The English Garden 09.2022_downmagaz.net-сжатый

GTHEAenRgDlisEhN SEPTEMBER 2022 For everyone who loves beautiful gardens www.theenglishgarden.co.uk FSeiansaonle’s WIN LATE-SUMMER GARDENS A stay at STILL FULL OF COLOUR Barnsley House PAGE 30 Your guide to collecting BE A BETTER GARDENER GARDEN ART Sign up for a course this autumn In association with Ideas for September £5.50 ● Beautiful ORCHID buys 09 ● The very best BUDDLEJA 9 771361 284156 ● Top 10 PRAIRIE plants ● Zuleika Melluish’s CERAMICS

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CONTRIBUTORS Welcome Mimi Connolly Itook a GCSE in Latin when I was at school, struggling terribly with the Mimi is an award- grammar as I wrestled with Ovid and winning photographer Pliny, and failed to translate texts about who uses both Gauls attacking ditches with arrows. I traditional film and hated every minute of it. Years later, when digital techniques and I changed direction and arrived at horticultural college, I was specialises in gardens suddenly immersed in Latin plant names. But this time I loved and craftspeople. For learning them and their meanings and all the clues they o er to this issue she visits two the plants they describe. That’s the di erence between studying Sussex gardens on later in life, when you’ve chosen to do it and it’s a subject you pages 41 and 79. have a real interest in, as opposed to the studying we do at school when we’re too young to appreciate the joy of learning Ray Cox for its own sake. In this issue, five gardeners explain why they decided to go ‘back to school’ and take a gardening course, Ray has been a garden and where their studies have taken them. Chatting to them, it photographer for over became clear that no one had any regrets and all had enjoyed 20 years and his family and benefited from their learning – some with life-changing has run Glendoick results. Whether you just want to improve your skills or Garden Centre in knowledge, or would like a wholesale career change, what better Perthshire for three way to treat and invest in yourself? Carpe diem! generations. See his photos of Tweedhill Meanwhile, enjoy the rest of the issue: vibrant late-summer- and Tunstall Grange into-early-autumn gardens, butterfly-smothered buddleja, on pages 32 and 46. garden-inspired art and gorgeous ceramics. Carolyn Dunster CLARE FOGGETT, EDITOR IMAGE JAYNE LLOYD; MIMI CONNOLLY; RAY COX; NICHOLAS HODGSON Carolyn is a botanical GTHEAenRgDlisEhN ON THE COVER GTHEAenRgDlisEhN DIGITAL NEWSLETTER stylist, award-winning For everyone who loves beautiful gardens The garden at Sign up to our planting designer and WIN Tweedhill in For everyone who loves beautiful gardens WIN PLATFORMS newsletter for garden writer. She is FSeiansaonle’s Scotland is inspired Buy digital editions regular gardening also the author of two A stay at by prairie planting SFeiansaonle’s A stay at of The English tips and advice. books: Urban Flowers LATE-SUMMER GARDENS Barnsley and its owners’ Barnsley Garden for phone (2017) and Cut & STILL FULL OF COLOUR House love of perennials. House and tablet from theenglishgarden. Dry (2021). She visits Photographed the App Store for the studio of Zuleika PAGE 30 by Ray Cox. iPhones, and Google co.uk/newsletter/ Melluish on page 105. Play for Android. LATE-SUMMER GARDENS STILL FULL OF COLOUR Your guide to collecting BE A BETTER GARDEN ART GARDENER Sign up for a BE A BETTER GARDENER course this autumn Sign up for a Ideas for September Your guide to collecting course this autumn In association with GARDEN ART Ideas for September Beautiful ORCHID buys The very best BUDDLEJA Top 10 PRAIRIE plants Zuleika Melluish’s CERAMICS The-English-Garden-Magazine @TEGmagazine englishgardenuk theenglishgardenmagazine SEPTEMBER 2022 THE ENGLISH GARDEN 3

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For everyone who loves beautiful gardens Design: Will Williams theenglishgarden.co.uk GARDEN DESIGN TRAINING FOR The Chelsea Magazine Company Ltd, PROFESSIONALS Jubilee House, 2 Jubilee Place, London SW3 3TQ Tel: 020 7349 3700 Email: [email protected] Find out more about our inspirational training at Royal Botanic Gardens Kew, Editorial RHS Garden Wisley and online. editor Clare Foggett Our Diploma and Professional deputy editor Vivienne Hambly Development programmes are available online in real-time classes as well as at art editor Jeremy Bird our home in Royal Botanic Gardens Kew. production editor Vanessa Longworth In 2022 we also have short courses for professionals and garden enthusiasts at online editor Phoebe Jayes RHS Wisley Garden, Denmans Garden and online. Advertising Visit our website lcgd.org.uk to hear how our students are creating successful group sales director Catherine Chapman garden design careers and discover an head of sales operations Jodie Green ever-changing range of courses for the garden enthusiast. business development manager Samantha Toro Tel: +44 (0)207 349 3782; [email protected] +44 (0)1483 762955 [email protected] advertising manager Astrid Elsen SEPTEMBER 2022 THE ENGLISH GARDEN 5 Tel: 020 7349 3743; [email protected] advertising production allpointsmedia Publishing chairman Paul Dobson managing director James Dobson chief financial officer Vicki Gavin publisher Caroline Scott circulation manager Daniel Webb business operations manager Sarah Porter ea to chairman Sophie Easton Online group digital manager Ben Iskander email and digital creative manager Jenny Choo Production reprographics manager Neil Puttnam printing William Gibbons Ltd, Willenhall, UK The English Garden (UK issue) ISSN no 1361-2840. Printed in England. Manage your print and digital subscriptions online, stay up to date with the latest issues, update your personal details and even renew your subscription with just a click of a button. Sign up at https://www.subscription.co.uk/chelsea/Solo/ SUBSCRIPTION ENQUIRIES 01858 438854 EMAIL [email protected] SUBSCRIPTION OFFICE SUBSCRIPTION RATES The English Garden, CDS UK £80 (13 issues) Global, Sovereign Park, Europe £90; €110 (13 issues) Market Harborough, ROW £110; US $150; Leicestershire LE16 9EF, AUS $215 (13 issues) UK. Tel: 01858 438854. Europe and Rest of World: NEWS DISTRIBUTION Seymour Distribution Ltd, +44 (0)1858 438854. 2 East Poultry Avenue, London EC1A 9PT, UK. Tel: +44 (0)20 7429 3667. The Professional Publishers Association Member © The Chelsea Magazine Company Ltd 2022. All rights reserved. Text and pictures are copyright restricted and must not be reproduced without permission of the publishers. The information in The English Garden has been published in good faith and every effort has been made to ensure its accuracy. However, where appropriate, you are advised to check prices, opening times and dates etc before making final arrangements. All liability for loss, disappointment, negligence or damage caused by reliance on the information within this publication is hereby excluded. The opinions expressed by the contributors of The English Garden are not necessarily those of the publisher. www.chelseamagazines.com: publishers of The English Home, Artists & Illustrators, Baby, Little London, Wedding Ideas, BRITAIN, Discover Britain, Cruise International, Independent School Parent and associated guides, Racecar Engineering, Classic Boat, Sailing Today, Yachts & Yachting and Popshot.

