Not a Beauty at All, But – Hopefully – Practical

I think almost every garden has ugly parts which are better not shown to the visitor.

Our "garden" has now only ugly parts because all our plants are packed or somehow prepared for the winter. Very few go into the staircase, the rest remain outside on the balcony.

I will show you our unsightly garden.

In this large bin are the youngest seedlings and those little plants which must not get any moisture during the winter (for example some Lewisia species):

The miniature rock gardens in the window boxes are placed simply on the floor, but protected from the rain splash by a foil. This "tent" is open on both lateral sides:

The small evergreen trees are wintering below the worktable. The winter sun can not harm them this way.

Two larger pots with Cyclamen coum and C. purpurascens are put in buckets, like this:

And everything else is sleeping near the wall, where they get no rain, only some snow in case of snowstorms (well, last year they've got a lot). These have not to be protected from frosts, only from our erratic winter precipitation and eventually from the winter sun. In case of frosty sunshine in January I cover all this cavalcade with tho layers of garden mesh, to protect the evergreen perennials from too much evaporating when the compost is frozen hard.