INTERVIEW: GUEST IN THE COTTAGE GARDEN PARADISE
There are these gardens that make you deeply happy.
Where every angle, every color composition and every planting simply appears successful and perfect. Andrea has a garden like that.
And it would be absolutely reprehensible to deprive you of this garden.
Rosensommer, Photo: Andrea Schmutz
An hour north-east of Munich, near Landau an der Isar, Andrea has created her (and my!!! ;-)) dream garden. A farm, in the middle of nature, and her garden has been flourishing there for 20 years now. Back then, her daughters were just five, three, two and the youngest had just been born.
Albertine left, Bleu Magenta and New Dawn right, Photo: Andrea Schmutz
Super Excelsa, Photo: Andrea Schmutz
Around 300 roses grow here on 3000 square meters of land - an estimated 150 different varieties. Andrea came to the farm after her marriage and planned and created the garden herself. And won an arduous battle against stinging nettle forests and blackberry bushes. But her efforts were so worth it. A breathtakingly beautiful garden was created.
Sarah : Andrea, your garden is magical and the rose seems to hold an important place in your life. Which roses are your personal favorites?
Andrea : That's a difficult question to answer... Albertine on my garden shed is definitely one of them, then maybe Pink Leda and Fantin Latour.
Duc de Cambridge, photo: Andrea Dirt
Sarah : What other flowers can we find in your garden?
Andrea : I really like larkspur, white mullein and goat's beard. I particularly like plants that reproduce on their own, like the lady's mantle, the columbine or the tall verbena (Verbena bonariensis). Nature itself creates the most beautiful plant combinations, and she also wants to have a say when it comes to garden design - and who knows, maybe she even knows better...
cottage garden, photo: Andrea Schmutz
Sarah : I often say that a perennial bed is less work than a well-kept lawn. I think I have to backtrack a little on that statement when it comes to your garden (and especially its size). How much time (I'm deliberately avoiding the word work because it can also be a wonderful, relaxing activity) do you spend working in the garden?
Andrea : It varies. In the spring, when I prune my 300 roses, I'm busy from morning to evening for about three weeks. Once a week, I need about four hours to mow the lawn. When the roses are in bloom, I spend about three hours a day (from 5 a.m. to 8 a.m.) cutting off dead flowers. Twice a year, trimming the lawn edges also takes a lot of time. On average, I'm probably busy in the garden for three hours a day.
Sarah : (briefly speechless)
Andrea : Not only does it look neater - when it rains a lot, the faded petals don't wrap around the new buds and stick them together. And it has the advantage that when the last rose has faded, I don't have mountains of work left. And I really enjoy doing this 'work'. I usually do it at sunrise, when everything is still quiet in the garden and my two cats Sid and Manni accompany me. I love this peace and quiet and enjoy it very much.
Constance Spry, left and right Laguna, photo: Andrea Schmutz
Sarah : Does everything have to be perfect in your garden?
Andrea : Everything doesn't always have to be perfect, that's not possible given the size of my garden. The garden is just too big, deer, moles, voles and hares are too active and there's never enough time...and I like things to be tidy, but also a little wild and romantic.
Sarah : Yes, I agree. Would you do anything differently if you were to start over again?
Andrea : If I could start again from the beginning, I would probably choose fewer English roses and more historic roses. The English roses are simply more sensitive to frost and after the first flowering they form annoying long shoots... overall they don't have such a beautiful growth habit. For example, the Graham Thomas.
Ballerina and New Dawn, Photo: Andrea Schmutz
Sarah : Which plants give you the least work?
Andrea : My easiest plants to care for are, for example, sedum, lady's mantle and hostas.
Sarah : And when do you prune your roses? In spring or autumn?
Andrea : I prune repeat-flowering roses in spring and once-flowering roses after they bloom at the end of June.
Photo: Andrea Schmutz
Sarah : You have such a beautiful rose garden, do you have a secret recipe for the fertilizer?