CONTENTSSeptember 2022 SAVE Gardens 22 The English Garden 22 Barnsley House These iconic Cotswold subscription gardens are synonymous with their late PAGE 18 owner, the virtuoso Rosemary Verey. And despite inevitable changes over the years, 54 her legacy is still maintained and enhanced. 65 19 32 Tweedhill At just one acre, this garden in the Scottish Borders was too small for a full-blown prairie, but key motifs such as grasses and vivid perennials have achieved David and Kim Warden’s ambition on a diminutive scale. 41 Burletts Humphrey Avon commissioned Pauline and Paul McBride to create the soothing prairie-style garden at Burletts in West Sussex for the solace of his late wife Magrit, and it remains as a lasting tribute. 46 Tunstall Grange Making a garden from scratch for a house that did not yet exist was no easy task for designer Alistair Baldwin, who has united the Yorkshire landscape with coherent planting and a dramatic cascade. 54 Highfield Farm In Monmouthshire, Jenny and Roger Lloyd used their vast experience to open a garden with instant impact, where dense perennials tower over narrow paths to immerse and entrance the visitor. Plants 65 Top 10 Plants Head of Horticulture at London’s Horniman Museum, Errol Fernandes picks ten plants inspired by the museum’s Grassland Garden. 71 Plant Focus Wrongly derided as a wasteland weed, buddleja more than lives up to its common name of ‘butterfly bush’. 79 Marchants Hardy Plants Graham Gough and Lucy Go n look back over 25 years of innovation as they prepare to pass the nursery’s reins to a new team. 87 Grow Your Own At Thyme in Southrop, apples and root vegetables are at their finest. Miscellanea 95 Courses Studying a gardening course can set you on the path of a new career or simply have a beneficial e ect on day-to-day life. 105 Craftspeople Ceramicist and artist Zuleika Melluish has a love of plants that inspires her exquisite pots, bowls and vases. 6 THE ENGLISH GARDEN SEPTEMBER 2022

46 71 IMAGES CAROLE DRAKE; ANNA OMIOTEK-TOTT; CLIVE NICHOLS; RAY COX; NICOLA STOCKEN; SUSSIE BELL 87 FOR THE FINEST CONSERVATORIES, ORANGERIES AND ROOFLIGHTS 111 Garden Art Daniel Pembrey considers the inspiration gleaned from plants and gardens +44(0)1476 564433 by great artists including Sir Cedric Morris and the Bloomsbury Group. www.valegardenhouses.com Regulars SEPTEMBER 2022 THE ENGLISH GARDEN 7 9 This Month Plants, people, news and events, books and beautiful things to buy, plus designer Bunny Guinness’s diary. 19 Shopping Everything you need to create beautiful displays of flamboyant orchids. 122 To Conclude Non Morris sees Gertrude Jekyll in a different light. Offers 18 Subscribe & Save Subscribe to The English Garden and save money. 30 Competition Win an overnight stay in the Rosemary Verey Suite at Barnsley House.

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This Month Our guide to plants, people, gardens and events, tasks and shopping in September IN FLOWER NOW Anemone hupehensis ‘Prinz Heinrich’ IMAGE GAP/DIANNA JAZWINSKI When all around there are fading flowers, a bit bolder, go for one of the deep, rich pinks. Japanese anemones (although this species Of these ‘Prinz Heinrich’ is a lovely choice, with actually comes from Hupeh in China), step into double flowers, their petals slightly quilled, giving a the spotlight. Try a pale pastel pink like ‘Königin relaxed, informal appearance. Plantswoman Claire Charlotte’ with soft-toned asters, the ever-reliable Austin calls it “indispensable” and says it can be white ‘Honorine Jobert’, or, if you want something left untouched for years. SEPTEMBER 2022 THE ENGLISH GARDEN 9

