ with shack plot of 1000 sq m for about 3-4 million Ft, now it's a bit more but still reasonable, maybe 8 million Ft would get you something you could call a great holiday home if you were prepared to live in a comfortable wooden house/ gas, elec, water, satellite TV, phone/ broadband, 1000 sq m garden, 45-50 mins drive to central Budapest. That's the Pilis villages for you. Full size modern family homes will cost a lot more but they do tend to come with a great big garden.

So I spend my holidays messing about in the garden, planting stuff, getting it looking right, pruning, making terraces on the hilly bit, mowing. It does help that I have got 2 strapping lads 15 & 17 who have got pretty good gardening skills now & are happy to be paid in Diet Coke! We can roll up at May/ June half term - when the grass will be knee high - and get the mowers out & the place looking shipshape in a day between the 3 of us. I don't measure my steps ho ho (people who do that amuse me! my father for one - get some proper exercise for heaven's sake!) - but if I did I reckon I'll be walking 5 kms a day just going round the garden doing stuff and admiring bit & pieces. My pride & joy this holiday is the 3 big metal posts (in a 7 shape) that I concreted in with my lads last week, & I've planted 3 Nero grapevines. Not sure if this is Nero d'Avola variety (seems likely) but I tasted Nero grapes at my mate's plot on Sunday and they were very sweet & definitely ready now (ie mid-August, perfect for summer hols), I think Nero d'Avola is meant to be slightly more astringent ie that's why it's good for making wine? Anyway, this Nero variety will make a perfect table grape, sweet as. I've also planted a big peach tree, variety Champion. https://www.starkbros.com/products/f...on-white-peach - I think I'll get peaches next year, it's that big a tree - cost me 6000 Ft but worth it for a slightly older tree, I'd say it's 3 years old.

wolfi

Yes, a garden can be quite something here - but it's also a lot of work!
Over the years my wife and I have "diversified" in fruits:

We have cherries and sour cherries - when there's too many of them I put them into one or more "Rum pots".
The same goes for raspberries and blackberries - strawberries are too much work, we only have a few.
Then of course apricots and peaches, apples (summer apples and winter apples), pears and different variesties of grapes.
For us it was important to have the fruit ripening at different times, so that harvesting is a long term thing.
And we also have walnuts and figs - if the weather is hot like this year.
Our young ones and other family members of course enjoy the fruits too - and they like to help with harvesting because the home grown is much better than what you buy in a supermarket.