Andrea : I don't fertilize at all for the first three years because I want the rose to invest in its roots first and not in shoot growth. This way the roots search for nutrients deep down and form a strong root network. After three years my roses get a handful of compost in the spring, nothing else. And often only every other year. The more fertilizing you do, the faster the rose grows and the softer the leaves and shoots are...and therefore more susceptible to disease.
Albertine, photo: Andrea Schmutz
Sarah : Do you have a trick for this flower explosion? I often have a rose with lots of buds and I look forward to a sea of flowers - and then it gradually opens its flowers and it doesn't look as bombastic as, for example, in the David Austin catalog ;-)
Andrea : No, I don't have a trick for that. But I do have the feeling that with moderate fertilization, the rose invests more in flowers and less in leaves. For the first two or three years, I always try to develop the roots well, so don't fertilize and (even if it requires patience) don't let the rose grow much. I keep cutting it short so that it doesn't lose any strength as it grows upwards. I learned that from the deer (laughs). The roses that the deer kept short at the beginning often became even more beautiful later on. In addition, from the fourth year onwards, I cut off one or two old shoots close to the ground every year. This rejuvenates the rose and produces new green shoots that are firstly healthier (moisture and fungi cannot multiply on the smooth bark as they can on cracked, barky bark) and also flower more readily.
And - I usually plant each rose in groups of three.
Clematis Piilu, photo: Andrea Dirt
Sarah : Do you sow yourself?
Andrea : At first I got seeds from gardening friends and now the plants do it themselves. Aquilegia, columbine, foxgloves, verbena and lady's mantle generously sow themselves and paint a new picture every year.
Sarah : What makes you happy in the garden?
Andrea : The opportunity to create, to experience nature and the longer I look after my garden, the more I am in awe of our Creator, who thought of everything so beautifully and creatively. What could be more beautiful than to look after this creation, to design it creatively and just to be amazed?
Hostas in front, Rosa multiflora in the back, photo: Andrea Schmutz
Sarah : Does something in the garden sometimes annoy you?
Andrea : The circumstances that I cannot change. Long before I came here, buildings were demolished, the rubble was compacted and then about 40 cm of poor quality clay/loam mixture was piled up. In other places there are underground springs and a lot of waterlogging. So I often cannot design the way I want because it all involves a lot of effort. I often dig for an hour until a planting hole is deep enough for a rose, only to then come across a concrete slab. Then, frustrated, I fill the hole in again and start again a meter away. And then sometimes I get annoyed when deer eat their bites. Basically I love animals, but when the deer have once again eaten all the buds of a once-blooming rose, I sometimes get frustrated.
Sarah : Do you have any new projects planned?
Andrea : I don't have any new projects planned. But I say that every year, and then something else comes to mind. In general, I want to make the garden easier to maintain...you're not getting any younger ;-)
Sarah : How do you want to do that?
Andrea : Remove plants that are growing wild and need to be kept under control, or plant them in an area that they can occupy without being disturbed. Combine some of the islands in the lawn into a bed so that there are not so many lawn edges. This also makes mowing the lawn easier. And even though I sometimes find it difficult to part with roses that are stunted and constantly sick, I have also removed box hedges (some of them were already infected with fungus) because pruning the box takes a lot of time. Instead, I have built small walls out of old bricks. They are easier to maintain.
Sarah : What about the typical rose diseases and pests?
Andrea : I tend my rose garden without using any pesticides. A good cut and moderate fertilization help prevent leaf diseases. I hardly have any problems with pests; aphids are often eaten by tits, wasps and ladybirds.
A garden is a good training ground for learning patience, serenity and also humor.
Sarah : What a lovely closing sentence. Thank you so much, Andrea.
In the background Mme Hardy, photo: Andrea Schmutz
Elmshorn (left), Bonica and in the background Albertine, Photo: Andrea Schmutz
Leonardo da Vinci, photo: Andrea Dirt
RememberRememberRemember
