Stone gold

With deceptively simple design and a masterful use of rock, Peter Berg has crafted a polished family garden froma steeply sloping site

- NATASHA GOODFELLOW

When faced with a small, steeply sloping garden, many people might simply opt for grass and a few shrubs, but not the owners of this plot in Garnich, a village on the outskirts of the city of Luxembourg. Instead, they contacted Peter Berg, a German landscape designer known for making beautiful gardens in the most difficult of spots (his own has a height difference of 40m, front to back) using his trademark building material of natural rock.

Though this garden had a level change of only about 4m, it had other challenges. "The back third was a conservation zone, in which we weren't allowed to do anything," says Peter, "and the area closest to the house - a new build - was originally designed as an embankment, which would have been difficult to use and harder to maintain." Working with the architects, he designed a balcony of wood, steel and glass, which soars out over the garden, providing more usable space and, crucially, allowing for landscaping and planting beneath. "Where there would have been earth, we now have rocks, light and air," he says.