Traumrasen & Co: professional tips for the garden

A dream in green: The most important lawn rules

Not only Englishmen dream of such a green - but to plant a beautiful lawn is a high art

It should be rich in color, dense like a velor carpet and free from any cabbage? but why is that so difficult?

A lawn, it is believed, is the most easy-care part of a garden. With a bit of mowing the matter is already done. "A bit of mowing"? This is very understated. But since the men like to do this work, it does not really bother. But what about the moss? Have you already seen a lawn without these nasty green lint - English conditions we leave out here? Well, you see. And near trees the sparse blades of grass fall to whole armies of squat moss pads. Since the dear husband is powerless. Because the commercially available moss killer, which he likes to sprinkle like a pail, only temporarily eliminates the problem. After a few weeks, the mosses regenerate from the spores in the soil, while the green stalks keep on waiting. So what do you do?

Here are the most important lawn rules:

Everything starts with the seed. Long-term breeding has produced the best varieties of grass. However, this is only offered by Markenfi companies (eg Wolf, Kiepenkerl). Stay away from everyday life blends like "Berliner Tiergarten". They usually consist of cheap seed waste. Good seed makes a dense lawn color grow, provided the soil is well loosened and cleared of weeds.
Fertilize, mow. , , In order to maintain this dense scar, greenery needs a balanced diet three times a year (April, June, September), preferably a long-term lawn fertilizer, and a regular shave - at least once a week during the main growing season. When it gets hot, it needs to be watered.
, , , and scratch. It does not matter if you mulch, let the grass clippings lie, or carry it away - over time, felt will form between the grasses, affecting the vital growth. This must be scraped out once a year, preferably from mid-April, when the ground has reheated, with a scarifier. Subsequent reseeding and fertilizing is very important.

And if the moss always wins? Some locations are simply unsuitable for turf grasses. A sensible sward only develops in the long term if the grasses are superior to the other greens. In the shade, however, neither mowing, fertilizing, watering and scarifying nor using special seed mixtures. There, the moss has a competitive advantage. In bare, mossy soils, it is best to plant beautiful groundcover plants that can cope well with low light, such as elven flowers, cranesbill, periwinkle, Caucasus forget-me-not and ysander. Take care of all that, you are allowed to squint and compare to England. But then nobody says anymore, lawns do little work.

Swimming Ponds: To dive in front of the front door

The center of a garden does not always have to be the lawn. For example, a swimming pond that requires no chemicals requires only a floor area of at least 70 square meters. He would even fit in a terraced garden. The plant is around ten times as large in the garden of the Hildebrandt family. The peculiarity there: The pond sole consists of a 20 centimeters thick layer of mashed clay. The process is elaborate, not cheap and only something for nature lovers, who also liked to wade barefoot in the modder.

In most cases, ponds are sealed with a film about 1.5 millimeters thick. A natural pool works on the principle of self-cleaning. For this purpose, an underwater wall separates the swimming area from a regeneration zone in which special plants such as cattails, rushes and irises thrive. They extract nutrients from the water and thus prevent the algae bloom. In practice, this regulator works only when the vegetation is fully developed. For the first two years and every spring you have more to do with algae than in the aftermath. But even then you should not expect a swimming pool with crystal clear water. If you want, you can also install powerful filters in a swimming pond, which capture most of the suspended matter. With suction devices on the water surface, so-called skimmers, and special vacuum cleaners, leaves, algae and modders can be fished out. Glass-fiber reinforced plastic mats instead of foil enable hard-shelled, steep wall profiles. This brings you to the feeling of splashing in a pool, then quite close.

If the risk of a pond is too high for small children, you can first have the hollow excavated at the designated place and use it as an adventure playground. If the kids can swim, you can finish the pond.Information on approximately 150 exporting companies nationwide at the German Society for Natural Bathing Waters, Tel. 070 00/700 87 87.

The space-saving alternative: the mini-pond

Even people who do not have that much space do not have to give up their private lake: a zinc tub, wooden tub, colored plastic containers or simply a large flower pot without holes in the floor - they all quickly turn into a small waterhole. Then select pretty pond plants, eg. B. the narrow-leaved marsh iris with white-green foliage and some marsh grasses. Simply place the plants in the container with the pots. It would be ideal if the tap water that you are now filling could be mixed with real pond water to create an optimal environment quickly. Now floating plants like shellflower and fairy moss can be added - and a water lily. She must be of delicate growth, such as Nymphaea pygmaea 'Rubra'. If still fresh flowers drift on the water, the seascape is perfect.

Trellis Fruit: How to make fruit on the wall of a house

Fortunately, fruit trees thrive in confined spaces. Because the growth power of the trees can be steered. To do this, you bring the shoots in the horizontal and brakes so targeted their thrust up. For this purpose, they are tied to trellises made of wood or wire ropes. Ideal are trellises on a house wall, which is illuminated for at least half a day by the sun. The bricks store the heat and ensure that the fruit ripens in almost Mediterranean conditions. Even peaches, figs and kiwis fill up with a sweetness that would otherwise be unthinkable.

However, only specially grown fruit trees are suitable. Typical are U-shapes, which look like a fork with two prongs, or palm-trees, of which all side branches protrude almost horizontally (see photo). Because the woody plants may spread only on two sides. Young trellises are available in good nurseries and garden centers. Remember that the plants also need a nutritious soil on the wall of the house. Mostly the foundation is surrounded by a lot of sand and debris. Therefore, you should dig out a large plant hole and fill up with good soil. The necessary regular cut is for experimenting garden enthusiasts. Let's have a gardener show you that. Over time, you will find out for yourself how the plant reacts, if you take this or that branch or if you fail to do just that.

Less elaborate and more suitable for beginners are all berry fruit species. They quickly forgive a wrong cut. Kiwis even only need a trellis. There, this creeper finds its way independently and delivers delicious fruit after three years.

Pergola: walk under flower-trees

Rose arches are pure romance - and very trendy: Climbing roses have sold better than ever in the past year. If you connect several arches, then it becomes a haunted pergola. The paths pass under flower garlands that filter the sunlight. In the garden of the Glaser family they smell partly sweet with ripe grapes and partly fresh like a flower meadow in spring. The lockers there have been made by a locksmith from four by four centimeters thick galvanized steel pipes made to measure. In the early summer, the light tunnels leading to the house are covered with delicate floral veils of the roses 'City of York' and 'Snowgoose', which are interwoven with the Italian clematis Clematis vitalba 'Alba Luxuriens' (see photo). The second arcade is covered by roses and clematis in pink tones. The substructures for pergolas, made of wood or steel, you can also buy in specialized stores. First, the supports must be embedded in the ground. Then the plants are added. Climbing roses usually develop strong, stiff shoots that shoot straight up. Usually, after a couple of years, the flowers are piling up at the apex of the arches, and the sides remain bare. To prevent this, the young, flexible shoots are spirally placed around the supports and some of them are almost horizontally tied to the crossbars. Thus, on the top of the prickly rods many new flowering shoots emerge, closing the pergola all around. Clematis weave their soft shoots in between. Their roots must never be exposed to the blazing sun. That's why they put them between other plants that shade them.