ᐅ Garden Photos Chat Corner

Every year, birds nest in the grapevine at my parents' place. Below it is Katzingers’ favorite sleeping spot. Every year, the Katzingers get a bit ruffled and look for another place. This has been going on for generations of both cats and birds.

The planting mix sounds good too. I like that something is always missing. In the areas of natural landscaping and low maintenance, there is so much variety.
My small prairie-style flowerbed is also really low maintenance, even in its first growing season.

Climbee schrieb:

Sounds great! Looking forward to the photos.

There are several of these perennial plant mixes – as I said, we have "Fire and Flame." They were scientifically developed at a university with a focus on being natural, low-maintenance, and always having something in bloom. There are various mixes for different locations and requirements. In autumn, we also add bulbs; right now just wasn’t the right time to plant them.

I also got a flowering calendar where I can check the names of plants that are currently blooming or, conversely, look forward to what’s going to bloom next month.

My brother has a blackbird’s nest in his espalier pear tree. He says he’s slowly getting used to getting attacked by an excited blackbird every time he steps outside *g*. Apparently, she still hasn’t learned that he means no harm and constantly defends her nest. But well, poor choice of location. I wouldn’t pick a tree right next to a house entrance!

Should we be worried that your brother has a blackbird’s nest in the pear tree? Oh, that reads so nicely...

Climbee schrieb:

But the 1.2m (4 feet) next to our carport really disturbed our privacy.

Strange... you criticize the short reed mat your neighbors put up... On your side, I see a huge wall. Including the L-shaped retaining blocks on the neighbor’s side, it must be about 3 to 4 meters (10 to 13 feet) high, right? As a neighbor, I would definitely be unhappy about that.

Steffi, this structure was built exactly where the paranoid neighbor wanted it. I didn’t need it, but we just wanted peace—though it seems we won’t get it anyway.
Today, I really wonder why we spent a high four-figure amount on it. She wanted a privacy screen (“as high as possible!!!”) and demanded that we take care of it, saying there was absolutely no space on her property. In fact, she has just as much space as we do.
Honestly, she could have done it herself—we aren’t paranoid...
Anyway, it’s done. And looking at this screen, it was probably better that we handled it ourselves. Who knows how it would have turned out otherwise...
But she’s the type of person who says, “I want it this way,” and expects everyone else to make it happen according to her wishes. Unfortunately, we let ourselves be pushed around out of a misplaced sense of neighborliness.
Anyway, it’s finished. At least it was done properly. Otherwise, we might have ended up with a willow screen on either side...
It was done with her explicit written consent. Without that, we would have stuck to the permitted 2m (6.5 ft) height following the land contour.
That was actually my plan because I didn’t want to argue with her anymore, but our gardener wanted it to look “nice” and got the signatures.

Our green manure is starting to bloom, and the bumblebees love it. We have planted almost 200 m² (2,150 sq ft) with it to improve the soil, as we couldn’t think of a better option at the time. Otherwise, the area would have been left fallow, and the weeds would have grown even more.

I think that’s great! Our neighbors had a beautiful poppy meadow as green manure before planting their tomatoes. It was really lovely and full of buzzing insects.