Build a terraced end house with an additional unit (GÜ) on your own

Well, what people do or don’t do in old age is their business. But nothing MUST be done. We also have 1000sqm with lawn, completely overgrown. Of course it takes work. Basically. However, we have a robotic mower and automated irrigation. That helps decisively.

Pruning a bush or tree once every two years is quick. And if I don’t do it that year, then in the next. Or not at all. So what?

Or you design the garden as a wild garden that's low-maintenance. In any case, I will never, like the neighbor, cut lawn edges on my knees or dig out clover. Either it’s a garden poorly designed for itself or inner compulsions. But even with a big garden, I spend a lot of time sitting on one of my terraces. Or in the cold winter garden when it’s drizzling. Or out back under the tree on the wooden bench. Or lying under the apple tree taking a nap.

If you consider that the building mid-thirty-year-olds previously lived in 2-3 room apartments with a balcony and suddenly have to manage 700-900 sqm with 160-200 sqm of living space, then I know who sits on their terrace enjoying after 1 hour of gardening and who still has to keep working hard for another 3 hours.

Is your wife really so heartless as to be able to watch you relax while you’re working hard?

Is your wife really so heartless as to be able to watch you work hard relaxed?

Turn it around! I told my wife the garden belongs to her!

We have 650m2 and actually, it's too big for me, but there wasn’t really any other option. We were just glad to have gotten anything at all. In any case, we also have a lot of lawn area, but partly it’s laid out as a wildflower meadow, which I will continue to expand. Good for the insects, good for me because less work. I only have hardy perennial shrubs, we have some trees. Only the roses (pruning, winter protection) and hydrangeas (watering, winter protection) sometimes require work. Otherwise, I now garden ecologically and with little effort. We mow rather rarely, we allow a lot of wild meadow, I don’t rake leaves away in autumn and I don’t prune perennials either. They rot away by themselves. I also no longer chase aphids and co; nature handles it on its own. Nevertheless, the garden requires work, even if you prune rarely like we do. There’s always green waste that needs to be taken away, the roses and hydrangeas always need some winter protection, and even if you mow rarely, it still takes time. I enjoy doing it, but it shouldn’t be any more for me. We only have one raised bed and a corner with raspberries and strawberries, otherwise no beds or growing areas that I need to care for (my brother grows a lot of vegetables in the courtyard, but that’s his). Mostly the fruit trees and shrubs cause work because you also have to process the fruit. On the other hand, we have a constantly replenishing yearly supply of sour cherries, plums, peaches, pears, currants, raspberries, strawberries and above all apples, and rhubarb. I don’t buy applesauce or compote, I don’t buy jam, we have it all canned in the cellar and I also freeze berries and rhubarb for baking in winter. That’s nice, too. Because of my brother, we hardly ever buy tomatoes, cucumbers, etc. in summer. And when we can’t keep up and no one takes the fruit, it just becomes windfall fruit and delights the wasps and hornets. I would certainly be happy with a small garden, too. Now we just have the luxury of a lot of lawn area and a pavilion, etc., meaning we can throw big parties at home, we can set up a pool, the kids can run and bike, the dog runs along. I find it hard to weigh up. In the rented apartment with a small garden attached, we definitely had more free time, but also less luxury.

And it continues...

Really looks great already!