This garden is so creative!
Xiao Hao
The yard may be the final destination for many people. So when is the best time to start this home? I think it's in my thirties. It all started eight years ago.
I started growing flowers in 2015, when I was 26 years old, and I had a northeast-facing balcony of a few square meters, which lacked light and ventilation, and the plants grew up, flowered less, and had many pests and diseases (Figure 1).
Figure 1
This lasted for two years, and then I moved the plants to the roof of the public building. Living on the 16th floor, the public roof is on the 26th floor, the hardest thing is watering in summer, every day to carry a bucket of water in each hand, a full 80 pounds, back and forth three times, sweating to the point of collapse.
The roof of this public building has a strange structure, there are several meters of high walls around and in the middle, and there are multiple flues so that the light and ventilation are not very good, and there is a strong smell of oil smoke when it comes to meals, and the plants are mostly planted in the moon season, although they are often sprayed to prevent them, but all kinds of pests and diseases have never been broken.
The neighbors on the top floor were worried that I planted flowers on the roof of the building and caused water leakage, so they muttered to me from time to time; there were also people who stole flowers, pots, pruning shears or watering cans and other tools, and even some people took the whole pot of flowers away; some people complained to the property, and the property posted a notice to clean up within a time limit, so I moved to the neighbor's yard on the first floor, and then the neighbor was going to sell the house, so I moved back upstairs, and I also dealt with a lot of pain and low prices......
All these experiences did not make me give up raising flowers, every time I saw the germination, leaf development, branching, flowers blooming and falling, all the hardships and grievances disappeared and were cured. The seed of a dream is planted in my heart early, dreaming that I can have my own garden, so that I can use it by myself, no longer worry about pulling the skin, and it can also be easily watered and fertilized, so that I can free myself from heavy maintenance work and have more time and energy to enjoy the beauty of the garden (Figure 2-4).
Figure 2
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Figure 4
These are all plants that used to be raised on the rooftops of public buildings.
I never forgot it, there will be repercussions, and finally my character luck exploded, and in December 2019, I bought a house with a terrace within my own ability. At that time, the price of the lot was more than 20,000 yuan, because the developer took the land early, the land price was cheap, the approved price was about 16,000, and it was finely decorated, so it became the Internet celebrity plate at that time, there were more than 600 sets of houses, and more than 10,000 people participated in the lottery, and I was ranked No. 57! The orientation is the most important thing, the size represents whether it can hold my dreams, and the orientation is related to the light, which is one of the core elements of whether the plant can grow well. There is a big terrace outside this house, and it does not border with other neighbors, and it is southwest facing, although the area and type of the house are a little worse, but on the whole, it has undoubtedly become my first choice, and with the blessing of No. 57, I was successfully selected!
This terrace is the roof of the ground floor, there are two floors of shops below, the terrace is seven or eight meters above the ground, the first floor of this house is an overhead floor, the house number is the second floor, the whole terrace is bordered by the side of my house, facing the window of the second bedroom, not the neighbor (Figure 5). The house is 88 square meters, but the terrace is 130 square meters, 17 meters long and 7.5 meters wide, and the long side near the road side (also where the balcony and master bedroom windows are located) face southwest and have plenty of light (Figure 6). The terrace is mostly located in the middle of the two buildings and is well ventilated. There are also about a dozen square meters of open-air access to the terrace outside the balcony, which means that the area outside for me is about 140 square meters.
Figure 5
Figure 6
The corner of the terrace faces the window of the second bedroom of the building, with only a small window that can be ajar, and the high-definition surveillance camera installed by the property is facing the upstairs, which greatly reduces the risk of falling objects from high altitudes (Figure 7).
The area, the light, the ventilation etc met all my expectations for the garden.
There were two years from the purchase of the house to the delivery, and during these two years, the dream garden was presented in my mind with a clarity that I had never seen before, and I began to design this garden.
Terraces are no better than the ground, and there are many things to consider, the first of which is waterproofing, drainage, and load-bearing (Figure 8).
There are three large drainage outlets on the roof, and the developer has made a membrane waterproofing and cement mortar protective layer, and also made a drainage slope, but I am not at ease, and I have made a layer of membrane waterproofing, and the membrane is turned up and covered with the surrounding parapet walls, and then the water is closed for two days, and the downstairs ceiling is not flooded, and then the cement mortar protective layer is made, and the drainage slope is done at the same time.
I don't like the feeling of seeing the garden at a glance, which is like municipal greening, and it looks monotonous and boring. I like winding paths and secluded paths, changing scenery step by step, all angles are a beautiful scenery, but also have ups and downs, although there are only more than 100 square meters, but there must also be small slopes and levels.
