A dream garden house? Potsdam in summer..

The other day I was by chance looking again at a picture folder of a work project that I have been working on since September last year 2012. The project relates to a historical iron truss structure, on which my colleagues and me have performed some in-situ tests. So what could be the correlation between that and this post? I'll tell you shortly. The story is the building of the truss structure is located in the nice city of Potsdam, about which I have written a post not too long ago - romantic peaceful city of Potsdam partly covered in snow, during my 'officially' visit of the city on the Easter holiday (April 2013). What I mean by the word 'officially' in the above sentence is that before that trip, I have been to Potsdam several times for my work but not actually looked around the city. Luckily enough, on one of the trips before, I also got a chance during a short lunch break to go to a special place named "Denkmal Karl-Foerster-Garten" (translated as monument Karl-Foerster garden). This I must credit to my colleague who knows more about the city than me and drove us to the garden. Generally I would also include this place and its photos into the post for Potsdam that I have created, but I simply forgot that I have been to such a nice garden house. Nevertheless, I am happy to look at the photos again and decide to make a separate post for a probably 'dream green place to live in'. What also special is that from the other post, it was during the winter time with cold gloomy weather and white snow. But in this post, you will also experience a part of Potsdam in summer time with warm bright weather and as I have mentioned, it would be a good idea to visit the city when the sun shines! ;-)



"Denkmal Karl-Foerster-Garten"

"After Karl Foerster moved with his nursery 1910-1911 from West Berlin to Potsdam-Bornim, since around 1912 the house garden worlds emerged that made the district of Potsdam Bornim world known as "Worpswede Garden designer". It is probably no coincidence that Karl Foerster has settled here, on the edge of open fields, the Peter Joseph in the 19th Century designed. Opposite the gates are the old oak trees catch the coach house robbery, a forest, in which earlier was able to provide the cattle. The Foerster Garden is now an attraction for garden lovers alike as for the international scientific community." (source: potsdam-wiki.de)



"Karl Foerster wanted to demonstrate the diversity of herbaceous and woody plants, which takes into account each plant as an individual being. The original garden saw six thematic areas: Sunken Garden, Spring Lane, natural garden, Herbstbeet, rock garden, and experimental garden. He combined with perennial flower bulbs, grasses and shrubs and they grouped so that there is every season featured areas." (source: potsdam.de)




"The garden has been rebuilt several times: In the 30s Hermann Mattern put the terracing of the Senkgartens on by dry-stone walls, made in the years 1960/61, a further revision by Hermann Göritz, and in 1983 designed again Göritz with Peter Herling individual areas new. Since 1981, the garden is called "Karl Foerster Memorial". For the Federal Horticultural Show 2001, it has been reconstructed as a memorial garden. Hundreds of plants have been grown, alone nearly 70 delphiniums." (source: potsdam.de)

Potsdam - a "little Versailles" romantic peaceful city

Potsdam is known as a nice romantic city near Berlin. Having stayed in Berlin for nearly one year and a half, but like a 'habit' of not sight-seeing our own city, only until this Easter holiday, combining with a visit from Dustin's brother to Berlin so we liked to take him around, we decided to make a day trip to the charming city Potsdam. Only that the weather was still quite cold and gloomy. It seemed like snows would never be gone..

At the Sanssouci Palace, which is considered as a "little Versailles"

"Schloss Sanssouci", a relatively modest palace of the Prussian royal and German imperial family. It is often counted among the German rivals of Versailles. While Sanssouci is in the more intimate Rococo style and is far smaller than its French Baroque counterpart, it is also notable for the numerous temples and follies in the park. The palace was designed/built by Georg Wenzeslaus von Knobelsdorff between 1745 and 1747 to fulfill King Frederick's need for a private residence where he could relax away from the pomp and ceremony of the Berlin court (source: wikipedia). The palace's name emphasises this; it is a French phrase (sans souci), which translates as "without concerns", meaning "without worries" or "carefree"...


The terrace gardens, looking down from the Palace, towards the park

It was a little pity that in winter almost all outdoor statues are covered in wooden boxes to protect them against snow. The Palace and the park would be more romantic, charming and really nice in summer! Maybe I will have a reason to come back here when the sun shines :-).

Walking around the Sanssouci park still covered in snow at the end of March..

"Potsdam is the capital city of the German federal state of Brandenburg and part of the Berlin/ Brandenburg Metropolitan Region. It is situated on the River Havel, 24 kilometres southwest of Berlin city centre." (wikipedia). It took us only about half an hour by car from Berlin Steglitz.