People to Meet Introducing the gardeners and public figures we most admire in British horticulture David Lindo and exciting. Anything can RECOMMENDED turn up anywhere at any time. The author, lecturer, presenter and Urban Some 620 bird species have David’s favourite Birder on the serendipitous pleasures of been recorded in the UK, and gardens to visit discovering wildlife where you’d least expect you can find 95% of these in it and the spirituality of birdwatching urban areas. The Dartford Tresco Abbey Gardens warbler is often spotted in Scilly Islands When I was six, I found a I grew up in an area of areas of heathland with gorse. Tresco is a great garden INTERVIEW PHOEBE JAYES IMAGES SHUTTERSTOCK library book that contained London comprised mainly I remember walking with to wander around during over 1,000 bird species. I of immigrants. There was no a journalist in Wormwood a visit to the Isles of Scilly. took it into school to read one to teach me or take me Scrubs in West London and Autumn is the season for during lessons. By the time I to the countryside, so I taught there was a solitary gorse me. It is when you are most was eight, I knew most of the myself. Though, surprised by bush. The bush rustled – and likely to spot a rare bird or, species – not just the ones in my interest, my mum forked out flew a Dartford warbler! at the very least, see the that book. I guess the “10,000 out for a pair of binoculars. I red squirrels scampering hours of practice” Malcolm didn’t pay her back for ages, My career began with around. Tel: 01720 424108; Gladwell describes as the key but we’re square now! presenting on Springwatch, tresco.co.uk to expertise happened before but I wanted to spread my I was eight. As time went by, I realised message further so I began Kyoto Garden urban areas are interesting writing, lecturing and tour London leading. My first book, The Kyoto Garden is a Urban Birder, is a personal wonderful corner within record of what I’ve done in London’s Holland Park. my life. My latest children’s This Japanese-style book, The Extraordinary World garden is a good place to of Birds, includes a range of watch jays foraging among species unknown to most the foliage of the trees, people that will hopefully stick especially when you are with kids their whole lives. enjoying a cup of tea from the café. Tel: 020 7361 One challenge of my 3000; rbkc.gov.uk career is my phobia of birds! I blame Alfred Hitchcock for my di culty touching them. I’ve done a lot of leg ringing with The British Trust for Ornithology, though, so I’m now somewhat desensitised. My main tip for birding is not to worry if you don’t know much. That knowledge will come. Birding is a spiritual thing. It’s not about rarity, it’s about looking around and seeing what’s there – distinguishing the sounds of nature from those of humanity. Anyone who’d like to find out more about birding can gain access to information and recommended spots to visit by joining the community at theurbanbirderworld.com 10 THE ENGLISH GARDEN SEPTEMBER 2022

WHY HARTLEY BESPOKE GLASSHOUSES OXFORD BOTANIC GARDENS Oxford, UK EXCEPTIONAL DELIVERY OF SERVICE Once your order has been handmade to your personal requirements, and Hartley Botanic’s exacting standards, your delivery and installation will be exceptional. The proud team at Hartley Botanic are there to ensure the process runs smoothly, providing you with the information you need and keeping you up to date throughout. Discover the secret of Hartley Botanic by calling 0800 783 8083 or visit www.hartley-botanic.co.uk NOTHING ELSE IS A HARTLEY The only aluminium Glasshouses and Greenhouses endorsed by the RHS ® The Royal Horticultural Society. The Royal Horticultural Society, and its logo, are trade marks of The Royal Horticultural Society (Registered Charity No 222879/SC038262) and used under licence from RHS Enterprises Limited.

Out & About Unmissable events, news and the very best gardens to visit this month Another World Than This at Sissinghurst 23 July-31 October, Kent The National Trust’s Sissinghurst Castle Garden is hosting a specially commissioned installation by Charlotte Smithson. The Manchester-based artist will bring the outdoors in by filling the Oast House with a delicate suspension of glassware containing botanical specimens from the surrounding gardens, encouraging visitors to notice exquisite details found in nature that are often overlooked. Tickets are included in standard garden admission. nationaltrust.org.uk Beautiful & Useful NGS Garden WORDS PHOEBE JAYES IMAGES JULIAN WINSLOW; MARIANNE MAJERUS; FROGLIFE; LEIGH CLAPP 17 & 18 September, West Sussex Parsonage Farm Boutique design fair Beautiful & Useful returns to the Sussex Prairie West Sussex Garden this year with a lineup of top Developed over 30 years designer-makers, including Jennifer with an emphasis on fruit to Tetlow, who makes stone bird baths reflect the village’s apple- and vases; Laura Baxter and her growing heritage, this large botanically inspired jewellery; and formal garden features long stitcher and painter Maude Smith of vistas, a walled garden, rose Maude Made, with her hand-painted borders and a vegetable tea towels. Visitors can also enjoy live garden. A turf amphitheatre, music and refreshments amid swathes yew cloisters and a jungle of perennials at their peak. Adult: £10; walk make it wonderful to child: £5. beautiful-useful.co.uk explore. Parsonage Farm, Kirdford, West Sussex Toads in Trees RH14 0NH. Opens Sunday 4 September, 2-6pm. Adult: New research has uncovered the surprising £7; Children: free. ngs.org.uk extent to which common toads live in trees. Researchers from the University of Cambridge and Froglife, supported by wildlife charity People’s Trust for Endangered Species (PTES), made the discovery when 50 common toads were found in nest boxes and tree cavities by volunteers looking for hazel dormice and bats. The discovery has highlighted the importance of sharing data between conservation organisations representing different species. froglife.org 12 THE ENGLISH GARDEN SEPTEMBER 2022



Hendon Ladders, loved by professional and amateur gardeners alike. The tripod design offers a lightweight safe working position ideal for hedge cutting, tree pruning and general DIY. Independently safety tested. The Hendon Ladder collection is available in 4 models ranging in height from 4ft to 16ft. All of our ladders feature clawed feet, these are ideal for soft ground and come with the addition of rubber safety feet at no extra cost. hendonladders.co.uk U LT I M AT E FREE UK 5 YEAR STABILITY DELIVERY WARRANTY