Around the renovation of the garden, plus some renovation needs at home, there are 27 articles sorted out:
Balcony section:
1. The sliding door of the living room is removed, the door frame is wrapped, the color is similar to the wall, and the threshold stone at the bottom of the sliding door is the same as that of the living room;
2. Remove the balcony railing and make a sliding door;
3. The automatic curtain box in the living room is changed to the inside of the balcony sliding door;
4. The balcony is made of steps and tiles to facilitate going out;
5. Divert water from the living balcony outside the kitchen, wrap around the exterior wall to the terrace, provide water to the terrace, and at the same time go around the balcony to provide water for the washing machine;
Figure 9
FIGURE 10
6. Transform the water and electricity of the balcony to meet the needs of the washing machine (Figure 9-10);
7. The living balcony outside the kitchen is closed to make a window that can be opened;
8. Outside the balcony and the second bedroom, make a rubber-injected glass canopy, make the ground and parapet wall under the canopy waterproof, and the ground is tiled;
9. Make another layer of waterproofing on the terrace, cover the parapet wall, and make another layer of cement mortar protection on the waterproofing to find a good drainage slope;
10. In the plant planting area, from bottom to top, the root blocking layer, storage and drainage board, geotextile, ceramsite, and geotextile should be made in turn, and then filled with humus (Figure 11-13);
FIGURE 11
FIGURE 12
FIGURE 13
11. Electricity is drawn from the balcony to the terrace (Fig. 14);
FIGURE 14
12. Under the canopy and in the garden, arrange lights;
13. Do not make pavilions and brick walls in the garden to prevent illegal construction, make a 3×4-meter leisure area, support a Roman umbrella of the same size, arrange the operating table, tables and chairs under the umbrella, and the operating table is connected to water and electricity, and there is a washing table;
14. All parapets are sprayed with real stone paint;
15. Make a small water feature;
16. Make a tool storage cabinet;
17. The planter has high and low levels, and a certain edge is raised and widened to form an arc-shaped stone bench (Fig. 15);
FIGURE 15
18. Garden paths should be curved and natural (Fig. 16);
FIGURE 16
19. There should be flower walls, arches, and flower columns, and 5 arches along the curved road (Fig. 17);
FIGURE 17
20. Equipped with sprinkler irrigation and drip irrigation system, which can be controlled remotely;
21. Equipped with retractable water gun, convenient for manual watering and washing the ground and glass canopy;
22. Proportional pumps are installed on the main waterway of the garden waterway to facilitate fertilization;
23. The flue should be raised and cleverly hidden by arches, flower walls, etc. (Fig. 18);
FIGURE 18
24. The flower pond is tiled, other ground tiles, and different areas are matched with floor tiles of different materials, styles and colors, all of which must be non-slip;
25. Drainage should be done well, make full use of the three large drainage outlets on the terrace, and quickly lead the water from the flowerpond terrace to the drainage outlet and drain it smoothly;
26. At the junction of the passage outside the balcony and the terrace, make three layers of arc-shaped steps, and paste the bricks (Fig. 19);
FIGURE 19
27. To have a relatively large Chinese wood hydrangea and maple tree, in addition to the high and low level flower ponds, the soil in the larger flower ponds should be thick and thin, forming a slope, with wisteria, vines, shrubs, hydrangeas, clematis and other plants, and then with perennial plants, make flower glasses, flowers bloom at any time, there are four seasons of evergreen plants, and all seasons of evergreen vegetation paving (Figure 20).
FIGURE 20
After the concealment works and hard installation are completed, it is time to plant the plants.
I am in Chengdu, Sichuan Province, the winter is generally a few degrees to more than ten degrees, the coldest is about 0 °C but the duration is short, the wind is not strong, the air is not dry; in summer, more than 30 degrees is the norm, the maximum temperature is close to 40 °C, high temperature and humid weather, there will be heavy rain or even long-term rain. The two short sides of the terrace are bordered by the two buildings, that is, sandwiched between the two buildings, and the long side near the interior of the complex is covered with tall trees growing from the downstairs, which means that the sun from the terrace can only be seen from the top and the long side near the street. The sun starts to shine on the terrace at noon every day until the sun sets, and more than an hour of sunlight is blocked by the opposite office building on a winter afternoon. This terrace is not full of sunlight, and although it is not ideal for some plants that need strong sunlight, it is ideal for most plants, plus it is not a roof, and there is no need to worry about the plants tipping over, breaking or falling objects from high winds.
After having a sufficient understanding of temperature, humidity, light, wind, etc., you can consider the choice of plants, in the local flower market in the soil area (local nursery plant sales area) or parks, municipal greening can see the plants, that is, the local environment is more adaptable, you can boldly choose, for some inaccurate plants, you can check the relevant information on the Internet or a small amount of trial planting, can completely experience the extreme climate of winter and summer and then expand the planting. Most plants are not tolerant to stagnant water, so the soil selection should be as rich in organic matter as possible, avoid building slag or loess, this can be tested, continue to sprinkle water on the top, to see if there will be water, if it is easy to accumulate water, you can add fermented organic fertilizer, peat, coconut peat, coconut shell and other organic matter or large granular materials to increase the performance of soil looseness and breathability.
