Service Areas: Garden and Landscaping in Düsseldorf, Wuppertal, Cologne and All of NRW

Garden and landscape construction across NRW – three regions, three kinds of garden

With around 18 million inhabitants, North Rhine-Westphalia is Germany's most populous state and at the same time one of the greenest conurbations in Europe. For garden and landscape construction it splits into three very different landscapes – and in each of them a garden project looks different. The first is the Rhineland with the Lower Rhine plain and the Cologne Bay: Düsseldorf, Meerbusch, Neuss, Cologne and Leverkusen lie flat at 30 to 60 metres above sea level, and the climate is mild and oceanic (annual average 10 to 11 °C, roughly 750 to 800 mm of rainfall, a long growing season and hot city summers). The soils range from fertile loess luvisols (Löss-Parabraunerde) through the loamy sands of the lower terrace to alluvial loams close to the water table right beside the Rhine. The work here is accordingly about irrigation and drought-tolerant planting, about flood-prone and high-groundwater plots – and about large villa and family-home gardens with plenty of lawn, long hedges and paved driveways.

The second area is the Bergisches Land, where it merges into the Sauerland and the Märkisches Land: Wuppertal, Schwelm, Ennepetal, Gevelsberg, Solingen, Remscheid, Velbert and Hagen. Here the plots sit in low mountain country between 100 and almost 400 metres, among steep slopes and narrow valleys. The bedrock of slate and greywacke brings with it shallow, stony and rather acidic soils, with pockets of limestone karst (Massenkalk) in places; with 1,000 to 1,200 mm of rain a year it is considerably wetter than on the Rhine. Typical tasks are therefore slope stabilisation, retaining walls, terracing and drainage as well as steps and pathways – plus the ongoing upkeep of hillside gardens, which quickly become overgrown without a fixed schedule. The housing ranges from the Bergisch timber-framed and slate-clad house through Gründerzeit villas to terraced estates up on the ridges.

The third area is the Ruhr region: Essen, Bochum, Hattingen, Sprockhövel, Witten and Hagen – a densely populated, post-industrial urban landscape of colliery and works housing estates, terraced houses and Gründerzeit quarters. In the south it is hilly (the Ruhr valley and the Ardey hills), while towards the north it merges into the flatter Emscher and Lippe country; the urban soils are frequently compacted or made ground, and many gardens date from the post-war years and are cut to a small size. An area this large is only workable because of the dense motorway network: via the A1, A3, A43, A44, A46, A52 and A57 we are on site in Wuppertal, Düsseldorf, Cologne and the Ruhr area in 15 to 70 minutes from Schwelm and Ennepetal – including for a viewing appointment that costs you nothing.

What changes from town to town in NRW are the rules. Many municipalities have a tree protection by-law (Baumschutzsatzung) with different thresholds: Düsseldorf and Cologne protect trees from 80 cm trunk circumference upwards, Solingen likewise from 80 cm, Wuppertal from 100 cm and Remscheid from 120 cm; since 2020 Meerbusch has worked with a duty to notify the council before felling. A few towns in the Ennepe-Ruhr-Kreis – Schwelm, Ennepetal and Breckerfeld – currently have no by-law at all. On top of that, a nationwide ban on cutting woody plants applies from 1 March to 30 September (§ 39 of the Federal Nature Conservation Act, Bundesnaturschutzgesetz), which prohibits hard cutbacks and clearance during the breeding season. Before every job we check what applies at your address, measure the trunk circumference during the site visit and submit any necessary applications for you – so that a planned felling never turns into a fine.

No location near you? We work throughout NRW – just ask.

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