Bunny’s Diary Bunny Guinness debates lifting dahlias, plants new trees and tries out a new water feature kit IMAGES NEIL HEPWORTH; GAP PHOTOS; SHUTTERSTOCK I leave my dahlias in the ground doing it in spring. This way, the root system A new miniature fountain kit from over winter because they perform develops before the soil cools, and if a dry Hydria Life (£199.99, hydrialife.com) better on my thin soil when left in spring follows, they are more resilient. with a pump and a rechargeable cordless place to develop a deeper, well- Small, bareroot plants do better than pot battery, enables even a technophobe like me established root system. Winter grown. Make the hole just big and deep to fit it into any pot in just a few minutes to wet is dahlias’ big enemy, but everyone’s enough to accommodate the roots. Backfill make a great self-contained water feature. conditions are different and every year is with the exact same soil that is in the The battery lasts for 150 hours and it comes different. With a reasonably mild climate (I ground anyway. Don’t add rich compost or with a remote control, so you could run am in the East Midlands) and free-draining the roots won’t leave the pit. Don’t stake it for two months for two hours a day. I soil, it is far easier to fling a thick carpet of unless you really have to; you can plant put one in a dolly tub on my terrace, but mulch over them before the frosts and just standards without stakes if they’re not thought it would also work well in a stone lift one clump for insurance. The clump exposed. Plant small trees: transplants or trough. A great invention. n sits in a crate in a frost-free place with a bit whips will overtake bigger specimens in of compost around it. So often the easiest no time at all. Keep weeds and grass away Visit Bunny’s YouTube channel to watch system turns out to be the superior one! from the base of the tree for around three videos such as ‘The Simplest Self-Contained years and remember to give a big soak on Water Feature’ and ‘How to Hide a Recent research has turned tree planting planting and before mulching. Rabbit-proof Trampoline in Your Garden’ youtube. techniques on their head. Planting in early guards will often prove essential. com/bunnyguinness autumn, it transpires, is far better than SEPTEMBER 2022 THE ENGLISH GARDEN 15

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Beautiful & Useful New plants, books, tools and creative designs, plus shopping inspiration Dine Out in Style The evenings may be drawing in, but with the weather still warm there is plenty of time for long, lazy meals outdoors. Tablescaping, the art of setting a table beautifully, came to the fore during the pandemic and it remains a popular trend. Daylesford Organic has teamed with Colefax and Fowler to produce a range of tableware and linens with a strong botanical theme, perfect for entertaining in the garden. The Quince Garden Collection draws inspiration from the Ditchley pattern in the Colefax and Fowler archive, and 18th-century botanical designs. All tableware is handmade in Provence. Daylesford x Colefax Collection, from £29, daylesford.com. Supporting Stars With almost 30 years of design experience under her belt, Janey Auchincloss knows exactly what will work in a garden. Her new obelisks, designed initially for a client and now available to buy online, measure 136cm tall and 58cm square at the base. Each copper and brass obelisk is hot- dip galvanised then acid-etched for a patina that will develop over time. Janey advises sinking the obelisk by 20cm to make the overall height 116cm. Each obelisk is made by Gedding Mill Forge in Suffolk. Janey Auchincloss Design Obelisk, £400, geddingmill.co.uk WORDS VIVIENNE HAMBLY IMAGES RICHARD BLOOM; MARTIN MORELL The Tree in My How to Grow 100 Garden: Choose the Flowers; Curiosities One Tree, Plant A Sustainable & Inventions It – And Save the Approach to from the World Growing Plants Collections through the Seasons of the Kate Bradbury and National Marianne Mogendorff Trust Lucille Clerc, Dorling and Camila Romain, Katie Knowles, National Trust Books, £10 Kindersley, £20 Here is miscellany from the National Wildlife author Kate Bradbury explores Pavilion, £20 Trust to enchant anyone with an interest the astonishing positive effect a single Follow in the steps of a multitude of in garden history. Examples include the tree can have in a garden. Her book is small-scale producers in the UK and step 16 bronze tortoises modelled on the peppered with revealing facts that make up efforts to grow your own cut flowers. pets of William John Bankes at Kingston the case for trees clear. She includes a In this inspiring book, the duo behind Lacy, and a 19th-century perforated guide to choosing and planting trees, London-based Wolves Lane Flower orchid pot at Biddulph Grange Garden. and presents a selection of 50 of the Company show you don’t need a large most useful garden trees to grow. garden for success. SEPTEMBER 2022 THE ENGLISH GARDEN 17

PUT YOUR FEET UP and enjoy a subscription to The English Garden for less than £3.50 an issue SAVE 43% YOUR PRICE £44.95 USUALLY £80 Plus “The perfect choice for everyone who loves beautiful gardens” FREE GEORGE PLUMPTRE, CHIEF EXECUTIVE, NGS Spear & Jackson secateurs worth £19.99* Order your subscription today Subscribe to The English Garden for just £44.95 for 13 issues and save 43% Visit www.chelseamagazines.com/CTEG0922 or call +44 (0)1858 438 833 quoting CTEG0922 * Free gift is for Direct Debit and Continuous Credit Card subscriptions delivered to the UK mainland addresses only and will be delivered to the bill payer’s address. Gift is subject to availability and we reserve the right to supply an alternative. Saving is calculated from UK BAR rate of £80.