Because it is a terrace, it is necessary to consider the load-bearing, the soil thickness should not be too deep, the deepest is about 70 cm, so it is not suitable for planting tall trees, and it is necessary to avoid plants with very developed root systems and strong puncture ability to be planted directly in the flower pond, so as not to damage the waterproof, such as wisteria, triangular plum, etc., but these plants can be planted in pots, and other plants such as medium and short trees, shrubs, roots, grass flowers, etc. are suitable. Generally speaking, the taller plants are planted in the deeper the soil, and the tall plants are often used as the skeleton plants of the garden, so the construction of the planter is done after the plant layout is completed.
The layout of plants, or the design of flower landscapes, should consider the plant's demand for light, the depth of the root system, growth, morphology, whether it is evergreen, whether it blooms, the color changes of different seasons, and the coordination and unity of plants with each other, which is not a one-time thing. For example, for a local flower landscape, from the perspective of human ornamentation, the tall plants are planted in the back, the low plants are in the middle, and the creeping plants are in the front; the sun-loving plants are not suitable for planting under the trees; some plants can bask in the morning sun but cannot withstand the afternoon exposure, so they can be planted on the east side of the tree, and so on.
The garden needs to have a skeleton, with some tall shrubs and trees, and some structures together to form the skeleton of the garden, for example, I have a tall tree that grows from the first floor, stretching out some branches into the garden, and then I match the Chinese wood hydrangea, camellia, maple, bright leaf privet ball, wisteria trellis, four moon arches, a moon arch, and landscape walls together to form the skeleton of the garden.
I don't like bare soil, and in order to improve the water-holding capacity of the soil, reduce compaction, and reduce soil-borne pests and diseases, I use mixed lawn, panda violet, lover grass, Buddha beetlegrass, thin snow evergreen, alum root, gold-leaf road yellow, etc. In this way, even if it is a cold winter and a depression, there will be a large area of greenery and flowers.
Annual and perennial grass flowers, shrubs, trees, vines, clumps, lollipops, evergreen, deciduous ones, foliage ornaments, flower appreciation, fragrant ... · The variety of plants is constantly adapting and optimizing with adaptability, the gardener's aesthetics and preferences, and never stops. In order to facilitate the movement and appreciation, it is also necessary to add some potted plants, and choose suitable pots according to the color and form of the plants, such as hanging plants are suitable for taller pots, spherical plants are suitable for short and fat pots, dark green plants are suitable for light-colored pots, and so on. Try to put the pots with consistent materials, colors and shapes together, and the combination of high and low will make it look more neat and orderly.
After countless revisions, I finally came up with a plant planting layout (Fig. 21-22).
FIGURE 21
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This is what the plant looks like when it has just been planted (Figures 23-27).
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FIGURE 27
Behind all the good things are a little bit of hard work and dedication, repotting, transplanting, watering, fertilization, pest control, pruning, traction, replacement, replanting, hoeing, removing dead branches and leaves, replenishing soil organic matter, etc., if you want to be rich, move to change the scene, want to bloom continuously, into the picturesque eyes, these labor is essential. Plants are thirsty and hot will not cry, they will send out a distress signal through beating, yellow leaves, thinness, distortion and other performances, regardless of cold or heat, gardeners need to observe from time to time, pay attention everywhere, conform to the habits of plants to meet the needs as much as possible, find abnormalities in time and intervene in a targeted manner, the process of maintaining plants is also in the heart, raising a patient, meticulous, warm and loving heart.
FIGURE 28
I closed the house in October 2020, and after a year and a half of building, it has finally become my dream garden, so let's choose a name for my beloved garden. After thinking about it for a long time and discussing it with family and friends, I finally decided on "Beyond Time". Then you have to make a plaque for the garden, and after all, everything is like (Fig. 28).
This is what the first spring looks like (Figs. 29-33).
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This is what the first summer looked like (Figs. 34-36).
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This is what the first autumn looks like (Figs. 37-40).
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This is what the first winter looks like (Figs. 41-44).
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This is what the following spring looks like (Figs. 45-52).
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Walking in the garden, getting along with plants, the heart will naturally calm down, all the negative energy is purified by plants, living in time, wandering outside time, a flower, a grass and a world, stealing half a day of leisure.
There are many springs, summers and autumns, in the change of the four seasons, with the heart of going with the flow, not impatient, watching the flowers bloom and fall, with the flow of the years