When we bought our property in May 1998, we found a simple home-built bungalow on 10 acres that had been rented out for years. This meant that the grounds were so neglected that our friends thought we were brave, or crazy, to take it on. They were probably right on both accounts, but the location was ideal. It was in the country, in Ernestinovo ( we are about an 15 minutes drive from Osijek). Located across the road from a golf course and a horse ranch, it also had terrific views.

Both chef's, Mesut and Minja use masses of ornamental grasses, which are among my favorite plants. Together with flowering perennials – many of them tough, drought-tolerant Croatian plants wich are perfectly at home in our hot and humid summers and our cold winters.

Mesut Zendeli

We spent our first summer in cleanup and bulldozer mode. Before we could start to lay out garden areas, we had to remove masses of burdock, brambles, poison ivy, buckthorn, falling-down fences, and concrete and stone from the farm’s original barn, long since torn down. Since our second season, we’ve planted hundreds of trees and shrubs and turned a hayfield into a native plant prairie (above). The prairie is my favorite part of the property: it teems with birds and butterflies and looks amazing from mid-summer well into the fall.