WORDS PHOEBE JAYES. ALL PRICES ARE CORRECT AT TIME OF GOING TO PRESS. Orchid Fever Nothing beats the timeless elegance of orchids. Put on a show-stopping display at home and maintain their ethereal beauty by looking after them carefully, according to their specific needs, using the right equipment. Or, for an easy first step, invest in this ‘everlasting’ large white orchid in stone pot, £199. Tel: 03450 920283; sarahraven.com SEPTEMBER 2022 THE ENGLISH GARDEN 19

Clear glass Baby Bio orchid food, RHS orchid stake, £3.49. atomiser, £6.49. £3. Tel: 0800 636262; Tel: 01344 578822; hortology.co.uk sainsburys.co.uk rhsplants.co.uk Orchid snips, £10.99. Orchid Focus Tel: 0114 2338262; repotting mix 3L, £3.99. Tel: 0131 burgonandball.com 5616406; dobbies.com RHS Orchids: A History through Botanical Illustration by Charlotte Brooks, £26.99. Tel: 01865 333536; blackwells.co.uk Kolibri orchid with ceramic pot, £40. Tel: 0800 123400; selfridges.com Mini glass watering can, £20. Tel: 0345 6100336; johnlewis.com Rameses ginger jar, £745. Tel: 01782 820500; moorcroft.com Orchid Myst, £5.99. Tel: 0131 5616406; dobbies.com 20 THE ENGLISH GARDEN SEPTEMBER 2022

Watch these mesmerising sculptures dance in the wind, sketching ever-changing forms across the sky. Will Carr has been exploring and creating fascinating contemporary kinetic sculptures for many years, combining complex engineering and in-depth study of balance to create pieces that move silently in the lightest and strongest of winds. These sculptures enhance the spaces they inhabit; their endless flow brings viewers a peaceful connection to nature as they flicker in the wind, through day and night. Please visit his website to see the sculptures in movement www.willcarrsculpture.co.uk willcarrsculpture

One change at Barnsley House since Rosemary Verey’s day has been the lowering of the former yew pillars along the garden’s Yew Walk.

LLIEVTGEHESENODN Barnsley House garden in the Cotswolds is synonymous with the late Rosemary Verey. Despite inevitable changes, her legacy is still maintained WORDS VANESSA BERRIDGE PHOTOGRAPHS ANNA OMIOTEK-TOTT M y last visit to Barnsley House was in July 2001 for a reception following Rosemary Verey’s memorial service at Cirencester parish church. I was chatting to the Oxford don and Financial Times garden columnist Robin Lane Fox when Charles Verey came up to us, despairing of maintaining his mother’s garden. The classicist, in puckish mood despite the occasion, responded: “If I were you, Charles, I’d just grass the whole thing over.” Returning 21 years later, I was relieved to see that Charles had not taken Robin’s advice and that the garden remained much as I remembered it, despite the house becoming a hotel under a succession of owners in the interim. In fact, the only glaringly obvious change had been made by Charles himself shortly after his mother’s death: he halved the height of eight Irish yews along the Yew Walk because he couldn’t see the garden properly from his bedroom. The yews now look well settled, the shape of patty- pan squashes rather than pillars. Barnsley House garden continues as a testament to Rosemary Verey’s talents thanks to head gardener Jennifer Danbury and senior gardener Lucy Bowles- Lewis. Both are conscious of Rosemary’s legacy, and make constant use of the planting plans in her book, Making of a Garden (Frances Lincoln, 1995). There is continuity, too: Jennifer worked for Richard Gatenby, her predecessor as head gardener, who started work at Barnsley during Rosemary’s lifetime. “She was ill when Richard arrived, but she would SEPTEMBER 2022 THE ENGLISH GARDEN 23

Above The iconic come out to comment Laburnum Walk is more on what he was doing,” familiar in spring when it Jennifer tells me. “I drips with yellow flowers. learned a lot from him, Right Persicaria and and he handed things phlox join foliage that’s just starting to turn, on to me.” Rosemary giving Barnsley a warm, Verey’s grandson, Tony, early-autumn glow. also works part-time Below right Mellow in the garden today. sunshine in the Potager. Below left Eupatorium Rosemary’s starting and dahlias in the border. point was the 1697 Cotswold stone house. Writing in Making of a Garden, she said: “For Barnsley House, in its handsome William and Mary style, I have attempted to create a garden with strong bones, vistas, garden buildings, pleached walks, a wilderness and a potager, all to reflect the period.” It is remarkable how many different areas Rosemary fashioned within the relatively small compass of four acres. Her structure remains largely in place, though trees and shrubs have matured over the years. For Jennifer and Lucy, their work is all about balance: adapting planting, for instance, to embrace new, improved cultivars within a sharply elegant garden redolent of a very different era in British gardening. Verey’s walks, vistas, Tudor-style knot garden, and ornamental potager are a world away from the rewilded landscapes of the 2022 Chelsea Flower Show. “You have to move with the plants – and Mrs Verey would not have stood still. She was a tremendous editor,” says Jennifer. Dealing with endemic ground elder has forced the reorganisation of several areas – particularly the Parterre beds. “We will be putting back perennials and shrubs that Mrs 24 THE ENGLISH GARDEN SEPTEMBER 2022

Verey picked, but also using new varieties, because that is how Barnsley would have developed in her hands,” Jennifer adds. They are using more annuals, also favoured by Rosemary, including Salvia patens and Nicotiana sylvestris, which releases its scent at dusk. “Fragrance has always been important in this garden,” says Jennifer. “A new cultivar, N. x hybrida ‘Whisper Mixed’, that Mrs Verey wouldn’t have known helps take the garden into autumn.” The team conserve a garden designed for a private house while meeting a hotel’s requirements. “Keeping the borders looking fresh all year round is challenging,” says Jennifer. “For anybody coming here, it is always a special day – a wedding or an event they have saved up for. We bear that in mind when we’re gardening.” SEPTEMBER 2022 THE ENGLISH GARDEN 25

Paths in the Potager have been widened, but the layout is still the same as Verey’s original. 26 THE ENGLISH GARDEN SEPTEMBER 2022

