Gravel garden
A gravel garden is a large area of garden covered with stones , in which the stones are the main design element. Plants do not occur or only in small numbers, if they are, then often artificially designed by strict shape cutting. Broken stones with sharp edges and without curves are often used as stone material ( gravel ); rubble , gravel or chippings can also be used for the same style . The term serves to distinguish it from classic stone and gravel gardens, in which the vegetation is in the foreground, and was coined in this sense by studies, media and initiatives.
The main goal for the creation of gravel gardens is a garden area that is perceived as tidy, while at the same time expecting little maintenance. They can be distinguished from:
- classic gravel and rock gardens : stones as a substrate for alpine or drought-affine vegetation, as well as for soil emaciation.
- Xeriscaping : landscaping adapted to dry climates with the aim of avoiding artificial irrigation.
- Japanese Kare-san-sui gardens (“Zen gardens”) with extensive gravel surfaces raked into undulating patterns, in which the treatment as meditation plays a central role.
In contrast to the gravel garden, plants or cultural backgrounds play a central role in these garden types; Creation and maintenance are with z. T. associated with considerable effort. Since plant growth in gravel gardens plays only a minor or no role, it is debatable whether the areas designed in this way can even be classified as gardens.
use
Gravel gardens are mainly laid out in front gardens that are open to the public , but also on previously greened areas in traffic areas, in front of companies and public buildings. In these areas, a tidy and representative appearance is in the foreground; Recreation, nature experiences or nature conservation are of secondary importance. Surveys also suggested that a significant proportion of the owners do not find these areas to be aesthetically pleasing themselves, but rather meet other people's expectations and do not want to offer a target for the accusation of an unkempt garden.
layout
So that gravel gardens do not quickly overgrow with unwanted plants , a fleece is laid over the ground, which prevents plants from growing; in some cases foils or concrete are also used. Depending on the type of investment, the soil is removed to a depth of half a meter and replaced with a corresponding volume of rock.
Often rocks of different colors and shapes are combined. Large stones, boulders and artificial stone pillars should represent focal points. There are also other artificial elements such as metal balls and lamps. Gabions , mesh baskets filled with stones, are often used instead of walls or hedges . Fences are typically made of metal rod mats, into which plastic strips are sometimes woven as privacy screens. By printing a stone pattern, the appearance of gabions can also be created.
Statues and sculptures based on works of art are also often set up. In less professionally created systems, inexpensive decorative objects from hardware stores or the decoration trade are often used for this purpose. Some decoration variants , such as Buddha figures or Yin and Yang symbols, should allude to Asian gravel gardens.
In simple cases, only smooth surfaces are covered with stone of the same type, without any focal points or color designs. Boulders, buckets and other objects should then primarily prevent driving on or parking on the areas.
planting
If there is any planting at all, one tries to achieve a visual effect with just a few specimens. The plants are either placed in cut holes in the floor fleece or in planters. Shrubs, box and conifers, as well as bonsai plants suitable for topiary are used. Tall grasses and, occasionally, also lower, classic dry plants such as sedum plants are used.
Origins
Horticulturists see architectural designs in representative large-scale facilities that should emphasize architecture and architectural works of art as inspiration for the gravel gardens that emerged in the 21st century. In 2006, the artist Wolfgang Göddertz succeeded in replacing the planting of pansies with gravel on a roundabout in Wesseling , on which his work of art “Rheinwellen” is located, which aroused resentment. Like a small town front garden, he found the design “kitschy”.
The garden design with strict, straight lines and absolute subordination of the vegetation is often combined with a retro-modern architecture, which is often marketed as Bauhaus style in advertising by architects . This architectural style experienced a significant renaissance after 2000. In fact, however, housing estates of the Classical Modern period often have a high degree of greening, e.g. B. with gardens that should enable as much self-sufficiency as possible (e.g. in the Celle settlement Blumläger Feld by Otto Haesler and in Frankfurt settlements by Ernst May ), the design of garden areas with loose rock was not typical.
Today's gravel gardens were almost sensed in a filmic parody of Classical Modernism: The Villa Arpel is architecture with a characteristic gravel garden in the film My Uncle by French director Jacques Tati from 1958. A miniature of the film set has been preserved as a museum piece.
