Magical harmony – in bloom in white and blue

A 65 m² urban garden with the lighting planned in from the very start – perennials instead of lawn, every bloom in white and blue.

Location	Wolfratshausen
Size	65 m²
Design	Fuchs baut Gärten – planning, construction and planting · Lighting: in-lite · Privacy screening: Zaun Riesch, Bad Tölz · Plants: Baumschule Lorenz von Ehren
Implementation	Fuchs baut Gärten GmbH – Gärtner von Eden
Photography	Benjamin Klopp / frames for good
Award	Longlist “Gärten des Jahres” 2024 (Callwey)

“An extension of the living room into a blooming oasis of well-being – the eye can rest everywhere and delight in every corner.”

— Balbina Fuchs

A garden of 65 square metres – and yet one of the projects we most like to show. Before, this was a front garden with no plants and no sense of comfort. The surroundings offer nothing, and the plot can't be seen from outside. That became the opportunity: the garden had to work entirely on its own, as an extended living space.

The brief was a living room in the greenery – an oasis to relax in after work. That is why the lighting concept was never an accessory, but the core of the design from the start: the garden was to be enjoyed in the evening, from the blue hour to the clear starry sky. The lighting comes from in-lite, and we are one of their partners.

The design motto was “perennials instead of lawn”. All blooms in white and blue, with the serviceberry as a standalone specimen and highlight. Add a lush yew hedge as a backdrop on the street side, and timber privacy screens from Zaun Riesch in Bad Tölz, which hide the cars to the left and right. The plants come from the nursery Lorenz von Ehren.

When it came to the surfacing, we were pleased not to need anything new: we still had quartzite crazy paving from an earlier project in storage. We reused it and filled the joints with pebbles. The terrace is made of Kebony – we later recorded a podcast about this timber with the manufacturer, which you can listen to on our timber work page.

The biggest challenge was mundane, yet serious: the building work began right at the start of the year, and the weather didn't cooperate. In the end, everything fell into place. The garden was finished in spring 2022.

What defines the garden today is hard to measure: calm and elegant, it invites you to dream and shields you from a world that can sometimes be so loud. In the evening it becomes magical. The best part is something that wasn't in the plan – we managed to awaken the hidden gardener's heart in our client.

The planting concept: everything in white and blue

Trees and shrubs: Taxus baccata as a hedge, Amelanchier lamarckii as a standalone specimen (the serviceberry), Hydrangea arborescens and Hydrangea macrophylla, Syringa vulgaris, Hedera helix as a standalone specimen.

Perennials and grasses: Anemone nemorosa, Astilbe arendsii, Brunnera macrophylla, Delphinium, Gaura lindheimeri, Geranium cantabrigiense, Salvia nemorosa, Phlox, Verbena bonariensis – plus Pennisetum and Stipa as grasses that glow in the backlight of the spotlights.