My new studio garden - Part 1: The construction phase

For the past few months, I've been planning a special garden project: transforming our own small city garden into a studio garden. Essentially, a show garden where I can demonstrate my garden design style and the potential of small gardens, and where I can experiment with plants, learn, and teach.

My goal is a climate-resilient garden. With lots of perennials and no lawn at all. And instead of one large area in the middle and flowerbeds around the edges, with different garden rooms that unfold as you walk through the garden.

An unconventional design, for the implementation of which I collaborated with landscape gardening expert Olof Schlittenhardt and his team. Construction began in early January, in the middle of winter. The lawn was removed, the trees and shrubs were pruned, and perennials were dug up.

When the garden lay like a blank canvas, the malleable Corten steel sheets (currently black – later they will develop their rust-red patina) were used to give the garden a new structure. Organic, rounded shapes create three additional seating areas and a comfortable pathway. And plenty of planting space – much more than before. The sheets protrude about 15 cm from the ground and were filled with fresh soil and compost. This provides the perfect foundation for the new planting, which will be done in early April.

More photos (including a before photo) can be found in my new newsletter "Greetings from the studio", which will be sent out in the next few days.

I will continue to report on the development of my studio garden and look forward to what will grow here.

Copyright photos & text: Maike Kristina Harich

Note: The places and people I present here are purely editorial selections made by me. No money is paid for publication and I wouldn't accept any either :-).