The Summer 2017 was short in Austria, ending with some cold rain in late August. The garden quickly shifted into its autumnal mode, after the temperature dropped. The three big news in our garden in 2017 are the new Dahlia flower bed, some hedgehogs joining the garden’s wildlife, and our new entrance door built by my hubby and painted by me.

The Dahlia Bed. The Dahlia flower bed separates our terrace area from the vegetable garden on the left, the Hedgehog City on the right, and the back garden. Prior to building the Dahlia bed, there was a huge hedge wall separating the terrace from the back garden. Practically, the back garden’s life was hidden behind the green wall, and at the same time, the roots of the hedge invaded the vegetable garden. The decision to cut the hedge, open the view on the back garden and save the vegetables, was a quick and easy decision made in Autumn 2016, and this Summer, I could already enjoy the Dahlias and their colourful blooming transformations. Sometimes, there was a woodpecker rambling around the old apple tree further back in the garden. I also saw  a little squirrel collecting apples and hazelnuts, and later on it started coming to the house and hiding nuts in our flowers pots.

In sum, the Dahlias brought a real sensation of colours and shapes that I would love to repeat in years to come. Watching them is absolutely relaxing, meditative, and worth all the effort which had been put in building the Dahlia bed.

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Building the Dahlia flower bed
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Here we brought our stone fountain in and planted mums (Chrysanthemums), just to have some flowers while waiting for the Dahlias to come
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The chair bought from Westwing.de
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The first Dahlias arrived
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Capturing the spectacle of colours
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The fountain added the sound of water and attracted some butterflies, bees and birds

At the beginning of October, Dahlias were still in bloom. The photos below were taken just before digging up their tubers and storing them for the winter.

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It is late October and temperatures dropped close to freezing over night
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Trees (in the background) are losing their leaves

Hedgehog City. We started feeding some hedgehogs in September 2016, after ordering a hedgehog igloo from the Austrian’ English Shop. It took two months before we noticed that food that we were regularly serving in the igloo started disappearing. We were happy about it, but not sure who was actually visiting the igloo. Rats or cats? Or real hedgehogs? Finally, in September 2016 we saw the first hedgehog confidently entering the igloo and enjoying the food. Oh my, our happiness was endless!

In 2017, hedgehogs continued their daily visits to the igloo, for feeding. At some point, we saw three of them in the garden, and decided to order another hedgehog igloo. This is how we started transforming a corner of the garden into Hedgehog City. Psssst! They recently went into their winter hibernation.

 

The Entrance Door. The inherited entrance door to our property was coloured in brown and built using some cheap wood, so at the time we moved in, the door had already started falling apart. Changing the entrance door was necessary and because my hubby recently fall in love with wood work and bought tons of tools, he decided to build the door himself. We both never have enough spare time, so building the new entrance door, including its colouring, was quite long process that took close to a year. Finally, in October 2017, we proudly installed our new door. Photos below! (click to enlarge)

 

Extras: The Edible Garden. Growing some new edible plants brought new colours and experiences, but not many edibles that we actually consumed.

 

Here are photos of some garden treasures decorating our home … and a lot of painting inspiration for me 🙂

 

We already look forward to new garden projects in 2018, e.g. to extend the frontal area of the garden and add Versailles plant boxes – more projects for hubby 🙂