In 2006, we moved into the old cottage from the 1950s and initially devoted ourselves to renovating the house. At the time, the garden consisted mainly of lawn with a few old apple trees (half trunks) and an elongated bed that had once been used for growing vegetables, but was now planted with solid perennials, some berry bushes and a few woody plants. This bed was my first field of experimentation: over the next 10 years, I kept planting beautiful perennials, which either stayed – but more often disappeared again.
On the northern side of the property a tall spruce hedge was replaced by natiive shrubs, which not only screen off the garden but also provide food and shelter for insects and birds.
We then had the grounds completely redesigned in the winter of 2017/2018. A landscape gardener suggested leveling the garden into three areas following the natural slope. We chose low dry stone walls made of Ruhr sandstone to give the garden a distinct structure and invite wildlife. Gravel paths take you around the garden. With the exception of the sun border, all the open areas were first sown in with lawn. The foundation of our garden was laid in the truest sense of the word.
In winter time I sat down to create more borders:
- 2018: Herb garden and sun border
- 2019: Firethorn border
- 2020: Hawthorn border (redesigned in 2024)
- 2021: Zen border
- 2022: Forest garden
- 2023: Front garden
- 2024: Well border
… and of course a garden is never finished 🙂.