Our apprentices have done great this year, securing second and third place in the best graduations in NRW.

What makes this achievement even more remarkable is the fact that our trainees supported each other in their learning. They formed a great team and motivated each other to do their best.

We are proud to have such dedicated and talented apprentices in our company. They are a role model for others and show that hard work and team spirit can lead to great success.

Congratulations to our apprentices on their outstanding achievements!

We are excited about their future successes and will continue to support them so they can reach their full potential.

Garden Design Day takes place in Oslo and is an annual event for anyone interested in garden design.

This year, Peter Berg has been invited as a speaker. He specialises in transforming seemingly impossible plots and slopes into exciting spaces by using stone and an exciting choice of plants. He introduced and inspired the participants to the art of stone setting and garden planning in his talk.

The enthusiasm of the participants was very high and they would like to visit some of the presented gardens in September.

Inspiring garden design by Peter Berg can also be found here:

To the projects

Garden designers among themselves! Peter Berg in interview with Carolyn Mullet!

Last summer – with pouring rain – we had a visit from the enchanting garden designer Carolyn Mullet and her “Carex Tours” travel group. Carex Tours organizes tours to gardens all over the world. Their stopover with us in the Ahr valley was a real experience and we met wonderful people. Garden connects! And of course we took the opportunity for a little interview, which you can now listen to on YouTube or here on this page.

By the way: On November 10th, Carolyn’s new book “Adventures in Eden” will be released – we are very happy that our slope garden will also be presented in it. Feel free to have a look at her Instagram channel, you’ll find all the details there. https://www.instagram.com/ccamullet/

We are now also on YouTube. Subscribe to our channel and look forward to videos about slope gardening, garden design & Co.

As every year, we use the collectively quiet time around the turn of the year to recharge our batteries, set goals and read good books. The new decade will be a challenge for all of us due to the rapid technological progress alone. This makes it all the more important to appreciate, preserve and enjoy nature in peace.

With this in mind, we wish you a happy 2020.

In summer 2019 our 3rd drywall workshop took place with the aim to teach and preserve this old craft.

Whether beginner or advanced, everyone had the opportunity to expand their skills and share their knowledge with the other participants. Special thanks to Steven Altigs, who captured some wonderful impressions from this workshop and created this video.

We are already planning something very special for 2020. Our 4th dry-stone workshop will be better than any holiday, with lots of know-how, good food and community – so stay tuned!

Originally, the garden planned and planted by Peter Berg and his team at the Arp Museum was a temporary project. At the end of 2019 the magnificent combination of natural stones, perennials and trees was to be dismantled to make room for something new. All the more reason for us to be pleased that it has been decided that this beautiful work will remain in existence for another year.

A few current impressions can be found here.

The stage for the house – the front garden

The front garden, designed with plants, is an optical highlight for every property, not only in the warm season. With a well-thought-out planting, this plot area becomes an effective presentation area. And this completely naturally and all year round. A combination of perennials, grasses and shrubs forms a perfect stage with added value, explains Peter Berg.

Indicators of the seasons

Of all the plants, trees and shrubs show us the seasons most clearly. They fulfil important functions at all times. Due to the lack of leaves, they let the full sun through in winter and show us their picturesque bark and structure. In spring their fresh green is a balm for our soul and lets us breathe a sigh of relief at their sight. “In summer they provide shade and reduce the ambient temperature. At the same time they store water and provide moisture,” explains the expert. With the use of mild autumn light and the reduction of photosynthesis, the leaves discolour. Now these power plants reward us with a fireworks display of colour that even surpasses the effect of perennials and grasses in summer.

The slower the development, the more valuable the wood

It is interesting to note that the slow-growing and particularly valuable woody plants also show special autumn colours. The family of the witch hazel family can be mentioned here as an example and dominates the front garden of Peter Berg. Two amber trees, an ironwood bush and a witch hazel stand here in a small area. This variety is completed by dogwood, girl’s pine and rock pear. “If you have the right shrubs and grasses in your front garden, you will be rewarded with a special fireworks display of colour in autumn,” enthuses the garden designer.

Take a look at this project with a living front garden! About the project

Cracow, Poland: From 18-19 October, Peter Berg was invited as a guest lecturer to the ELCA (European Landscape Contractors Association) conference.

In his lecture “Nature. Aesthetics. Design.” he spoke about the design elements he uses in his garden projects. Following the Japanese example, he uses natural stone, plants and water for an aesthetic and natural garden design.

Among the approximately 100 participants were well-known landscape architects, garden designers and students. The encounter with the English garden designer Jo Thompson (Best in Show Chelsea) was a special highlight.

In addition to the conference with top-class lectures, excursions to important parks and gardens were also on the agenda of the expert audience. Over the years, these excursions have developed friendships with colleagues in many countries, openly communicating and sharing expertise.

Cracow convinces among other things with good restaurants, much life at the river and an interesting surrounding field, with the proximity to the high Tatra. The city is not too big and does not have the uniform character of many modern cities.

The garden designer Peter Berg from Sinzig shows in a workshop how dry walls are created

Sinzig. “The most important part of my training is my own garden, which has always been my experimental field, source of inspiration and strength,” says Peter Berg. The Sinziger is a garden designer known far beyond the borders. He is regarded as an undisputed master of the modern European rock garden, as an experienced expert who juggles with rock and leaves plenty of room for the world of plants.

Nature, aesthetics, design are the world of the 62-year-old garden designer, who combines rough stone work with filigree planting techniques. Throughout Europe, Berg is on the move to pass on his expertise, which has long since penetrated the furthest corners of the continent. Now he invited them to his home. A five-day workshop was held in his home garden. Landscapers from Ireland, Austria, Northern Germany, Saxony and Bavaria came to learn in practice and theory how stone masterpieces can be created on a slope.

Peter Berg and his team of twelve had meticulously prepared the seminar. After all, the aim was not only to teach 18 workshop participants something, but also to make their stay in Westum pleasant. Some garden professionals came with basic knowledge and wanted to develop professionally, others had travelled privately to learn something for their own garden design.

Berg has laid out seven terraces on its 3000 square metre hillside property, which are connected by more than one hundred steps. Wine once grew there, today there are small viewing plateaus on the slope, seating areas with shelters, fireplaces, vegetable gardens and flower beds. Perennials and grasses provide additional eye-catchers.

The difference in height between Berg’s house and the end of the property is 40 metres. It takes a certain amount of courage to design such a site as a garden. For more than three decades, Berg has been active on his local mountain. Especially complex: stabilizing the soil.

The man from Sinzig, who laid the ground by hand at the Federal Horticultural Show in Koblenz or at the NRW State Horticultural Show in Zülpich and was also responsible for the Japanese garden landscape at the Arp Museum, uses graywacke and slate from the Moselle to build dry walls that are supposed to withstand the earth’s masses. These walls are up to one meter thick. The stones are piled up artfully, gaps are closed with native plants. In the quarry, Berg chooses the material that he will later use. Layer by layer is placed on top of each other, stone by stone is interlocked.

Berg shows his guests how this works in the workshop. One is visibly impressed there. It is hammered, cut to size, stacked and wrought. Berg gives tips, points out mistakes and gives advice on how to create a safe dry wall that is not threatened by collapse. “You only learn when you practice,” he says to the course participants, who gathered on one of the many viewing platforms after work to toast to what they had learned: Peter Berg had invited to the wine tasting.

Article in the General-Anzeiger, Friday, July 5, 2019
Author: Victor Francke / Photos: Gausmann