Matt Hetrick and Michelle and Jeremy Hoffman are co-owners of Preserve Restaurant in downtown Annapolis, a beloved eatery with an emphasis on farm-to-table dining, and they were searching for a new enterprise. When they encountered a dilapidated restaurant and its weedy, neglected garden in a nearby town, they were inspired. The stucco building, with its distinctive turret, brought to mind the biergartens of Old Europe. They decided to establish a restaurant that would serve the community fare from traditional German biergartens, including cheese, charcuterie, kebab, and schnitzel along with fresh herbs and vegetables grown in a garden on site.

European Inspiration
The result is Garten: a natural wine and beer garden situated on a quiet lot in Severna Park, Maryland, just 17 miles south of Baltimore and nine miles east of Annapolis. The historic environs of Severna Park, loosely bound by the Severn and Magothy Rivers, hold documented land grant properties dating back to the late-17th century.

The history of the Bavarian biergarten originated at a similar time, where trees were employed as shading devices to keep brewery beer cellars cool in the summer and customers comfortable while they ate and drank. Most importantly, the

 
spaces were communal and convivial, lush with verdant planting.

The design and programmatic goals of Garten are the same as biergartens of the past. Garten is a 1.5-acre site that includes the main restaurant, outdoor dining adjacent to the restaurant, a parking lot, and a working garden with a pollinator hive. The landscape work focused on creating outdoor dining spaces evocative of traditional German beer gardens, with a focus on horticulture and a layered plant palette of color, herbs, foods, and texture. However, landscape architecture firm Horn & Co. also looked at how surface water flow, modern restaurant service circulation, curbside pickup, noise abatement, and accessibility, among other considerations, could be factored into the design.

An Outdoor Dining Fairytale
The restored building has two main points of entry: a retail and curbside pickup location near the entry from the main road, as well as the pedestrian entry for diners opposite the garden. During good weather, a host desk greets visitors outside. Table locations and two circulation tiers - one for guests and one for staff - were mapped out with close attention to necessary widths for table service. The exterior experience features two major dining spaces: picnic-style tables and a covered, pass-through bar that connects patrons directly with the interior bar at the same elevation as the entry. One row of tables is covered by a building overhang while four top tables are located on a terrace that mirrors one of the lowered dining rooms inside. This terrace is accessible either from the front entry or from within the building. When constructing this area, an underground spring was discovered, requiring the Landscape Architects to add waterproofing and drainage work to divert the water.

A diner's first experience in the restaurant is passing through an archway of two columnar English Oaks (Quercus robur) trained onto a custom wrought iron arbor. The arbor acts as a symbol for the outdoor spaces - man-made structures made more beautiful and comfortable by the addition of planted elements.

There are no large trees on the site - yet. As such, double-height redwood pergolas, planted with American Wisteria (Wisteria frutescens), roses, and Pink Clematis (Clematis 'Josephine'), provide shade and a structure to support bistro lights.

Setting The Scene with Greenery
Parking requirements limit the available footprint for outdoor dining. As such, there was a tight boundary between the outdoor terraces and parking areas. European Hornbeams (Carpunus betulus 'Fastigiata') have been placed to eventually become a hedge that will separate the spaces and create a sense that the garden is fully lined with greenery. Large shade trees were placed along the parking lot to reduce the heat island effect and to eventually branch over the garden. Heavily trafficked plant islands in the parking are planted with resilient Switchgrass (Panicum virgatum), Mexican Feather Grass (Nassella tenuissima), and, of course, the Black-Eyed Susan (Rudbeckia hirta) - Maryland's state flower and iconic to Garten thanks to the large-format mural that splashes across the entry of the building.

Opposite the parking lot, the once-ramshackle, weed-infested garden is now a thriving food garden of various galvanized tubs and on-grade planters. Additional tables and lounge seating allow guests to pick up food and drinks at the retail facility and picnic outside. At the clients' directive, Horn & Co. created a fun, relaxed communal atmosphere in a lush garden setting. Most importantly, within a year, Garten has become a beloved institution in its community.