Trip to Vienna, a few gardens

Just back from a long weekend in Vienna, I have at least found a few garden-related things to post, despite the cold, damp November weather there.

The first place we visited was Belvedere Castle, which possesses a vast formal garden with floral patterns formed only by boxwood, grass, and colored gravel. The view from ground level is not very spectacular (see above, click any photo to enlarge), but the view that the prince had from his upstairs chambers reveals more.





















Way down at the other end of the gardens, beyond the high-hedged mazes and around to the side of the Lower Belvedere, we discovered another formal garden (with some modern sculptures) enclosed by a wall covered by vines in breathtaking fall colors, I think Boston Ivy (Parthenocissus tricuspidata Veitchii).


Speaking of Boston Ivy, we also encountered some growing from a small window planter - had never seen that before!


More on the level of my own modest boxwood hedging efforts (see my post), I was delighted to discover the garden in the back of the last house that Haydn lived in, from 1797 until his death in 1808. It's easy to imagine that it still looks the way it did back in Haydn's day. You can rent an audiophone and listen to "Die Schöpfung" while sitting on a bench in this garden. This last great work of his was composed in this house. I highly recommend a visit there if you're interested in Haydn and life in Vienna in his day.














We also visited the Vienna Central Cemetery, the second largest in all of Europe and resting place of Beethoven, Strauss, Schubert and many other inhabitants of that city, great and humble. The entire cemetery is laid out like a formal, symmetrical garden, with the Art Nouveau chapel and the mausoleum of all of Austria's presidents as centerpiece.


It's a beautiful place. I found the old Jewish section the most beautiful of all, and the fall colors made a wonderful backdrop to the lushly overgrown gravestones.

OK, this is completely off-topic, but I can't resist. Instead of posting pictures of any of the usual touristy things to do in Vienna, here are two pictures of the most beautiful public lavatories I've ever encountered. They are underground in the area between St. Stephen's Cathedral and the Hofburg, with the kind of stairs leading down to them that would not be confidence-inspiring in most European cities. But I braved it, to discover highly polished wood, beautiful tiling, and for each guest an immaculate personal booth with toilet, sink, soap and towels. There was an attendant on duty, and the whole thing cost 50 cents. I sent my husband down to the men's - same story.

What to do about human urges

Our garden colony is not electrified, and not connected to city water and sewage. In the middle of the colony there's a building housing a restaurant/beer garden, the association offices, and restrooms that gardeners can use, but the building is frequently not open, and it's a long trek from my garden.

The cottage on our garden lot has a separate small room with it's own outside door where our predecessors had a chemical camping toilet. But that is a hassle, since it has to be emptied into a dumping station, for example at a campground, or taken home and emptied into the toilet. And you have to put toxic chemicals in it if you want to use it more than once. Some of the gardens have flush toilets with illegal cesspools, but I definitely didn't want to go that route either. Outhouses are absolutely taboo in this water protection area. Who would want one anyway?

So I started searching the internet for ideas, and lo and behold, there's a whole community out there discussing composting toilets, aka dry toilets. There's even an entire online book on the subject, The Humanure Handbook by Joseph Jenkins, which I found so convincing and informative that I decided to go that route. Thank you, Joseph Jenkins, for your great book!

There are two basic kinds of composting toilet: simple ones that consist of a collecting receptacle that you then have to frequently empty onto your compost heap, and more complicated ones for heavier duty use that compost the waste in a compartment under the toilet. In our case the first kind seemed like the practical thing to do, seeing as we have more than enough room for nearby compost heaps. After browsing several forums I decided to buy a "MiniLoo", and following several weeks of use it's turned out to be exactly the right choice. Here's a picture.

Under the seat there's a bucket, which you line with a biodegradable bag and fill with a few inches of tree bark mulch before using. After each use, enough tree bark is sprinkled on top to cover the waste. Experience has shown that after about 6-8 uses (urine only), it's ready to be emptied.

The receptacle can be lifted out and fitted with a lid to carry to the compost heap. After depositing the bag and all there, possibly in an indentation, you pile enough fresh composting material (cut grass, branches, leaves, etc.) on top to cover it up. After about a year it is completely composted, faster if using a thermo composter.

And amazingly: just as the proponents claim, it does *not* stink at all, neither in the toilet room nor in the receptacle, nor in or near the compost heap. No flies either. The only thing that is recommended is not to use the compost on vegetables, just in case any bacteria might have survived. For that reason we have three compost heaps: one out of wooden slats as daily collecting receptacle for green waste, one lidded thermal composter for the vegetable beds, and one lidded thermal composter for the composting toilet and the flower beds.

So I'm sold! Highly recommended for light occasional use with easy access to plenty of compostable material and compost heap.