The last garden wall
With this wall, the garden was finished in summer after 16 years
In this last project in the garden, we finally closed the gap between the wall of the herb bed and the stairs.
Bricklaying is one of my - many - favourite activities. There are many reasons for this. One is perhaps that among my male ancestors and relatives 4 are bricklayers, another is that there is something contemplative, Buddhist in the sense of Lao Tzu, about bricklaying with small bricks. Small steps, always on, never stopping. A single person can achieve great things with them. The result can be very big and very beautiful. Many buildings in Wuppertal are made of bricks, most of them beautiful. My passion for bricks also shows in my painting, here of the large bridge over the Steinweg in Wuppertal-Barmen.
Small steps, never stand still
Brick walls in the garden
I find brick walls in the garden made of used stones beautiful, moreover, in contrast to concrete blocks, they age very well, are colonised by mosses and can be moved with manageable physical effort. For me, bricks represent a human scale in architecture, their surface is very varied, even in Germany there are a few different sizes besides the imperial format. Bricks are not heavy L-shaped bricks that only a crane can move. Walls built with lime mortar can later be dismantled and the bricks reused. In many parts of the country, bricks were burned in the summer before the harvest in the fields by the farmers under the guidance of a travelling brickmaker. Almost all the bricks in our garden are second-hand and have different pedigrees.
For this project, the used bricks come from the former Köhler distillery in Wuppertal Am Eichholz. Part of the warehouse there was demolished, and I was allowed to help myself generously to the very well-preserved bricks in the classic Reich format.
The wall that has now been built extends the wall of the herb bed and ends rounded and thus at a right angle on the stairs leading diagonally into the garden.
This is what it looked like in 2013. In the background, my son's building from leftovers.
Even in 2014, not much had been done here except for the stairs. The stairs form the beginning of the curved path to the house.
My eldest son had a small pond in the fallow land, which was then conquered by the lady's mantle, on the right in the picture.
At first, it was also necessary to pile up all the earth in one heap.
The left wall and the already finished right side complement each other beautifully in the swing.
The reason why the wall is rounded is that otherwise an ugly acute angle would have resulted. The area will be paved with greywacke.
In the garden, you can wall bad stones in the second row, no one but the worms will see.
Gute Steine werden vorsortiert, sie kommen auf die Sichtseite. An diesen Steinen hin nur wenig Mörtel, Dank Kalkmörtelbauweise.
From another perspective. The column in the middle was once available at Boesner. How the rosemary blooms.
The wall is ready, the very loamy exchange soil is enhanced with lots of compost and expanded clay in 3-5 grain size. The expanded clay makes the soil really permeable, so the sage also has a chance.
Guten und ergiebig mischen und noch den Graben zuschütten.
Almost ready for planting, the plants are already there.
Just cut off the foil, this protects the wall from too much moisture from the back.
The beautiful sage. I ordered it online because the "Ostfriesland" variety was not available in local shops, just like the yarrow "Cerise Queen".
The finished planted bed. The Montbretias shine beautifully in the backlight, especially in the afternoon.
My wife and I are both lovers of rather large areas of uniform plants and so we decided on a planting that partly repeats the other side of the path. These include the curry herb, which flowers beautifully and prolifically in our area, lavender, yarrow "Cerise Queen", blue irises, montbretia and deep blue ornamental sage "Ostfriesland".
tl, dr;
With the last garden wall, all the remaining construction sites are finished and the garden is finally complete, after more than 16 years of continuous work.
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