Hanging house in the Southwest Palatinate - Our House Construction 2.0

uh, I personally find these plant rings terrible. But of course, it’s a matter of taste. They are certainly an inexpensive and durable option. I would still prefer to work with dry stone walls made of natural stone.

uh, I personally find these planting rings terrible. But of course, it's a matter of taste. They are certainly an inexpensive and durable option. I would still rather work with dry stone walls made of natural stone.

I agree with you, they are not my thing visually either. At the moment, the requirement was cheap and practical. I think within 2-3 years the bed in front will be grown up enough so that you won't see much of them anymore. Whether we'll do them on the sides of the slopes, I also doubt. Honestly, I don't find them that attractive either. Dry stone walls, or pretty much anything else that looks nice, however, is quite expensive. Neighbors pay €120 per piece for such oversized concrete Lego bricks, plus delivery and installation. When I do the math, I can't help but think that I could buy a lot, a lot of plants for that. Depending on the root type, they also stabilize the slope.

I agree with you, they don't appeal to me visually either. At the moment, the requirement was cheap and practical. I think in the course of 2-3 years the bed in front will be grown up enough so that you won't see much of it anymore.

Whether we do them on the sides of the slopes, I also doubt. Honestly, I don't find them so nice either. Dry stone wall, or pretty much anything else that looks good, is quite expensive though. Neighbors pay 120€ each for such oversized concrete Lego blocks, plus delivery and installation. When I calculate that, I can't help but think that I could buy a lot, a lot of plants for the same money. Depending on the type of roots, they also stabilize the slope.

And in my opinion, these concrete Lego blocks look many times uglier than plant stones. That's something for industrial areas, but not for single-family homes.

The planting rings can be designed and decorated with small stones by yourself. My children collected stones everywhere and dragged them home, especially on vacation. You also have beautiful rocks there in the Pfalz.

In addition to the garage, we also installed planting rings and planted them with all sorts of things that form carpets or otherwise spread wildly. After a few years, you could hardly see the rings anymore. Behind the house, we bordered a light well with large stones that came to light during the basement excavation. Now we are looking at natural stone there, but still at stone and not at greenery.

The first year in the house is (almost) over. And we love it here. It is nice, it is quiet, we have space. The only thing catching up with me is the outdoor area. I actually planned to just bridge it for now until "in a few years," but now I’m tempted to invest a bit more in the outdoor area next year so I don’t end up with half-done things that I’ll regret later. I have marked in red what has been paved – the terrace is roughly facing south. Then we have – marked in purple in the picture – a little bit more flat area. And everything that goes toward the border – here at the top of the picture – is unfortunately a very steep slope. Steep enough that I can’t just walk on it easily. It has 2 rough terraces and is currently, of course, overgrown, so that when it rains, nothing runs off to the neighbor. However, I’m not so happy with this, since I can’t really use most of my property. We are now considering somehow catching or retaining it. Probably ring planters and doing it ourselves for cost reasons. Over the length of 30 meters, we want to gain between 2-3 meters in height.

Would you rather go as high as possible at the border and let the rest behind the flat area slope gently? Or would you prefer to create 2 levels, meaning retaining at the border at about 2 meters, and along the current flat level put a few more planter stones and a staircase, and below that make a second level that then runs more evenly? If we only put the planter stones along the border and fill up, it will be significantly less steep than now, but will still slope. However, it could be used and also mowed.