Original subtitles

Winter is coming to an end, but the

garden is still covered with a thick blanket of snow.

Despite this, the birds find plenty

to eat, thanks to the gardener.

A stoat must search a little longer for its food.

It's easiest of all for animals that sleep

through the winter, like the dormouse.

As the days lengthen, there is at last some

movement in the frozen winter landscape.

Monotonous white gives way

to the colorful heralds of spring.

While primroses and violets cover the ground in vivid color,

down below life is stirring.

A hedgehog awakes from hibernation.

It is nested in a magnificent setting.

The gardens of the world famous Melk Abbey.

Many sections of the gardens

are laid out like a country park.

Nature has space to breathe.

Catkins are irresistible to insects.

They're particularly sought after by bees.

Their pollen baskets are always full to bursting

when the worker bees return to the hive.

A blossoming willow attracts the Comma butterfly,

and also the colorful Peacock.

Just as popular with many insects is the marsh-marigold.

It prefers damp soil, and grows in great numbers

by streams and ponds.

The cowslip, also known as the Key of Heaven,

flourishes in dry settings.

This one by the water is an exception.

The water in the pond is full of life,

despite it still being cold.

Towards the end of February

frogs awaken from their winter torpor.

They come together to mate.

Common frogs lay their eggs in clumps.

Once released, the spawn clusters float to the surface.

Other frogs use these gelatinous clusters as cushions.

A single spawn cluster may contain several thousand eggs,

from which tadpoles will hatch.

Only a handful will reach adulthood.

The list of predators is long.

Weeks later, the pond becomes a meeting

place for other mating couples.

Toads.

The males are much smaller than the females.

When a female is chosen the male holds her tight,

and doesn't let go.

Unlike frogs, toads lay their spawn in long strings.

Dozens of mating couples lay their eggs at the same time.

In the midst of this frenzy,

you do get the odd troublemaker.

A male who hasn't secured a partner can turn nasty.

With a touch of magic, spring covers

the landscape with a rich, green carpet.

Nowhere, it seems, has been overlooked.

Fruit trees blossom like outsize bouquets.

Apricot and cherry trees enhance gardens and squares

with their brief beauty.

At ground level, plants join in too.

The oil beetle now finds itself in an ideal habitat.

It can usually be seen in less tended gardens,

and tends to stay close to the ground.

This wingless beetle can live on rotting plants,

but in spring, prefers fresh leaves.

The oil beetle may be no more than three centimeters long,

but it's a tough customer.

When threatened, it secretes a poison from its joints.

One of the most magnificent garden plants

has to be the magnolia.

Its blossom is a natural work of art.

Around 230 different species of magnolia

have so far been identified.

These exquisite plants are not native to Europe.

They come from East Asia and America.

Magnolia are not just popular

ornamental shrubs for gardeners.

Some species are used for remedies

in traditional Chinese medicine.

Magnolia blossom before they come into leaf.

They're the center of attention at the start of the season,

but their beauty is transient.

Spring without tulips is unthinkable.

Today there are countless varieties

in all different shapes and colors.

Back in 17th century Holland they were so sought after,

that they were traded like gold.

Tulips adorned the grand gardens of the Baroque Era.

The gardens of Hof Palace on the River Morava

remind us how much effort went into shaping nature.

Right angles dominate in the park

of the Renaissance Castle of Schallaburg,

yet nature still exploits every nook and cranny.

Big, tended gardens often border fields and meadows,

so it's not unusual to encounter wildlife.

In this case, young hares.

If you can spot them, for they're well camouflaged.

Even a fawn will stray into a garden when a fence is down.

We humans mark out our territory with borders.

Animals take nature as they find it.

We also decide what is useful

and what is harmful in our domain.

The cockchafer is considered a pest.

Up to the late 1950's, they were a menace in the garden.

Now they're rarely seen.

Cockchafers eat the leaves of nearly all deciduous trees.

They arrive in swarms to enjoy a communal meal.

There are two species on Austria,

the common and the forest cockchafer.

The end result is the same.

All cockchafers are equally thorough.

Cockchafers live for about seven weeks as adults.

After mating, the female lays her eggs in the ground.

It takes four years for the larvae to pupate and mature.

Some of the best birdwatching

can be done in the back garden.

Nesting boxes are an open invitation

for birds to set up home.

But the most beautiful nesting boxes

will often remain empty.

Birds make their own choices to where they nest,

like this wren.

Not really private enough.

