13 sq m terrace garden renovation, netizens say: You can grow things this well on the twelfth floor?

This apartment was bought nearly four years ago. Because it sits right next to the city's main traffic artery, it has been left vacant all along. Last year, my work unit moved to a place near the new home, so I was tempted and moved in.

Before designing Xiyuan, I had already looked at many cases and drawn a lot of valuable experience from them. They gave me a lot of inspiration. I considered important factors such as waterproofing, root protection and load-bearing as much as possible. But I still did not think everything through. Wind protection on the twelfth floor was one oversight. I will take it as a warning.

The south terrace is 3.7 m long and 3.5 m wide. A flower trellis is built above and floorboards are laid below. The west and south sides are made into planting troughs. Around the planting troughs is a ring of wooden fencing. On the east side, against the wall, is a floor-standing flower rack; by the railing is a drainage channel covered with a wooden frame, making it easy to move and service the drainage outlet. On the wooden frame there is currently also a wooden planter, in which another deep-rooted plant, wisteria, is growing.

After tinkering for several months, it finally looks like something. Let me admire it myself for a bit.

Life itself is tinkering; without tinkering, life has no meaning. Like the fish in a pond, the ones that splash about most vigorously are the ones with the strongest vitality.

It is a pity that the apartment renovation is still ongoing, so I cannot live there and potter with flowers and plants every day.

The stainless steel railing on the terrace is really ugly. I originally wanted to put up a row of wooden fencing to hide the ugliness, but that would waste too much money. What to do? Plant a row of roses to climb all over it. The rose cuttings have a 100 percent survival rate. I am only afraid there will be too many, and by then I will have to pull them out.

My garden is named "Xiyuan Caomu". Now that I think about it, the name has meaning too. Ah Xi plays with plants and trees, and plants and trees tease Ah Xi. Playing with each other, they become a garden and become life.

On the south balcony, I spent several thousand yuan to build a preservative-treated wooden flower trellis. Ideally, the trellis would be covered with cluster after cluster of wisteria flowers. I looked everywhere in the flower market and bought 4 in succession, two large and two small, and all of them survived.

Although Xiyuan is not yet finally completed, in order not to miss the great spring light, a month ago I was already moving flowers and plants there like an ant, and these past few days it has begun to look somewhat presentable.

The flowers have fallen, and it is too lonely, so I found a stone to keep it company.

The vines and tendrils have not grown big yet, so I will first plant some herbaceous flowers to make it look beautiful.

Here it has been raining for several days in a row, light rain, moderate rain and heavy rain taking turns, and the rain has really made me anxious.

The vines and tendrils have not grown big yet, so I will first plant some herbaceous flowers to make it look beautiful.

The garden is not big, but the workload is huge. "A project of a hundred years, quality first." I wonder whether I can compete for some kind of "Luban Award" or something!