Your "outdoor room"

What bliss it is to enjoy an extra room under clear summer skies! Indeed, the sky is the limit in designing the look and
feel of your terrace. And the design options are just as varied and personal as when fitting your indoor areas.

Tips and power tools from Bosch help you make your terrace dreams come true. We show you how to build your own wooden garden furniture, create lush greenery and give your terrace floor a swift and thorough professional clean.  

Bosch wishes you a happy summer!

Building DIY terrace furniture

Appropriate wooden furniture is an absolute must for a comfortable terrace, be it in the form of loungers or a fold-away table and chairs for open-air feasts with friends. Plastic garden furniture is passé now that garden, balcony and terrace fans have rediscovered the classic elegance of wooden furniture.  

Building your own wooden furniture
Wooden furniture is even more of a pleasure to use when you've built  it yourself. So why not give it a try? Our online assembly instructions show you how (see box on the right). Bosch electric saws, sanders and cordless screwdrivers help you perform a really professional job.  

But don't forget to treat your precious wooden furniture with water-repellent oil or varnish so you can enjoy it for years to come. It protects your outdoor furniture against rain, fungi and UV graying. When buying such products, make sure they give the right sort of protection and are not hazardous to your health.

Barbecue time
A homemade oil-drum barbecue is lots of fun to use and
also makes a great birthday present. You'll find step-by-step instructions at "Download Assembly Instructions, DIY Garden Furniture".

Clever greenery

Tubs and climbing plants turn a normal terrace into a private oasis.

Leafy walls
More and more people – famous architects and private
home-owners alike – let plants grow on the facades of their buildings. "Green" walls not only look good, they also have a practical benefit: Creepers like ivy or wild vines also act as natural heat regulators.  

Ivy and wild vines are so-called "self-clinging" plants, so they don't necessarily need trellises to scale walls. Care should
be taken with semi-timbered buildings, old walls or cracked plaster because shoots and tendrils can get underneath and damage the walls!

Other climbing plants need some kind of  lattice to grow properly:

Wooden trellises

• Leaf-tendril and twining-leaf climbers (e.g. clematis, grapevines, sweet peas and nasturtiums)

Vertical slats

• Creepers (e.g. wisteria, hop, honeysuckle, knotgrass,
  kiwi, scarlet runner bean and morning glory)

Horizontal slats

• Scramblers (e.g. climbing roses, winter jasmine and blackberry)

Lattices are easy to make and fasten on your terrace walls.
All you need is a hand-held circular saw (e.g. Bosch PKS 46) and a cordless screwdriver (e.g. Bosch IXO). The important thing is to leave sufficient space between the wall and the support. Assembly instructions are presented in the right-
hand page area under "Trellis Assemby."

A shapely box tree
Imaginatively-shaped trees and shrubs adorn the world's
most beautiful and modern gardens and terraces. Evergreen box is ideal for transforming your plant tubs into landscaping highlights. This small-leafed plant is very undemanding and easy to look after, making it perfect as a winter hardy in pots
or tubs in the garden or on the terrace.  

Pruning is everything with box. You should start pruning very early, so that the plant develops fine branches over the years and attains a compact, dense form.  

New shoots should be cut back once in early summer and
a second time in August. Pruning tools should be very sharp so they don't squash or damage the tips of the shoots. Paper scissors are the perfect gardening tool for cutting back very young trees. Later on, cordless shrub shears like the Bosch AHS 18 Accu make a professional topiary aid.

Geometric shapes like spheres are best made using cardboard cutouts. For cone shapes, drape a bunch of twigs tied together at one end over the box. Any shoots that stick out can then be cut off.

Warning: Box leaves and flowers are poisonous. Small children and pets should therefore not be allowed near box trees unsupervised!

Professional cleaning and maintenance

Terrace floors are exposed to the elements day in and day out. Deposits of sand, moss or limestone are hard to avoid and time-consuming to remove. Bosch Aquatak high-pressure washers make cleaning even large areas lots of fun. With their extraordinarily powerful (up to 2,700 watt) motors, stubborn stains are easy to remove quickly, efficiently and with a minimum of water.  

An extensive range of accessories, including brushes,
nozzles and drain-cleaning sets, cleaning fluids and waxes make Bosch high-pressure washers an indispensable aid in any home, whether for use on floors, fences or walls, garden furniture or tools, cars or windows. Special cleaning agents and waxes are available as additives for use in the tank.