Read stories and photos from people who hade planned and layed out their own gardens or outdoor space. The idea is to give you knowledge, inspiration and lessons learnt from other people’s experiences. There is one available story right now in this area and that is our own project. When we had finished building our house 4 years ago we started the next big project the year after, to plan our entire outdoor space with pool, terrace, lawn, plants, trees and flowers. Take part of our story here:
Our garden and house exterior
After we had finished our house building project it was time to plan the house exterior and our garden. We took our time to make a plan over the entire area and had some really good help from our family. My father-in-law knows alot about plants and gardens so we had good help and advice from him when deciding which plants, flowers and trees to buy.
Planning pool and terrace
All work with terrace and garden has taken time to plan and build. Now, 3 years later, we are finally starting to see the end result and it is so exciting to see how everything we have planned has turned out.
We have taken the work with stone walls, terrace and gardening step by step and it started already during the construction of our house where we prepared for the pool at the same time. We poured the foundation and a pipe was dug under the house that runs between the rock heat exchanger and the rock heat pump.
Stone terrace and natural walls
When we moved into the house, the plot consisted of a ski slope full of blasted stone. To be able to build a terrace and garden, we needed to support with walls in two levels and to do this we used all the blasted stone on the plot.
For the terrace, we ordered light gray granite stones that fit well with the wall and stone stairs.
The lawn
It took many days of hard work to get a nice lawn. The toughest job was to get the groundwork under the lawn in good shape. We ordered several large truckloads of soil and then there were a lot of boulders left that we had to move to get the ground leveled.
Once the groundwork was done, we could start rolling out the grass. This took us about 9 hours on two people. When we were done we had some grass left but luckily the neighbor needed some grass so it was not wasted
The pond
One thing we decided from the beginning was to keep the pond which was quite overgrown when we bought the plot. We dug it out and planted some new plants around the pond. Today, plants and animals thrive abundantly around the pond and it is a pleasure to just look at it. We also have salamanders that live in the pond and are very active in the spring. In Sweden Salamanders are protected.
Hornbean from Germany
When we were going to build the plot, we ordered a lot of trees and bushes from Baumschule eggert in Germany as it was much cheaper. However, it is only worth it if you order alot. The hornbean we got was very nice and today it has become big and plump.
Path in natural stone
Behind the house we have laid tiles in natural stone as a path in the gravel. Fits perfectly in the forest and mountain environment that surrounds the house.
The stone terrace
We finished the stone terrace a few years ago and light gray granit stones stretches around 3 sides of the house. It fits well with the stone wall and stairs in granite stones.
Shrubs and plants we chose to keep
On the plot there were some old apple trees which unfortunately were in too bad condition to keep so they went with the plot clearing. There was also a really beautiful old rhododendron that we chose to keep. As they like shady environments, we were a little worried that it would not work when we felled the trees on the plot, but it has done very well and is so beautiful! We also managed to preserve some really old lilies that were in the forest part of the plot. They were allowed to live temporarily with their father-in-law during the construction period, but then when we moved in we replanted them in the mountain pocket by the driveway. They smell fantastically good (as very old lilies do) and thrive in the mountain pocket together with some other lilies we have planted.
Flowers, shrubs and trees we have planted ourselves
We have planted a lot of new things in the garden and received a lot of help from the father-in-law to plan and plant the garden with beautiful trees, shrubs and flowers that suit the seasons.
Seasons and flowering
We have tried to think through how different plants bloom during the year so that we often have something that blooms in early spring or late autumn.
Our future projects
Soon we will start another project of building a new driveway and a garage with a little flat on top. Make sure to follow our continued journey by subscribing to blog posts and you will get all the latest on our new adventures 🙂