Adaptations The Potager have included the is set apart by building of meeting a farm track rooms, a cinema still used by the and a spa, but these farmer driving have been skilfully his cows from hidden within the fields to sheds Wilderness, leaving unspoilt the view from the veranda across the Knot Garden and Croquet Lawn. During the first lockdown, substantial changes were made to the Potager. Many now over-large box bushes planted by Rosemary were removed, and the cross paths were widened, while keeping the original pattern. “Broader paths are better for guests and groups,” says Lucy, who is mainly responsible for the Potager. It was in the Potager that Rosemary popularised the time-honoured but lost practice of growing flowers and vegetables together ornamentally. What she did caught on in the 1990s, although planting today has become less formal than it was at Barnsley. Here, the gardening is intensive, reaching its peak in autumn with all the produce grown destined for the hotel kitchen. Again, there are tricky waters to be navigate: “When things are looking great in the Potager, I don’t want to harvest anything,” says Lucy. “But when they have gone over, the chef won’t want them.” Candelabra apples remain from Rosemary’s time, although the upright pears are new. Lucy would like to replant the sunnier side of the garden but the great stand of artichokes that grows there was on Rosemary’s original plan: “Everyone loves them and comments on them.” The Potager is set apart by a farm track still used by the farmer driving his cows from fields to milking sheds. That the lane was once the main road through the village always surprises American visitors according to Lucy. Rosemary Verey was fêted in America, where she lectured and designed gardens and Jennifer is pleased to see American groups returning after the pandemic. Most comment on the American ironwood, a deciduous shrub with plumes of white flowers in midsummer, planted by Rosemary. “That link with America is important. The garden feels well travelled even though it has always been in the same place,” Jennifer observes. The most famous feature is the Laburnum Walk, much photographed in Top Nasturtiums spill May when it’s in flower from a vast terracotta with purple alliums pot in the centre of the beneath. But, even Potager’s paths. before it became a hotel, Left Squash scramble Barnsley was a garden their way up stout, rustic for all seasons. The use teepees; beds are edged of evergreens, including by box and herbs. SEPTEMBER 2022 THE ENGLISH GARDEN 27

Lingering sweet peas are a reminder of the fading summer, while starry clouds of pale mauve asters are a harbinger of autumn. 28 THE ENGLISH GARDEN SEPTEMBER 2022

box roundels, golden privet lollipops and yew pillars, season, overwintering and then “It is an honour spires of Chamaecyparis lawsoniana ‘Stewartii’, and potting on before being planted to be able to junipers, anchor the planting across the year. The out again in June. reflect on what Ribbon Beds were probably conceived with autumn someone else has in mind, with mop-head Euonymus alatus, whose Staying at Barnsley House foliage turns golden red in September, underplanted Hotel is a unique experience, with sedums such as Hylotelephium ‘Autumn Joy’. especially in the Secret Garden Parterre beds by the house are now planted Suite. “Guests there,” says done, especially up seasonally with great splashes of yellow in Jennifer, “can have breakfast when the garden late summer from Helianthus annuus. Seasonal in the Tuscan Temple on their was her home” colour is also added in pots by the hotel’s entrance, own.” They get an idea of what an innovation since Rosemary’s day. Even here, it was like when the Verey however, reference is made in the planting to her fondness for long-flowering pelargoniums. Dahlias family lived here and appreciate are another departure (only one, Dahlia merckii, is mentioned in Rosemary’s book), important both something of how the gardeners feel. “It is an for autumn colour in the garden and for displays in the hotel. These are planted in the Potager and also honour to be able to reflect on what someone else in the Bob Dash Border, named after Rosemary’s American designer friend who was a fan of colour. has done, especially when the garden was her home,” Above left Sunflowers “We can be more exuberant here than elsewhere in Jennifer concludes. “You have to respect that.” n and dahlias ensure beds the garden,” Lucy explains. Barnsley’s soil is heavy of Swiss chard and clay, so the dahlias need lifting at the end of the Barnsley House Spa Hotel, Barnsley, Cirencester, parsnips are beautiful Gloucestershire GL7 5EE. Charity open days as well as productive. occasionally take place, private tours for groups Top right Dahlias make of 10-40 can be pre-booked, and hotel guests can opulent cut flowers; try explore the garden at their leisure. Tel: 01285 ‘Rip City’ for similar. 740000; barnsleyhouse.com Above right Flowers from the garden are displayed throughout the hotel. SEPTEMBER 2022 THE ENGLISH GARDEN 29

COMPETITION WIN A Stay at Barnsley House Enter our competition to win a one-night stay for two people at Barnsley House, Rosemary Verey’s former home in the Cotswolds, and explore its timeless garden With the picture postcard Best of all, you can explore the garden and characterful. With manor homes, perfection of the Cotswolds at your leisure, and take in Rosemary castles, woodland retreats, elegant visible at every turn, Barnsley Verey’s timeless layout. Verey designed lodges and city boltholes to choose House is the quintessential country gardens all around the world, and her from, every guest can experience some retreat. Garden lovers will know it as client list included the likes of Elton John of the best places to eat, stay and the creation of Rosemary Verey, and its and HRH Prince Charles, but her own unwind in the British Isles. For more Potager has inspired beautiful kitchen garden at Barnsley was her original and information on the portfolio of hotels, gardens across the country, while the much-loved creation. visit prideofbritainhotels.com famous Laburnum Walk has become iconic. In short, it’s a must-see. Enter our prize draw for the chance HOW TO ENTER to experience Barnsley House and its What better way to explore the garden gardens yourself. Our prize includes To enter, simply head to our website, than as a guest at this luxury country an overnight stay for two guests in the theenglishgarden.co.uk/o ers/ house hotel. Inside the wisteria-clad, Rosemary Verey Suite, with its private barnsley to fill in your details. The honey-stone building, expect elegantly courtyard and conservatory. Indulge closing date for entries is 7 September warm and inviting interiors. Hidden in a champagne afternoon tea at the 2022. For full terms and conditions, away in the garden is the spa, where Temple, a tranquil spot tucked away in visit chelseamagazines.com. The prize you can indulge in relaxing and reviving the gardens, as well as a three-course is subject to availability, excludes the treatments. Later, dine on delicious food dinner at The Potager restaurant in the Christmas and New Year period and that’s been made using produce picked evening. The following morning, enjoy a must be taken by 30 March 2023. fresh from the garden, in The Potager full English breakfast before you depart. restaurant, or head across the road to The Village Pub, opposite. Pride of Britain Hotels is a collection of the finest properties, each one unique 30 THE ENGLISH GARDEN SEPTEMBER 2022