Ease of care
In gravel gardens, unwanted vegetation should be prevented from the outset by removing the soil that enables growth. However, after a few years, soil, suitable for germination, will form from dust, leaves and other organic material above the soil fleece, and plant seeds will be blown in. To delay this process, regular cleaning of the surfaces, for example with a leaf blower, is necessary. The removal of the weeds between boulders is made much more difficult, so that they can be controlled alternatively by scarfing or, illegally, by herbicides . Particularly in damp, shady locations and on light-colored rocks, an annoying patina of dirt and algae forms, which must be removed by aggressive chemical or mechanical means such as high-pressure cleaners. The plants used are not always adapted to the hard, desert-like microclimate on the stone surfaces and must be maintained with additional care. The commonly used for topiary book is by introduced pests become extremely costly care and diseases.
Garden guides sometimes recommend replacing the gravel surfaces after around 10 years, and sometimes even after three years.
criticism
The frequent occurrence of such gravel gardens caused strong criticism from private initiatives and nature conservation associations, as well as critical media reports. The focus was on the designs perceived as dreary and ugly, which are mostly in clearly visible areas, the extensive ecological worthlessness and the influence on the local microclimate. The stone surfaces heat up strongly when exposed to sunlight and store the heat into the evening hours. By eliminating the evaporation of plants, the humidity drops and the cooling effect is eliminated. Particularly when such areas occur more frequently in built-up areas, it is assumed that the surrounding area will be more hot in summer and drought.
The initiative "Save the front yard" of the Federal Association of Gardening, Landscaping and Sports Field Construction has been promoting green front gardens instead of gravel gardens since the beginning of 2017 and has announced a journalist competition for this purpose. The “Entsteint sich!” Campaign by the garden culture foundation from Illertissen encourages garden owners to symbolically hand in stones and commit themselves to converting them back into green spaces, for which material is also given.
Since 2017, the initiative Gardens of Horror by the Berlin activist and biologist Ulf Soltau has been using mainly gravel gardens with photos in a satirical pillory (also on the Instagram and Facebook page of the same name).
State regulations
Because of their environmental impact, gravel gardens are the subject of regulatory efforts. In most cases, they should be contained with the help of existing or new laws. There is a conflict with private property and free disposal over it.
Local development plans
For new development areas, local development plans are determined how building plots are to be designed. The increasing debate about gravel gardens led to cities banning their construction and demanding greening or horticultural design. Such regulations have been implemented in Heilbronn, Xanten and Halle in the Gütersloh district, among others. Pre-existing buildings are not affected by this. Also Herford and Paderborn have begun gravel gardens in development areas by means of the development plan to ban. In Dortmund , a corresponding proposal has caused political conflicts.
Historical plans and designs can also be enforced through monument protection if necessary. According to the Düsseldorf Administrative Court, two elderly residents of a listed garden city settlement were not allowed to cover the entire front garden with gravel in order to facilitate maintenance.
State building regulations
In the state building regulations of most of the German federal states, a water-permeable design and greening or horticultural design are required for undeveloped or otherwise not permitted areas.
In April 2019, the state government of Lower Saxony replied to a request from the Green parliamentary group in the state parliament that a gravel garden laid out in front of the tax office of the city of Hameln violated the state building regulations. Thereupon the dismantling and the conversion into a green area was announced.
In Baden-Württemberg in July 2020, due to an amendment to the State Nature Conservation Act, gravel garden areas were expressly prohibited, whereby the law refers to the previously existing state building regulations. With reference to the state building regulations, the Ministry of the Environment also described older gravel gardens as illegal. The State Nature Conservation Association of Baden-Württemberg had therefore already declared gravel gardens illegal in October 2018. The Baden-Wuerttemberg Ministry of Economics objected to a general illegality due to the state building regulations, prior to the amendment of the Nature Conservation Act, and thus also an obligation to dismantle previously built systems; In individual cases there could also be permissible uses with stone surfaces. A judicial clarification is not yet available.
Built-up area in terms of the building use ordinance
As a measure of structural use, municipalities specify the maximum proportion of built-up areas, the so-called base area number . For the base area number, gravel areas can be counted as developed. According to a ruling by the Hanover Administrative Court on November 26, 2019, extensive gravel or gravel areas are considered ancillary structures within the meaning of Section 19 Paragraph 2 and Paragraph 4 of the Building Usage Ordinance because they cover the ground. This also applies to designs that can be infiltrated. There is no provision for the sealing to be only partially offset, as is the case with rainwater charges. Because the permitted built-up area was exceeded, the city of Wunstorf was able to request the demolition.
Sealed area with the rainwater fee
For rainwater runoff, fees are charged according to the degree of sealing of the connected areas. The regulations are determined differently from place to place. In most municipalities, paved gravel and gravel areas are considered to be partially sealed and are therefore, in contrast to green areas, charged with fees if water can run off into the sewer system. If impermeable sheeting, concrete or asphalt is used instead of a water-permeable floor fleece for gravel gardens, then there is full sealing.
literature
- Ulf Soltau: Gardens of Horror. Eichborn Verlag, 2019, ISBN 978-3-8479-0668-1 .
