Colorful Garden Chat Picture Thread

Rose bed

Or
Flower bulbs for blooming from February to May
Stonecrop, yarrow, blue sage, bee balm, ornamental grasses, coreopsis, coneflower, asters

Or edible garden from strawberry to sage to tomato. There are also mini trees, e.g. peach or currant. Even there, there are ways to ensure that it doesn’t resemble a vegetable garden.

Three weeks of vacation for the garden - three weeks of hard labor... Puhhhhh - I thought I was going to do gardening, but I didn’t deal with this much concrete during the entire construction phase. I am so glad that we have a wooden house, this dust everywhere! And the whole thing is then amplified by the *zensiert* crushed sand. Oh god, it really gets on my nerves. I have - I can hardly believe it myself - even MOPPED our newly paved terrace at some point because I couldn’t stand anymore that this stupid sand is always being tracked into the house.

My friend insists that paving stones should ONLY be laid on a concrete bed at her place, and I’m slowly beginning to understand her...

And everywhere concrete, wall panels, concrete, edge planks, concrete... But we simply have little garden and therefore have to terrace in order to get at least some space.

Now we are a bit behind because the locksmith has not yet delivered the ordered parts for the privacy screen and that has to be in place before we can continue. Because actually, the schedule was such that we should already be finished by now. We are still quite far from that...

But here are some interim updates.

Behind the house: our main terrace (with the concrete paving and the *zensiert* crushed sand, which has been sanding my kitchen ever since the paving was laid):

the initial condition still with the flowering plum tree, which unfortunately had to be sacrificed (however, it had grown so much that we could no longer reach the plums anyway)
[ATTACH alt="IMG_20200416_125209.jpg" type="full"]47393[/ATTACH]:
[ATTACH alt="IMG_20200416_125155.jpg" type="full"]47392[/ATTACH]

First, everything was flattened:
[ATTACH alt="IMG-20200429-WA0001.jpg" type="full"]47394[/ATTACH]

Quite funny, a digger in front of the kitchen window:
[ATTACH alt="IMG_20200429_180846.jpg" type="full"]47395[/ATTACH]

But eventually the wall panels to the neighboring plot were set, the areas with edge planks defined, and the foundation for the oven was finished:
[ATTACH alt="IMG_20200506_071210.jpg" type="full"]47396[/ATTACH]

Then the paving was done and the foundation walls for the oven were built:
[ATTACH alt="IMG_20200507_185242.jpg" type="full"]47398[/ATTACH]
Here you can also nicely see the crushed sand over the paving stones that I love so dearly (and afterwards in the whole house *gasp*)

By the way, we really have trouble with this paving (Delgardo from KBH Beton). The paving is nice, but up to now we have had to replace 9 paving stones because they developed hairline cracks. Very annoying, because the crushed sand saga then starts again where the stone was replaced, of course from scratch. We don’t know whether this problem always occurs with these stones or if a pallet was just treated somewhat roughly and those stones already had a slight crack. It is definitely annoying.

A first terrace feeling:
[ATTACH alt="IMG_20200516_170821.jpg" type="full"]47399[/ATTACH]

I pimped our old teak garden furniture, so now they look nice and new again (cleaned and sanded), I don’t do that every year, but after not taking care of the furniture at all for two years, it was desperately needed. Hopefully in the future a thorough cleaning with castile soap and a root brush will suffice.

Then came the soil for the beds and our first plants:
[ATTACH alt="IMG_20200521_194849.jpg" type="full"]47400[/ATTACH]

And now at least here it already feels more like a garden:
[ATTACH alt="IMG_20200521_182052.jpg" type="full"]47401[/ATTACH]
Here you can also see the difference between the paving I mopped (in the front of the photo) and the part on which the crushed sand still feeds my madness (starting where the grill is).