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AABPSrTaRirAieCinT At one acre, Tweedhill in the Scottish Borders was too small for a full-blown prairie, but key motifs such as grasses and vivid perennials have achieved David and Kim Warden’s ambition on a diminutive scale WORDS LOUISE CURLEY PHOTOGRAPHS RAY COX 32 THE ENGLISH GARDEN SEPTEMBER 2022

The naturalistic planting scheme at Tweedhill takes its inspiration from prairie-style schemes, with bold perennials and lots of grasses.

W hen David and Kim Warden first encountered the walled garden at Tweedhill, they felt the opportunity to create a garden there was too good to pass up on. However, the overgrown wilderness they took on in March 2015 required a significant amount of vision, stamina and determination to transform it into the plant haven it is now. “I was 63 when we moved here, and it’s been quite a challenge to clear the approximately one-acre site of scrubby vegetation, fell overgrown conifers and fill 11 skips with all the rubbish and rubble that had been left on site from when the previous owners built the house here,” David acknowledges. Working out where to begin can be tricky when faced with such a site, but fortunately for David and Kim, who had created two other gardens from scratch, they weren’t daunted by those initial steps. “The approach to the house seemed to be the most obvious place for us to start reclaiming the space,” David recalls. “I began with a long border that ran down one side, removing lots of builders’ detritus as I went. Even today we’ll still come across something unexpected buried in the soil!” The garden, which is situated in a small hamlet just over the border in Scotland, five miles from Berwick-upon-Tweed, benefits from a “Even today we’ll still come shelterbelt of neighbouring trees that helps across something unexpected to di use the westerly winds sweeping across the surrounding farmland. The buried in the soil!” sandstone walls, thought to date to the late 18th century, also act as a bu er. “We’re Top Clumps of monarda and helenium. Middle David and Kim Warden, who have lived at Tweedhill since 2015. Left Neighbouring trees and stone walls shelter the perennials within. This image Daylilies and lythrum surround a painted obelisk. 34 THE ENGLISH GARDEN SEPTEMBER 2022

The lush leaves and wiry flowers of persicaria contrast with helenium, grasses, veronicastrum and Verbena bonariensis in the front garden.

Above Delicate Molinia surprisingly dry here,” says David. “Even if rain is caerulea ‘Cordoba’ with forecast, it tends to peter out before it reaches us. Monarda ‘Vintage Wine’. That, coupled with the very free-draining, loamy Right Echinacea soil we have, means we’ve had to incorporate a purpurea ‘Rubinstern’. significant amount of manure and compost and Below A sweeping we need to mulch a lot as well. border of long-lasting perennials in the front “The physical nature of creating the garden has garden offers vivid been hard work, but what I hadn’t anticipated was colour and texture that after a couple of years I would be juggling during late summer. working on new sections with having to maintain the areas that had already been planted, which at 36 THE ENGLISH GARDEN SEPTEMBER 2022 times could be quite overwhelming,” David admits. Gradually though, the garden started to take shape with a network of gravel paths and deep borders filled with the couple’s favourite plants. “I’ve been influenced by Piet Oudolf, Dan Pearson and Tom Stuart-Smith, but because we don’t have acres here, prairie-style planting wouldn’t have been appropriate,” says David. “Instead, we decided it would be our version of a naturalistic planting scheme combining grasses and long-flowering perennials with a strong emphasis on bold colour.” Veronicastrum – one of three Plant Heritage National Plant Collections David and Kim look after in the garden, the others being miscanthus and helenium – add height and structure. “I particularly “Because we don’t have acres here, prairie-style planting wouldn’t have been appropriate” like ‘Spring Dew’, which I think is the best for winter structure,” says David. Other tall perennials that act as anchors in the borders at Tweedhill include the statuesque Eupatorium fistulosum f. albidum ‘Ivory Towers’, Actaea simplex ‘Prichard’s Giant’, Thalictrum ‘Anne’ and the elegant, creamy- white, frothy flower plumes of Artemisia lactiflora ‘Elfenbein’. “Even though we have protection from wind here, we do still support the taller plants using 6mm steel bent to form stakes,” David explains. “We get the steel from a supplier in Berwick, and they cut it into 2-3 metre lengths for us.” Interwoven among these giants are grasses such as molinia, miscanthus and panicum, plus classic prairie-style plants like echinacea, monarda, persicaria, sanguisorba and heleniums, of which David and Kim have 92 different cultivars dotted about the garden. “I’ve always been a bit of a grasses geek because I love how they add movement to a space, and I started combining heleniums with grasses at our previous garden,” says David. “Heleniums can be tricky and not everyone can grow them – they’ll sometimes disappear from

