This is how landscape architects save your garden

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This moment comes at some point in any hobby gardener's life.

The plants that have been cared for for years have finally lost their shape.

The terrace is too small in the long run.

There is utter confusion in the herbaceous bed.

And then there is also this drought - an irrigation system is needed.

But who dares to start all over again when you've invested many years of arduous work in the in-house green?

Most gardeners work half their lives with the same shapes and a consistent garden architecture.

One or the other perennial is exchanged, a few flowers are transplanted.

There are usually good reasons for this, after all, the shape of the plot and the development set narrow limits in terms of design.

In addition, there is a need for privacy screens at one point or another.

Nevertheless, there is usually enough space left on which to experiment.

Just - how should you go about it?

Countless specialist books on garden design are on the market.

But mostly it is more about collections of ideas.

There are a number of guides for the small front garden, for the “city garden”, for the natural or shadow garden and hundreds of works on all aspects of botanical science.

The works are certainly helpful for individual projects, for example for a new perennial bed or the terrace design.

But your own garden as a whole usually looks different than in literary theory.

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The same applies to the half dozen digital garden planners that are on the market.

Hardware stores such as Obi or Hornbach, for example, have put simple online advice on their websites.

However, if you try them out, you will quickly reach certain limits.

In the end, it is a product guide that should bring the in-house patio furniture, bed borders and plant assortments to the gardener or the house owner.

The obi bed planner, for example, is downright disappointing and only shows a few variants of a tiny plant corner next to a terrace.

Experts do not want to reduce themselves to gardens

You will also find what you are looking for at Gardena.

But with the European market leader for garden tools, you are not instructed to new aesthetics either, but end up in the company's own product world.

The Gardena online planning tool is technically well made.

Users can draw in existing structures and plantings in order to be able to plan the optimal irrigation with Gardena irrigation products - in a level of detail that other planners do not offer.

But new ideas for garden design: nonexistent.

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If you really want to start from scratch, you should therefore consider hiring a professional planner.

It doesn't have to be expensive, there are definitely different prices.

Some garden architects or landscape architects, as they officially call themselves, agree to an on-site consultation.

Usually after two to three hours you have a professional sketch, a new room layout and specific design topics.

You should expect costs between 25 and 30 euros for each quarter of an hour of consultation.

Including travel to and from the hotel, this costs EUR 300 to 400.

There are around 7,000 landscape and garden architects in Germany.

They mostly just call themselves landscape architects because they don't want to be reduced to gardens.

And they are only allowed to call themselves that if they are registered in one of the 16 chambers of architects.

There they have to prove a corresponding degree and several years of practical experience.

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They rarely have a horticultural company themselves, but hire one themselves to implement their designs.

Garden architecture providers can be found for each federal state on www.bdla.de, the website of the Association of German Landscape Architects.

Articles are also gathered there that are generally understandable and comprehensible as contributions from experts.

You can make something out of every garden

The Swiss landscape architect Dieter Kienast says it in times of densification, combined with the necessary dismantling of allotment garden colonies: “The garden is the last luxury of our days, because it demands what has become most precious in our society: time, attention and space . "

The costs of a consultation are regulated in the “Fee schedule for architects and engineers” and are divided into nine phases.

The first “small” consultation is calculated based on the travel time and the hourly wage.

In the case of construction costs below 20,000 euros net, the fees are freely negotiable - but in such magnitudes, it is also more about completely new systems.

The garden architect usually brings sketches and pictures with him, ideas and one to three variants are developed based on the examples and a cost estimate is included.

Example: If the cost of a system is estimated at 10,000 euros, the net fee for the garden architect with full planning would be around 5,000 euros.

But it is also cheaper, many garden owners usually only hire the experts for one or two work phases.

Thilo Folkerts, a landscape architect from Lower Saxony, has an office in Berlin.

He was allowed to design the Villa Massimo in Rome, but has also loved gardens since childhood.

"You can make something out of any garden plot with the right choice of plants," he says.

“But in our increasingly complex world, more and more people want an easy-care garden.

They tend to be sturdy plants and evergreens.

This also results in unattractive gardens.

Mosses, ferns, grasses, coltsfoot and funkie would be better.

The latter is a lily plant with large leaves through which numerous veins run parallel and from which flowers grow in clusters, bluish or white.

A wonderful sight. "

"Leaves make sober people rave"

In Folkert's view, a horticultural architect is there to encourage garden owners to experiment.

“I encourage that,” he says.

“If you are facing west, you could plant vines, if you are facing north, ivy is best.

With southern exposure, it shouldn't just be roses and lavender so that it smells south.

There is also witch hazel, pipe bush or wig bush, willow, spar bush or butterfly lilac.

In our gardening culture we have sixty different species to choose from, and biodiversity is good for a garden. "

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Nature educators tend to have a bit of pedagogy.

“Whether someone owns a large garden area or only has space for three plants on the window sill - that's the same,” emphasizes Folkerts.

“There are just very different questions and the costs are very different.

But if someone cares about nature, that is a value in itself.

Those who try also reach their limits, even fail, but the effect of learning in them is great.

Gardening means risking something, it is a vital function. "

In 2018 Thilo Folkerts was invited to a project.

A factory from 1890 with workshops and offices in solid brick-brick buildings, but also three small courtyards in Berlin's Prenzlauer Berg district, was converted into a residential property on 3500 square meters.

“I saw walls and parts of buildings, an exciting sequence of close situations,” he says.

“It was immediately clear to me that the outside space had to be developed from the walls.” The owner of the property gave no design specifications.

Folkerts checked the nature of the soil and the changing light conditions on the site “to know which plants to plant.

We mainly work with perennials and grasses, accentuated by a few trees. ”Permanent evergreen plants were used.

“It can bloom beautifully in this location, but the more permanent effect throughout the year is the tree foliage.

The leaves make even sober people rave about it. ”What is meant is the texture of the leaves and the different shapes of their growth.

The garden architect wanted to keep the remains of old plants on the brick walls.

“We kept it despite the extensive renovation of the brick surface - an experiment that succeeded.

We planted wild vines on a long side wall.

Twice a year, a gardener with expertise should carry out basic maintenance of the system, nothing more is necessary.

The overall design did not cause high costs. "

This article was first published in April 2019.