My pride and joy is our serviceberry (raised as a standard tree): [ATTACH alt="IMG_20200520_094813.jpg" type="full"]47402[/ATTACH][ATTACH alt="IMG_20200520_094823.jpg" type="full"]47403[/ATTACH]

In the nursery, it didn’t look that big, but when it was delivered, we were quite amazed *laugh*

But we had to plant it now, otherwise they wouldn’t ball it for us anymore. Just like the velvet hydrangea: [ATTACH alt="IMG_20200520_094838.jpg" type="full"]47404[/ATTACH]

And the bamboo and the ball hydrangea (the small one to the right of the bamboo): [ATTACH alt="IMG_20200520_094856.jpg" type="full"]47405[/ATTACH]

The velvet hydrangea seems to love its new home; it’s already pushing out lots of leaves. The serviceberry also feels comfortable, and the little hottie has recovered well after initially withering. The bamboo worries us a bit; it doesn’t look as good as in the pictures and has rolled up half of its leaves. But the landscape gardener says that is normal for bamboo, no worries, it will come back!

Looks great! Two questions from a wooden facade owner to another wooden facade owner: Wouldn't a strip of gravel bed along the house wall be useful as a splash guard? Is the facade untreated or glazed? Greetings!

So that was the garden on the northeast side. Corten wood beds will still be placed against the ugly neighbor's wall, and the wall by the velvet hydrangea will also get the facade cladding like the house, but then this corner is almost finished (of course, the oven still has to come and the compost is also not quite finished yet).

But the house still has a few sides...

Our current problem is that the metalworker who makes our metal elements (namely the aforementioned wood beds, some raised beds, some elements of the privacy wall still to be erected) is unfortunately behind schedule. So far, on the NE side, only the wall panels and deck boards could be installed.

Before like this:


Now like this:


Where the paving ends, the wooden terrace begins, which transitions into the balcony on the south side.

On the wall panels towards the neighbor comes the privacy wall, alternating metal and wood; the deck boards at the house are for corten raised beds (herbs in front, tomatoes in back), those on the wall panels are for a regular bed so we simply have a bit of greenery.

The "bed" in front was paved; that will be the parking space for our trailer (so practically under the balcony).

The garden landscaper was supposed to bring the metal parts today – but again nothing. So it stays as it is *hm*

But on the other side, where our front door is, we have made more progress!

Before:


Then with a big pile of gravel:


And then it started:


Finally no more dirt in front of the front door!

We paved the carport with our old paving – and of course again with my beloved crushed sand...

We’ll still get a nice step made of shell limestone at the front door – just like our kitchen countertop. But we’ll have to wait a few more weeks for that. The quarry is extremely busy right now because deliveries of natural stone from China are currently a bit delayed. Many are therefore switching to domestic stone!

And then the driveway was paved:

This is an eco-paving from Braun Beton (Arena) and was therefore NOT grouted with crushed sand, but only with split. When finished it looks a bit darker; in this picture it is still dusty. I can't take a current photo right now because my mom is getting a new living room window today and the glazier is standing in the driveway.

Looks great! Two questions from a wooden facade owner to another wooden facade owner: Wouldn't a strip of gravel bed along the house wall be useful as a splash guard? Is the facade untreated or glazed? Greetings!

There are decking boards on the house and we have an overhanging roof – so I don’t think we will have problems with soil sticking to the facade (at least after the last two cloudbursts here, definitely nothing). Besides, it is also mulched.

The facade is natural.

Unfortunately, the south side still looks like this:
[ATTACH alt="IMG_20200525_131054.jpg" type="full"]47422[/ATTACH]
With the stones we roughly indicated where the perennial beds are supposed to go and the structure made of steel rods and string is supposed to symbolize the raised bed that is going there. And on the far right in the picture the Arena paving freshly watered (so much darker than in the picture above).

By the way, the raised bed is the only part the slow locksmith has made so far. Weeks ago already. And it has been with the landscaping contractor ever since:
[ATTACH alt="IMG-20200416-WA0003.jpg" type="full"]47423[/ATTACH]
Unfortunately, it’s exactly the part we will need only at the very end... Well, nothing beats skilled coordination!

Our cats don’t like the whole project at all. Noise every day, vibrating plates shaking the house and in the evening it looks different than in the morning, everything’s annoying!
So they easily hide, annoyed, in the scratching post:
[ATTACH alt="IMG_20200523_185451.jpg" type="full"]47424[/ATTACH]

Only the new beds received cat approval! But you really have to have nice people who build you such a big litter box right around the corner. With completely fresh, soft soil and spots that never get wet! Simply great people

For everyone who also has a hillside plot and needs to terrace it: So far we have spent about €25,000 (without the steel raised bed) and we don’t have much slope!