A spotted flycatcher has built its nest

on one corner of a bird table.

The exception that proves the rule.

The more concealed a nest, the better.

Blackbirds prefer dense treetops.

Only a few centuries ago

blackbirds were shy forest dwellers,

but today they're kings of the garden,

and rear several broods a year.

After 18 days the young can fly, and after

about a month, they become independent.

Blue tits have unusually large broods.

Eight to 12 chicks are the norm.

To feed the hungry mouths, parent birds

forage tirelessly from dawn to dusk.

Both parents bring a constant supply

of fresh caterpillars and insects to the nest.

Thanks to this devoted care, the nestlings reach

almost adult weight before they're fully fledged.

After about 22 days they leave the nest.

A nesting box offers good protection from nest robbers,

like the Aesculapian snake.

An unguarded crush of thrush eggs is just the job.

The size of the egg is no problem for this slender snake.

It stretches its jaws to swallow the delicacy whole.

A watching goldfinch is understandably nervous.

She too has chicks.

But the Aesculapian snake has disappeared.

It's eaten its fill.

A final check, and the male returns to the nest.

The parents feed each other, but a good part

of the food will be passed onto the chicks.

The tree sparrow is happy to use the nesting boxes.

Its role as a garden benefactor has long been overlooked.

Its young live mainly on garden pests, like caterpillars.

Fledgling sparrows continue to be fed by their parents

outside the nest, until they can fly well enough

to find their own food.

Some birds have no problem nesting close to a house

when conditions are right, like this spotted woodpecker.

The chicks nestle in a hollow tree

barely 10 meters from the house.

After three weeks, the young blue tits

are nearly ready to leave the nest.

Soon they'll fly away and find new territory.

Human beings seldom leave their

natural surroundings untouched.

We organize and make changes.

Like cultivating low maintenance lawns.

But where there are no insects, there are no birds.

A lawn can become an unspoiled meadow.

Given time, insect friendly plants, like mallow, soon grow.

In just a few weeks, a barren lawn is transformed.

An increasingly popular garden feature is a pond.

Bathing ponds can be used by both man and nature.

Water lilies are a popular ornamentation.

Native European water lilies are white.

Mud turtles are being reintroduced and carefully tended.

European mud turtles are still an endangered species.

Where there's a pond there's a dragonfly.

They're quick to exploit new hunting grounds

in their search for insects.

Even red-eared terrapins from North America

are kept in ponds.

They're predators too.

But the darting dragonfly is not on the menu.

Diving into the pond, we enter a totally unfamiliar world.

Many dragonfly larvae bear a striking resemblance

to the aliens in science fiction films.

What they have in common

is that they're all ruthless hunters.

Tadpoles are tasty morsels too, but they

have plenty of enemies in the garden pond.

North American crayfish are found in many ornamental ponds.

They keep the water clean

by feeding on plant and animal remains.

The bank of a pond is a favorite spot for grass snakes.

The two light spots at the base of the head

make them instantly recognizable.

The grass snake is harmless to us,

and likes to hunt frogs, newts, and small fish.

At the edge of the pond a dragonfly larva

is trying to leave the water.

Once on dry land, a complete transformation takes place.

The dragonfly hatches.

Initially, its body is completely soft.

To unfold its wings, it must inflate them with air.

It takes several hours before it can fly.

The empty larval sheath is left behind.

But not every made in flight lasts long.

Grasp and wasp spiders weave treacherous webs.

Once caught, there's no escape.

The rose, queen of the garden.

For more than 2,000 years they've

been cultivated as ornamental plants.

Difficult to say how many varieties there are.

Gardeners distinguish between wild and cultivated roses,

but they're all magnificent.

The rose chafer is often seen on flowering roses.

Its wing cases shimmer like molten metal.

In Central Europe its become rather scarce.

Rose chafers prefer the pollen to the leaves,

but they most like to eat tree sap.

It takes three years for a larva to develop into a chafer.

Rose chafer larvae live in rotten wood and compost heaps.

They digest decomposing plants,

and therefore play a key role in recycling nutrients.

It takes a host of creatures

to turn organic waste into garden compost.

These one millimeter long springtails are part of that host.

The earthworm too, helps produce compost

and maintain the quality of the soil.

These indispensable soil dwellers can live around

eight years, if they avoid falling victim to a predator.

The ideal water content of a compost heap

is between 40 and 60%.

In the summer, showers help to maintain the balance.

Rain, the lifeblood of every garden.

