When the homeowners decided to transform their neglected, overgrown garden into a green sanctuary, they came with a clear vision. The redesign needed to integrate the garden seamlessly with the house, incorporate a new swimming pool, create a firewood storage unit as a privacy screen, add a tool storage area, and include a covered space for outdoor cooking. Most importantly, they wanted a garden that blended rural and modern sensibilities—a space that felt summery, inviting, and truly liveable.

"We started by clearing away numerous plants to completely reimagine the space and organize it functionally," explains Hartmut R. Raible of Raible Landscape Architects + Engineers. "We preserved and highlighted key specimen plants as focal points, and removed the old pool entirely." This radical clearing enabled the designers to create compelling sight lines and activate the garden's full potential. "For these homeowners, the garden functions as an outdoor living room in the home's spatial sequence," Raible notes. "It's not just everyday space—it becomes a genuine stage for gatherings and celebrations."

The landscape architects created privacy screening through a carefully curated palette of evergreen shrubs, varying in tone and leaf texture. "Along the garden's perimeter, hydrangeas, beard flowers, and ornamental grasses join the evergreens to create interest well into winter. Evergreen species like holm oak maintain visual density and color throughout the colder months." A high-quality wooden boundary wall redefines the garden's edge, while ribbon-like yew hedges reinforce the garden's organic geometry, establishing compelling transitions and spatial rhythm.

The planting scheme draws on sun-loving species: roses, beard flowers, sage, sacred bamboo, Japanese shrub peonies, coneflowers, catmint, ground-covering thyme, and heat-loving ornamental grasses. The color palette unfolds from white through pink and violet to blue. "Illuminated after dark, the garden room becomes truly magical—not just in summer, but year-round," the architect observes. "Strategic lighting defines spatial layers, adds depth, and amplifies the warm, intimate feeling of living outdoors." The fire ring anchors the space as fireplace, heat source, grill, sculpture, and social hub all in one.

www.raible-landschaftsarchitekten.de

Photography Credits:

Raible Landscape Architects + Engineers

(Published in CUBE Frankfurt 01|21)