We can bee friendlier to the nature

One day to summerholidays and our kids from class 9a work for Oilpumkin and vine from Maribor.


The pumkinfield before started work.


During the clean up the pumkinfield.


The cleaned up pumkin field. Without the wildherbs the pumkins got more room for expent. More light, more minarals and more water (if it rain). In this way it have time to grow over the summer holidays.


Our vineyard before cleaning.


A part of our grapes. After one and half years of growing. The climate change make it possible.


The cleaned up Vineyard at the Orchard.


Our potato field at July after two weeks of growing. The wild herbs get room.


The same like the pumkins. The potatos get more space for growing.


Beside the pumkins we plant "Topinambur" but the leafs don`t look like that. But the asian potato grow and it will bee interesting what will happen to it over the summertime.


The plants on our stone wall love it`s place and grow including the wild herbs.


Also our wild herbs part of the Orchard growing actually fast.
After three years to bring inside seeds for special herbs to get higher in biodiverstity of wild flowers it started to work. It`s nice to to see how fast growing up the biodiversity of insects also.

After our journey to Maribor (Slovenia) we come back to Hamburg.
But our students not in school because of there internship.
As we arrived in Graz the students and professors of the biotechnic school of Maribor welcome us.
For that they used self drawed letters.
Actually they hang in our class to welcome our students after the internships.


The last; our last week before Maribor planted Galium odoratum grow also!


We wish you all a pleasend End of this school year and a wonderful und relaxing summer holidays!
Good luck for all!

We arrieved back from Maribor and take a look at our Orchard.
Grow our wine and grow our new plants of pumkins?
Here you can see the answer!


You can see that our pumkins grow and the wildherbs are so small that it`s not a concurent for the pumkins.


The most of the pumkins got more leafs for photosynthesis and started faster growing. We only lost two plants. We wait and hope.


And the wine looks also good. The hard work before our journey to Maribor be worthwhile. The wildherbs don`t got much space and the wine grow.


Out of blossoms got the beginning of grapes.
We wish us a good weather to let our plants grow.

This compliation of pictures showing you our work at our last working day before summer holidays at our orchard.
The last days of sun and a weekend with rain brought new energiy to our plants. The fruit trees to bear growing fruits.


This photo show our pumkin schoot last week.


The pumkin schoot to day. It had the first leaves.


We clean up the pumkin field from wild herbs and watering the pumkin schoots


We set up the crown at our natural stone wall. In this time we saw; a mouse (Microtus arvalis) run out of the stones, differnt kind of vespes (e.g.Latibulus argiolus, Ichneumonidae). Lats one put it`s eggs inside other insects. Butterflys (e.g. Inachis spec.).


We planted to day as crown; Lavandula angustifolia, Rosmarin (Rosmarinus officinalis) and Koriander (Coriandrum sativum). This kind of herbs will be using for tea and cockies.


At the both narrow sides of the natural stone wall we constructed lengthening of poor stones for reptiles and small mamalias (e.g. Anguis fragilis).


The vine growing and also the wild herbs wich we removed because of it`s concurence of water and light.



Last week we only had buds at our vine plants.


Today it had blossoms.


We let space for wild herbs to save bio diversity.


The wild herbs especially the Giersch (Aegopodium podagraria) is a wonderful larder for insect particularly for the honey bees (Apis mellifera)


Our heros of gardening at the last months.

We are glad and in exciting anticipation of our journey to Maribor (Slovenia) in the following week!!!!!

We wish all of you and us after all an amazing summer holidays!

Four years ago we started with the construction of our orchard and our beekeeping. We saw that bees need water, like all kind of life! We dig with students a well. It was wide but not deep enough for ground water. This summer was hot and the well felled dry.
A year later we can dig the well deep enough for the ground water. Since this time we have allways a little of water inside and enough for the life. In the last three years the life at the well had a detonate growing.

Our new well 2014
You can see that at the shores around the well the life don`t started.
By this time a lot of poeple used the well as litter box.


Our well now in spring. The whole years it was full of water. You saw that the frogs let there it`s eggs.
the shores are green but you cant`see the water plants because it`s leafs are at this time not outside the water.

Now after four weeks with temperature between 24 and 33 degrees with a drop of rain. you can see the litter and the plant and also the animals. The pollywogs get the first legs at the rearbody and the prick go shorter.


the actually water level is generated from ground water.


You can see also a water earphone.

I`ve you look right at the leaf in the middle, you can see a dragonfly (Zarte Rubinjungfer – Ceriagrion tenellum)


One highlight in time we cleaning up the well, was that nice following animal. Years ago it was brought from ducks. Now it having it`s own family. The piscicola geometra.

We are late but full of hope and power!
We started last week to cut the wildflowers on our potato field.


Today we leafed a parts of the hay and dig the field.


After all we plant schooted potatos.