Web links
- Evi Rothenbühler: Gravel Gardens and Landscape. Dynamics - Actors - Instruments , thesis, February 2017 (PDF, 54 pages)
- "Pitted yourselves!" Campaign (forwarded to "Promoters of garden culture")
Individual evidence
- ↑ Karla Krieger, On the sense and nonsense of the stone and gravel gardens Stadt + Grün, 03/2016
- ↑ Evi Rothenbühler study gravel gardens and countryside , University of Berne, 27 February 2017
- ↑ Stone yourselves! Presentation of the campaign at the Rhineland-Palatinate Garden Academy
- ↑ Evi Rothbühler, Chapter 4.4, Study of Gravel Gardens and Landscape , University of Bern, February 27, 2017
- ↑ Gravel garden, but really Grünes Medienhaus, March 15, 2018
- ↑ Margret Klose That is one unreasonable imposition Kölnische Rundschau, May 19, 2006
- ↑ Jennifer Seidel Controversial roundabout: "The most beautiful gravel pit in Wesseling" , MSN, March 5, 2020
- ↑ Prevent, tolerate and remove weeds in the garden , Federal Environment Agency
- ↑ The stone bed correctly laid out deingruen.de
- ↑ gravel bed create self - instructions and planting tips Gartenlexikon.de
- ↑ Torsten Stender Creating a gravel bed: This is how you create a small stone oasis egarden.de
- ↑ Elke Schröder, Stones displace plants - displeasure with gravel gardens Neue Osnabrücker Zeitung, June 10, 2017
- ↑ Federal Association of Gardening, Landscaping and Sports Field Construction , Save the Front Garden , January 2017
- ↑ Garden Culture Foundation, pitted yourselves! , Illertissen, Germany, accessed July 25, 2018
- ↑ Annette Clauß, Green Oases instead of Stone Desert Stuttgartern Nachrichten, September 12, 2018
- ↑ Julia Lörcks, Xanten helps the bees. The new regulation for the front yard RP Online, May 1, 2018
- ↑ Anja Hustert, is there a threat of a ballast ban? Neue Westfälische, October 8, 2018
- ↑ Andrea Diener: Stones instead of snowdrops , FAZ, January 20, 2019
- ^ VG Düsseldorf, 25 K 5815/12 , February 1, 2013
- ↑ LBO Baden-Württemberg §9
- ↑ BayBO, Bavaria, Part Two, Article 7
- ↑ BauOBln Berlin, §8
- ↑ BbgBO Brandenburg, §8
- ↑ BremLBO Bremen, §8
- ↑ HBauO Hamburg, § 9
- ↑ HBO Hessen, §8
- ↑ LBauO Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, §8
- ^ NBauO Lower Saxony, §9
- ^ BauO North Rhine-Westphalia, §8
- ↑ LBauO Rheinland-Pfalz, §10
- ^ LBO Saarland, §10
- ↑ SächsBO Saxony, §8
- ↑ BauOLSA Saxony-Anhalt, §9
- ^ LBO Schleswig Holstein, §8
- ↑ ThürBO Thuringia, §8
- ↑ Rock garden at the tax office has to go Deister-Weser-Zeitung, dewezet.de, April 15, 2019
- ↑ Lower Saxony State Parliament, printed matter 18-3486 Answer from the Lower Saxony state government to the gravel garden at the Hameln tax office, April 15, 2019
- ↑ NatSchG §21a law of the state of Baden-Württemberg for the protection of nature and for the care of the landscape
- ^ Ban in Baden-Württemberg - What happens to older gravel gardens? T-Online, t-online.de, July 28, 2020
- ↑ Gravel gardens are illegal Landesnaturschutzverband Baden-Württemberg eV, October 30, 2018
- ^ Alfred Wiedemann, Forbidden in Cities? Dispute over gravel gardens Südwest-Presse, swp.de, November 5, 2018
- ↑ Baden-Württemberg prohibits gravel gardens
- ↑ Ludger Jungeblut Wietmarschen makes the creation of rock gardens more difficult Neue Osnabrücker Zeitung
- ↑ VG Hannover 4 A 12592/17 - construction supervision removal and dismantling order
- ↑ §19 BauNVO
- ^ Sven Sokoll, City must not allow gravel garden, Hannoversche Allgemeine, haz.de, November 27, 2019