"This garden hidden in the bamboo sea is undoubtedly a paradise. It is broad, atmospheric and full of European style. Even in the west, it will be amazing."

This is the praise of the American home magazine "beautiful home" to the manor. Yes, it can no longer be called a garden, but a manor

This manor, which is admired by Chinese and foreign people, was built by a 66 year old man in China in eight years

But the idea of this manor actually hovered in Lao Zhang's mind 14 years ago

Lao Zhang is a photographer. Before he concentrated on building the manor, he had a crazy resume

Shuttling through the hinterland of Tibet for 12 times, going to the Western Sichuan Plateau for more than 40 times, traveling countless times in Western China, and taking nearly 100000 photos of the scenery of the western plateau of China

He loves natural scenery, plants and nature. He once said, I am a person who can't stay in the city. What I want to live is to stay away from the noise, so when he stopped, he chose to build a garden by himself

The obsession with the garden was planted from an early age, because Lao Zhang lived in a big garden when he was a child, and over the years, he has been silently preparing for his garden. When taking photos, he would drill into the mountains when he had nothing to do. He would also visit other people's gardens and pay attention to the layout of each path and pond

However, it is not easy to find a suitable place. Lao Zhang walked so many places in the country, but he was not satisfied. Until 2002, he finally chose the address of his manor

It is an abandoned forest farm, which is more than 20 kilometers away from the urban area of Ma'anshan, with a total area of 8 mu, and there are dozens of kilometers of bamboo forests around, full of green and excellent environment

Lao Zhang decided on this place without hesitation. The lease term is 50 years. Until after signing the contract, Lao Zhang was relieved and began to be busy gardening

When the forest farm was first bought, it was very desolate, and the surroundings were almost dilapidated. After carefully investigating the surrounding environment, Lao Zhang finally decided to build a European style

Lao Zhang didn't find a special designer and planned to build it according to his heart

Lao Zhang didn't demolish all the original buildings, but strengthened and renovated them on the original basis and changed them into a two-story European style red roofed house, which looks like an English Manor~

The reconstruction is a big project. The bricks for building walls, the stones for building paths, the street lights in the yard and all kinds of other scenery are complicated and trivial

Lao Zhang is a restless man. Even if there is a special master for construction, Lao Zhang also runs around to help. Even just because a stone is not good-looking, he runs to the mountains many times to look for it

But all this is worth it. After eight years, the manor was finally built. One brick, one wood, one stone and one grass are all condensed with Lao Zhang's hard work and sweat

Lao Zhang also spent some time on the selection of plants in the garden. He planted more than 1000 kinds of plants in the manor. These plants are tropical, subtropical and temperate, and their flowering periods are staggered. In this way, the whole manor can have flowers all year round

However, some plants are not cold resistant. Lao Zhang also specially built a three-story greenhouse with an area of 150 square meters to move in some plants that are difficult to survive the winter

There are not only plants in the manor, but also all kinds of animals Lao Zhang specially looks for. Most of them are raised in free range, such as horses introduced from Xinjiang

Peacock wandering in the court

Elegant and beautiful swan

There are many wild birds, and even some rare species

After Lao Zhang posted his manor on the Internet, the reputation of the manor spread, and gradually became famous in the circle of flower friends, and many flower friends came to admire it

At the request of these flower friends

Only in 2015 did Lao Zhang try to receive some flower friends and lead them to visit his carefully designed manor

In addition to the large flower bed in front, there is also a mountain spring on the back mountain. After Lao Zhang's investigation, he simply made a special waterscape by using the terrain

Every day, clear mountain spring water flows into the garden from the mountain, first through the swimming pool

Then it flows through koi pond and lotus pond to ensure that the water in the yard is living water

Moreover, Lao Zhang also made a self-made filtration system to ensure that all kinds of pools can be clear to the bottom all year round

Lao Zhang is very careful about his garden, especially in details. Even the pattern at the bottom of the swimming pool is designed by himself

What Lao Zhang likes most in the whole yard is a large lawn in the center of the garden, which is filled with red pottery pots and Japanese stone lamps. The edge is also matched with red Yumei Gretel, white Jingju, foxglove and other plants

But the daily maintenance of such a beautiful lawn is very hard, but Lao Zhang is happy

At ordinary times, Lao Zhang himself is reluctant to step in, so the two peacocks walking leisurely on the lawn seem particularly envious

Looking at the increasingly beautiful manor, even Lao Zhang himself felt very surprised. Originally, he just wanted to realize one of his dreams, but he didn't expect that he would finally harvest his own spiritual garden

Lao Zhang himself said: "after so many years of efforts, the original ruins in my hands have gradually become beautiful. It has become my spiritual home. I cherish this process."

Cultivate with care, water with love, and persevere. Even the desolate ruins can bloom like flowers again. The garden is like this, and so are people