This is a special Valentines edition of our Thursday garden makeovers.   Its pretty flowers and charming white walls are so valentines cheery. But mostly I picked it because of this – this is Rebecca & Staffan’s wedding picture — right there in the under construction garden next to the concrete mixer.  Making a garden together (and a pretty fantastic one at that) — what could be more romantic on this day for sweethearts?

This axonometric drawing of the garden helps to understand what they were dealing with — a giant hill that was previously a dumping ground (so full of trash) that they proceeded to clean and terrace into an extraordinary series of terraces for various purposes.

Rebecca and Steffan’s garden is in the swedish countryside.  In the summer of 2008 they started building this garden and have – with the exception of hiring an excavator to carve out the 6 terraces – done everything themselves by hand.  A true labor of love.

That this garden looks as established as it does even though it is only a few years old is extraordinary to me.  It also has me thinking that building walls from breeze blocks, rendered and painted isn’t such a bad idea for such a harsh climate – and it is a skill I am inspired to learn to do.

Happy Valentines Day! — I hope you enjoy this tour through Rebecca & Staffan’s garden.   Make sure to take a visit over to their blog to see many more images and read more about their garden .

images from garden with view

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