We are Tim Göckel and Marc-Rajan Köppler. Tim is Professor for wood engineering and holds a passion for gardening especially when it comes to vegetables. Marc holds a phd in planting design and works as a freelancer in garden planning. His passion lies of course in plants but also in anything that is made out of wood or brickwork and might fit into our place. Together we build a team with a big variation of skills to design, develop and maintain this place.
Within an area of 3 hectares you find the garden of the old nursery, a mixture of meadows, a huge orchard with thousands of spring bulbs, different kind of natural and ornamental shrubbery and many different ornamental plantings from perennials up to woody plants. All plantings have in common the necessity to fit into our natural climate, that is nowadays heavily restricted by dry spring and summer seasons as well as mild and wet winter seasons. -If you are a plants man, you know instantly the challenge that result from this – placed in easy terms it means if the species don´t work within this conditions we can´t deal with them. The introduction of any plants, the planting design as well as any kind of landscaping activities do follow one main idea. When in 2005 – by chance – we came to this place, we found wilderness and neglect but also a winningly atmosphere coming form this wilderness and neglect. By now we intend to sustain this atmosphere but also want to enhance the garden by horticultural or landscaping interventions. Therefore our aim is to unify – garden- architecture with the existing natural settings. Because of the climate and therefore the growth conditions this is a challenging task that takes time and is not always straightforward. Some approaches work out the way we intended them to, some do fail and others turn out completely different than expected, but see for yourself.
Next to the garden you will find at this place a cottage to rent, that invites you to enjoy on the one hand modern architecture in a semi traditional building and of course on the other hand all the comforts that may result from the garden of the old nursery. We call our cottage das Schnitterhaus which means that it was used in the beginning of the 20th century as a workers house for crops cutter i.e. die Schnitter. With a lot of attention to planning parameters as village structure and building cubature and position we decided to rebuild the abandoned and semi collapsed building. Up to the exterior walls everything was replaced and by midsummer of 2019 a cottage was rebuild that presents itself from the outer visual appearance as a traditional building that exactly fits into the historical village structure. In contrast to this the inner appearance is modern with an open layout.
We like to share our experiences and to show the results to everyone who is interested into this. So, please, come and have a look!