Andrea Jaschik and her Hor­tus Aquis were deser­ved­ly award­ed 1st place in the plan­ting com­pe­ti­ti­on „We’­re doing some­thing for bees!“ 2021 in the bal­co­nies and ter­races cate­go­ry. Two fur­ther awards fol­lo­wed in 2021: „Award-win­ning natu­re gar­den in gold“ from the „Thou­sands of gar­dens — thou­sands of spe­ci­es“ pro­ject and the „But­ter­fly-fri­end­ly gar­den“ award from NABU. In 2022, she won the spe­cial pri­ze at the #bee­bet­ter Award for her green fin­gers and her com­mit­ment to bio­di­ver­si­ty. The high­light is the nomi­na­ti­on for the „Euro­pean Award for Eco­lo­gi­cal Gar­dening“ 2023 by Natur im Gar­ten Inter­na­tio­nal.

The Hor­tus Aquis is a 15 m² south-west-facing roof gar­den on the 3rd flo­or abo­ve the roof­tops of Aachen. The­re used to be room for a ham­mock, apart from the bar­be­cue, but tho­se days are long gone … Sin­ce 2011, a varie­ty of per­ma­nent com­mu­ni­ties of ear­ly bloo­mers, trees, shrubs and wild peren­ni­als have for­med in around 60 con­tai­ners. Andrea Jaschik also plants vege­ta­bles every year and sows bee-fri­end­ly wild­flower mea­dows. The bio­to­pe ele­ments include a fee­ding house and nes­t­ing boxes for birds, various nes­t­ing aids for bees, a bum­ble­bee box, a dead­wood pyra­mid, a stone wall, a lean bed and a marsh bed as well as a pond. 15 dif­fe­rent bird spe­ci­es have alre­a­dy found their way to the fee­ding area. As an “out­post”, the Jaschik fami­ly has taken over the spon­sor­ship of a tree sli­ce in their street. Andrea is also invol­ved in the „Johan­nes­gar­ten“, the com­mu­ni­ty gar­den in her dis­trict. Through her out­stan­ding public rela­ti­ons work, she wants to inspi­re peo­p­le to gar­den in an insect-fri­end­ly way.

Con­tent of the pic­tu­re pre­sen­ta­ti­on:

Andrea shows tried and tes­ted plant com­bi­na­ti­ons on her roof ter­race in bal­c­o­ny boxes as well as in lar­ge plan­ters with shrubs, herbs, wild plants and flower bulbs. What works, what does­n’t, how and why do the ori­gi­nal plan­tings chan­ge? This chan­gea­bi­li­ty over time has the same effect in the plan­ter as it does in the gar­den when you gar­den with natu­re and give it space to unfold. Plants are dyna­mic com­pon­ents. They are influen­ced by the cli­ma­te, chan­ge depen­ding on the sea­son and deve­lop in inter­ac­tion with the plants used in the respec­ti­ve loca­ti­ons. If sui­ta­ble con­di­ti­ons are crea­ted, plants seed them­sel­ves. This rela­xed way of gar­dening is less work and is also bene­fi­ci­al for insects and birds.