High above the green river – a villa garden

A restrained, elegant garden for a neoclassical villa high above the Isar.

Location	Pullach
Size	1,250 m²
Design	Design: Katharina Bergmann · Construction and planting: Fuchs baut Gärten · Pool and sun protection: by the client · completed 2017
Implementation	Fuchs baut Gärten GmbH – Gärtner von Eden
Photography	Klas Stöver
Award	“Gärten des Jahres” 2021 (Callwey) – nominated and published in the book · View the project in the competition

“The borrowed view of the landscape on the high bank of the Isar played a major role – so the design is restrained and suits the neoclassical style of the villa.”

— Katharina Bergmann

A calm lawn spreads out like a carpet in front of the white villa, with a plain, unfussy pool set exactly on the central axis. A moss landscape beneath a Japanese maple and a water feature made from a single slab of Jura limestone create cosy, secluded corners. A perennial garden and an edible garden complete the villa garden.

One material, in warm tones

The idea was to carry the architecture of the house into the garden – hence natural stone in warm tones and shapes that echo the façade. The floor is made of Jura limestone slabs, 80 × 80 cm, sawn on all sides, and the paths of small granite setts laid in rows. The walls and the seating blocks are made of Jura limestone, as is the L-shaped edging around the pool.

Added to this is carefully considered lighting: spotlights along the paths, spotlights in the trees, and ground-spike lights with motion sensors. The garden is fully enclosed, with an electric sliding gate.

The planting follows the architecture

The key trees are an Acer palmatum ‘Fireglow’, a Liquidambar styraciflua and Parrotia persica – plus, and this is what makes it special, moss planting. Structure comes from a broad Taxus baccata hedge, yew balls and Acer campestre as roof-shaped standard trees. In flower: Viburnum, lilac, Cornus kousa ‘Milky Way’ and the hydrangeas ‘Annabelle’ and ‘Bluebird’. There is also a herb bed.

One question took the longest: chlorine or biology? We build both and would have liked a Living Pool here. The clients decided on a chlorinated pool – it is their garden, not ours. The pool and sun protection were supplied by the client, not by us; our work was the garden around them, including the pool edging.