Now that everything in the garden is damp,

it's time to meet our guest stars.

Slugs

and snails.

Like this striking white-lipped snail,

it comes in plain yellow or with stripes.

They're not pests, since they feed mainly on algae.

The Burgundy snail is better known, especially to gourmets,

because it tastes so good.

The leopard slug is welcome in the garden,

as it eats the eggs of its plant-munching cousins.

The Spanish slug is a feared pest.

It was introduced in the 1970s.

No lettuce is safe from it.

Like all mollusks, it lays eggs that can survive the winter.

But there are solutions.

Indian Runner ducks.

Originally from Southeast Asia,

they're related to the European Mallard.

One remarkable feature,

they have an insatiable appetite for slugs.

Their relentless hunt would warm the heart of any gardener.

Summer brings ripening of the first strawberries.

They belong to the rose family.

The garden strawberry in its present form,

was created in 1750 through cross pollination.

Nothing pollinates a garden better than a bee.

This has been known for 3,000 years,

since people first cultivated them.

Most of the world's 20,000

bee species live a solitary existence.

Only honey bees live in a complex colony.

They use a form of sign language to communicate.

The waggle dance tells other bees how far and in

which direction to go, to find a good source of food.

The carpenter bee is a solitary creature.

It gets its name from its habit of tunneling

into wood to build a nest.

As this can cause damage to wooden houses,

these bees have been treated as pests.

The shiny blue carpenter bee

is around three centimeters long.

It lives solely on pollen and nectar.

It likes the same plants as the honey bee,

which can sometimes lead to friction.

No eco-garden should be without homes for useful insects.

Insect hotels use dead wood, reeds, and other natural

materials that are increasingly hard to find in the wild.

Countless varieties of wild bees and wasps

are more than happy to do a bit of interior decoration.

Like the mason bee.

It builds individual nesting cells

out of chewed up plant tissue.

The grass-carrying wasp is often found in gardens.

This type of wasp rears its young in hollow reeds.

Gasteruptiidae, and countless other apocritan wasps,

are increasingly dependent on man-made constructions.

They need hollow plant stems,

mud, and masonry for their nests.

It's where their larvae mature.

Rooms are at a premium in this insect hotel.

And gatecrashers are forcibly repelled.

Hot weather ushers in the green fly season.

They use their proboscis to suck the sap out of plants.

Close by, some ladybirds are mating.

Not by chance either.

For them, the neighborhood is one vast restaurant.

Green fly are a particularly tasty morsel.

The many varieties of ladybird are one of the green

fly's greatest enemies.

They devour thousands of the tiny pests

over the course of the season.

Even more voracious are ladybird larvae.

They are insatiable munching machines.

They polish off one green fly after another,

with scarcely a pause.

And yet, this fearsome army of garden pests

never seems to diminish.

Some plants we're quick to dismiss as weeds,

should be a feature in every garden.

Like nettles.

Who hasn't encountered their stinging leaves?

Yet butterfly larvae, like those of the Peacock,

have a real taste for them.

More than 20 kinds of caterpillar

rely on nettles for sustenance.

The spurge hawk-moth caterpillar is a true gourmet.

It feeds exclusively on Euphorbia,

and as a result, even its enemies find it inedible.

The hummingbird hawk-moth, a type of butterfly,

can hover just like a hummingbird,

and suck the nectar from flowers with its long proboscis.

At twilight in the garden the cast changes.

It's time for the shrew to awaken.

Although they look like mice, they're not closely related.

Like the hedgehog, they're insectivores.

Shrews are just six centimeters long,

but they shouldn't be underestimated.

They are feared predators, wolves in rodent's clothing.

They're carnivores, and their saliva is poisonous.

They snatch beetles and crickets,

and even quarry that dwarfs them in size.

Night in the garden brings little peace.

By the pond, tree frogs begin to croak.

Though they're barely five centimeters long,

they can be heard for miles.

Wherever there's water, you'll find mosquitoes.

Their development cycle takes place in water.

After several days or weeks, depending on the temperature,

the mature mosquitoes hatch.

To breed, the females need a particular type of food,

blood.

Mosquitoes are inexorably drawn to light,

but they find us humans in darkness as well.

Our body heat and our breath are enough.

These bloodsuckers transmit serious illnesses

in tropical countries.

In the European garden,

their bite is no more than a nuisance.

The bat is another creature that stays up all night.

They're accomplished insect hunters.

Even the odd mosquito will be snapped up.