Normally it´s need water, but we don`t have no water spring at our Orchard. We bring the water in bottles there. Our water we used for the pumkin seedings and the vine.
We hope that the weatherreport will be right and we get rain.
Inside the soil lines are the potatos.

Yesterday we heard that this may is the warmest since 1889. The weather ist silly. In Hamburg we have 32 to 34 degrees, In Nordrhein-Westfalen the roads under water our closed with torrent.
Aftewr the fished exams we had tim e to work hard on our Orchard and we have a lot to do.

In a second wave we sowing the pumkin seeds.


This week the schoots where high enough. When the seed stems lie on the edge of the pot, they become rotten and the seedling dies.


For this reason we have stretched elastic bands around sticks.

Last week it`s was to small for the garden and the gardenbed was not already.


Our students work hard to get a bed free from goutweed (Aegopodium podagraria).


Today we planted the pumkinschoots in the gardenbed after cleaning was finished.


They superimpose the schoots in the bed.


A ring of soil save the freshwater for the schoots.


Also the stonewall growed and had nearly finished last week.


This week the temperature higher than last week, but the students worked hard to day.

They set the wall apart for planting south european herbs.


The wall was filled up to the highest level with cleaned soil.

Last afternoon our students of the Start-Up GaLa had a presentation about our youth exchange between Maribor and Hamburg. They discribe our work and the differents between our schools and our kind of works.

This presentation is for the next Generation of Start-Up students in school year nine with the begining after the summer holiday 2018.

In the auditorium sitting Students, Teacher and parents.

It`s been the last two weeks really sunny. We had over 20 degree per day and less clouds.
The examination weeks found end. Today we gone at our orchard. Our pumkin shoots must be inside our house because we had nights under 10 degree (see the weatherreport).
The wild green grow fast. Water in ground and a lot of sun and the nature explode.

All our work we found under the new green.
Our work today was, to free the pumkin field and the vine and also let the natural stone wall grow.
The students are very powerful and full of happiness.



Now the pumkin field is free so that we can plant the shoots on next thurdays if the new grow fast.
In the other way the students get more feeling to build a natural stone wall.
All stones had it`s own history. Our stones are here in case of the last iceage. It´s rolling with the glacier from the north down to us took further to the south. Than the the world gone warmer, the glacier melted and borned the river Elbe trought the melting water. The stone rolling down with the river or get free from melted glacier in our sandy upland both side the river Elbe.

The farmer of the north of germany find/found the stones at there fields. Where it to be left, there don`t grow arable crops and the agriculture device got broken.
In this way the farmer bring the stones outside and beside there agriculture fields.
Over hundred of years this kind of natural stone walls was build all over north germany between the east and the west coast. Now it`s build a very importend part of north germany agriculture history and is very important to save rare Flowers, insects and animals. In the last three decades it was forbidden to bring out pestizids against wild flowers at the edge of the field.

We build the wall at the ground with the biggest stones as foundation. The upper stones are smaller but they have to lie alone one the foundation stones. We don`t use any concrete or other devices. We lie the stones so narrow as possible and there don`t will be big slots with space for soil. In this case its secure the upper flower patch from wild flowers.

After the first stacks we fill the soil in to stabilized the wall.

We had finished today e.g.60% of the stone wall. It will be finished if it get a height from 1,20 meters.
After all we hope that we can plant mediterran flowers like Thymiane, salvia and Rosmarinus officinalis.
All this plants we will use for tea and spice for our potato chips.
Also will life between the stones small insects, spiders, bees. The stones get warm from sun and in this case it`s interesting for reptiles. For birds and other animals it is like a restaurant.
Our last building site today was clean up the vineyard from wild flowers. You see it works.

Our new plants of vine started slowly but it life. The plants from last year started faster.

the free plant have now space to grow and no compittor around water, light and minerals in ground.

In different to Maribor we builded a Orchard with different kind of trees. The Idea was to construct a acre with place for a lot of different plants and in a consequence a lot of wild animals. No Lions but Insects, foxes, Birds and so on.
And yes, it`s works. You can find different and rare Butterflys, a duck had it`s nest in the gras. In our small lake we have leech, three different kind of dragongflys and a lot of grass frogs.


The spawn of grass frogs


Male and female grass frog. The upper one is the male.

This frogs will help save our culturplants because they live from insects.

And a lot of different plats help us to save water in the ground and give great insects like bees, spiders or butterflys a place to live, a children`s room and food.
Our vine and tress are thank it us.
The following pictures shows the same appletree between April and May 2018.

Apple tree at April 2018


Appletree in May 2018
You can see the effect of sun and higher temperatures. The wildflowers save the water in ground, so the trees can use it.
The tree live together with mycelium which remove minarals from the ground and the water, so that the tree can use it for photosynthesis and by end to grow and build wood and apples or plums,...
Also it change the biochemical structure in the ground and let other differnt flower grow and live, which don`t grow here without the trees.

And the sun let the blossom bloom.