Making Your Own Sundial

"Without time, there would be no rush," a wise person once said. Especially in our modern, highly technological age, a longing for more time and less hurry grows within us. Perhaps that's why the fascination emanating from a sundial remains completely untarnished. With its almost provocatively imprecise timekeeping, a sundial reminds us not to weigh every second. Instead, we should follow the rhythm of nature, where everything has its time: a time to sow and a time to harvest, just as we experience anew every day in our garden.

What could be more natural than to adorn your house or garden with a very special embellishment: a classic sundial? A vertical sundial can be very beautiful, but a horizontal sundial particularly invites its observers not just to look, but also to understand.

In a particularly beautiful, easily accessible, and naturally sunny spot in your garden, young and old alike can approach your new centerpiece and examine everything up close.

You don't need sophisticated astronomy knowledge to make a simple sundial yourself; with a few tricks, you can quickly and easily create such a timepiece.

As you know, a sundial indirectly tells time by making the sun's path and its changing shadow visible. We modern people have it much easier than our ancestors, who used sundials in antiquity. We can "cheat" a little and use our modern clocks to scale our sundial at any time of the year.

This means a very simple version of a sundial can consist of creating a flat, paved or cemented surface. This can be round, but rectangular and square bases can also be very decorative. Insert a metal rod into the base so that, in the Northern Hemisphere (like Europe), it points towards the North Star.

Especially if you have tech-savvy children, you can now make a mark on the base at set times every day of the year, noting the date and time. It's best to mark it always on the hour.