Nowadays, all native bats are endangered.

They lack suitable roofs for the daylight hours

and for winter hibernation.

Customized bat boxes are one solution.

Bats naturally roost in hollow trees,

but substitutes work too.

Nevertheless, their habitat is shrinking year by year.

At night the dormouse is also out foraging.

Dormice are shy and exceptionally cautious.

This young tawny owl poses no threat.

The stone marten on the other hand is not to be trusted.

But these youngsters

are more interested in playing than hunting.

Dormice are about 15 centimeters long,

and belong to the rodent family.

Our gardens are full of things they find tasty.

A female hedgehog has given birth in her nest.

At first her young are completely dependent on her.

By the time the apricots ripen,

the midpoint of the year is long past.

The thin-skinned apricots bruise easily.

As a result, their sugar begins to ferment.

Just how the stag beetle likes them.

With its long brush-like tongue,

it licks out the sweet juice.

Male stag beetles can reach 10 centimeters in length.

They're the largest European beetle.

This imposing insect will only be air born for one summer.

It won't live much longer than eight weeks.

High summer.

Although the days have already begun to shorten,

there is still a good 10 hours of sunshine.

In hot spells the ground heats up tremendously.

At 30 degrees the air starts to shimmer.

Old stone walls and rocky landscapes retain heat.

They create a microclimate that encourages the growth of

particular plants, and attracts an animal life of its own.

These arid man-made areas have been around for centuries.

They've given us special types of garden, such as vineyards.

At night the stone walls radiate heat.

This permanently mild climate

helps the grapevines to thrive.

Nowadays, stone walls are just as important

to gardens as they are to vineyards.

They're home to particular kinds of plant.

The hot, dry microclimate is perfect for the green lizard.

This 30 centimeter long reptile only feels really

comfortable in temperatures of 30 degrees and more.

It polishes off insects, spiders, and snails,

but berries are also part of its diet.

It's vivid green color slowly intensifies

during the first years of its life.

Beneath the sumptuous flowers on the stone walls live many

different kinds of lichen that are generally overlooked.

These lichens can live for many centuries.

A particular rarity is the hill carnation.

It's a protected species.

In a traditional garden, berries

are the sign that late summer has arrived.

The blackcurrants and blackberries

are just waiting to be picked.

The vegetable harvest started weeks ago.

Cooking and salad vegetables all ripen at different times.

Even at the end of August

young birds can be seen in the garden.

Some types of bird breed twice a year, winter to autumn.

The redstart even rears three broods a season.

It likes to nest in tree holes, but if none is available,

it's happy to make do with a man-made alternative.

In the next door barn, hornets have built a nest.

Their very name inspires fear,

but they don't deserve their bad reputation.

They're not aggressive.

They build elaborate nests in domestic gardens and attics.

This cardboard-like nest is made of chewed wood.

It's continually repaired and extended.

Each year the hornets build a colony

that can hold up to 700 individual insects.

In Autumn, the priority will be to care

for the queen's larvae.

They alone survive the winter.

The worker hornets die with the first frost.

As long as the colony is not disturbed,

hornets are easygoing neighbors.

Autumn.

Time to harvest the apples and pears.

The fruit is already falling from the overladen branches,

making the ground under the trees a dangerous place

for grazing creatures.

It's long been said that hedgehogs take fruit back

to their nest, but there's no scientific proof of this.

The autumn garden is known not just for its color

and its fruit, but also for its sounds.

When the grasshopper chirps

the gardening year enters its final phase.

It can only be heard from the peak of summer

until late October.

The days shorten.

With less natural light, trees

withdraw chlorophyll from their leaves.

One of the last plants to flower is the meadow saffron.

It becomes a pollen bank for insects until well into

October, when the leaves have long fallen from the trees.

The countryside is covered by autumn mists

piling up in the valleys.

Many insects reach the end of their lives.

But in nature nothing is wasted.

Ants feast on the remains.

The nights bring the first frosts.

By the time the days turn cold as well,

the tree holes in the garden have long been occupied.

These dormice will stay here for the next six months.

Their circulation and metabolic rates get ever slower,

until they are overcome by sleep.

The countryside is once again covered in ice and snow.

The hedgehog has settled into its nest.

Apart from brief periods of wakefulness,

it'll spend the next three to four months here, asleep.

Those birds that have not migrated to warmer climbs,

gather at the feeding grounds once again.

They're waiting for the spring to come and the sun to shine,

and once more transform their garden home into a paradise.