Zürich
The Garden of the XXI Century

In autumn 2023, the team marked out a grid of 5 x 5 meters around the garden to simplify orientation and the organization of activities and interventions. A wooden post was hammered in every five meters, which now divides the garden into square structures. The posts are purely geometric and have nothing to do with the underlying natural conditions of the site.

For the markings, we opted for simple wooden slats (24 x 48 x 2500 mm) made of spruce wood (picea abies) from the building store. They even cut the wood for us into 50 and 100 cm pieces. We then sharpened them and painted the ends to make them more visible.

In terms of functionality and robustness, the simple wooden slats should be adequate for the garden in Zürich - compared to the garden in Senan, the markings do not have to withstand the forces of the horses. However, the spruce timber is not very durable compared to other timbers or higher-quality garden posts. They have a durability class of IV, which corresponds to an estimated standing time with soil contact of 3 - 5 years. Bacteria, fungi and other wood-decaying organisms damage the wood, which is anyways affected by moisture and weather. On the other hand, the wooden slats are by far the cheapest and very easy to work with. Another advantage is the almost universal availability of wooden slats, which allows a certain similarity between the different gardens of the XXI century.