Sunny DELIGHTS A selection of colourful varieties from David and Kim’s 92-strong helenium collection ‘RIVERTON BEAUTY’ ‘UFO TOM’ Beautiful sunshine-yellow, This reddish-orange variety flowers with a central brown is a relatively new, compact cone from July to September introduction, with clumps on plants that reach 1m tall. growing to just 50cm. a border altogether and Above The silken that’s happened to me flowerheads and bold, too, so I make sure I take arching leaves of a plenty of divisions as miscanthus tower above insurance against losses. the pale flower spires of Veronicastrum This year the RHS started virginicum ‘Pink Glow’. a trial of heleniums at RHS ‘RUBY TUESDAY’ ‘HARTMUT RIEGER’ Bridgewater, which I’m pleased to be participating in.” Deep red, dark-centred A German-bred variety The need to produce plants for the garden and to flowers live up to their name. known for the subtle rusty maintain the national collections has meant that David This one forms compact, stripes on its golden-yellow no longer uses the greenhouse for the exhibition onions sturdy clumps of up to 75cm. petals. Reaches 1.2m tall. he used to grow. “Producing onions for showing is a long and expensive exercise because you need to start them off from seed in December and provide them with heat and supplementary light through to spring. They were just taking up far too much space, so I’ve had to give them up,” he explains. While the garden is at its peak in late summer and early autumn, David and Kim were keen that it should offer year-round interest. Several original trees – an oak with an attractively crooked trunk, a couple of apples, a large silver birch and a yew – were retained, and alongside these David and Kim planted semi-mature specimens of Cercis siliquastrum, Betula albosinensis ‘RAUCHTOPAS’ ‘TURA’ ‘Fascination’, Alnus incana ‘Aurea’, several rare sorbus A beautiful 1m tall variety with A striking compact variety with and a couple of crab apples including ‘Evereste’, the petals that are bright yellow a central cone that is the same species Malus spontanea, which is endangered in its on top with coppery-orange shade of butter-yellow as the native Japan, and ‘Rudolph’, which David recommends tones on the undersides. flower’s petals. as being the best for pink blossom. And in areas near the house there are hardy geraniums, camassia, lupins, alliums and the orchid-like flowers of roscoea. SEPTEMBER 2022 THE ENGLISH GARDEN 37

David’s tips for growing heleniums Above left David and Many of the Kim’s home is almost perennials and grasses SOIL them off the plants and dispose hidden by its enveloping provide interest and Ideally heleniums need fertile, of them. You need to do this early perennial planting. presence well into moist, well-drained soil, but they in the season, when new shoots Top right Bobbly wands winter, but David and are adaptable. The traditional are pushing through. Mature of Actaea ‘Chocoholic’ yellow-flowered cultivars have plants are less palatable to slugs. Helenium autumnale parentage, with purple Monarda Kim are not wedded and these tend to cope better HOEING ‘Gewitterwolke’ and a to the idea of leaving with drier soils. Don’t hoe close to the plant as vivid lythrum backdrop. everything in place until you can damage the roots just Above right Lobelia x spring. “What stands up PLANTING under the surface of the soil. speciosa ‘Red Velvet’. Whether you’re planting a shop- bought helenium or divisions, DIVISION well is left, but anything prepare the ground by adding lots The centre of a clump will die of compost. Water thoroughly away over time so heleniums that starts to flop and goes soggy is cut back. These and mulch with more compost. need to be divided every three to five years. Division is also the plants just look unattractive and provide hiding DEADHEADING easiest method of propagation. Deadheading will prolong Avoid dividing in autumn since holes for slugs, and we wouldn’t be able to have such flowering. Wear gloves when the plants can struggle to re- handling mature plants as they establish before winter, instead extensive beds and leave all the cutting back until can cause allergic reactions. divide in early- to mid-spring. Lift the plant and pull apart sections late winter so we do need to stagger it.” PESTS about the size of your hand or Slugs can be a problem for young use a hand fork to divide. Now that the initial plans for the garden have plants. I go out at dusk and pick been completed, David and Kim have started to tweak elements of the planting, adding more colour, form and interest to certain areas. “I’m keen to experiment to see how plants work with each other and I hope I never lose that fascination,” David reflects. “We didn’t create the garden to be static: it’s an ever-evolving space.” n The Plant Heritage National Plant Collections of Miscanthus, Veronicastrum and Helenium can be viewed by appointment. Contact David and Kim Warden: 01289 386132; [email protected] 38 THE ENGLISH GARDEN SEPTEMBER 2022

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CALM & REPOSE Humphrey Avon commissioned Pauline and Paul McBride to create the soothing prairie-style garden at Burletts in West Sussex for the solace of his late wife Magrit, and it remains as a lasting tribute alongside her own work WORDS VIVIENNE HAMBLY PHOTOGRAPHS MIMI CONNOLLY A central pathway flanked by deep drifts of prairie-style perennials curves past the barn at Burletts. SEPTEMBER 2022 THE ENGLISH GARDEN 41

The view from the barn to the round house takes in a tapestry of Pennisetum ‘Viridescens’, Sedum ‘Matrona’, and Verbena bonariensis. 42 THE ENGLISH GARDEN SEPTEMBER 2022

B urletts, a Grade II-listed rectory dating “He fell in love with our borders and how the from the early 19th century and garden felt in a natural landscape with the wider overlooking the rolling South Downs, countryside beyond. He believed it would fit well is the West Sussex home of Humphrey with his own project,” says Pauline. Humphrey chose Avon. With his late wife Magrit, he two spots for development: a site near an orchard bought the property in the late 1970s, from Audrey some distance from the house, and, closer in, what Feest, who had lived there since just after the Second has become known as the Barn Garden, where a World War. For the most part, Burletts is a classic restored heritage Sussex barn now anchors a fabric country garden, with borders, pasture, an orchard of sinuous paths and textured planting. and a large walled garden that had previously Originally a small paddock, the site has long views supplied produce for the house. towards the voluptuous, curving South Downs, When Humphrey and Magrit moved in, the something Paul and Pauline were keen to echo in garden was overgrown, having become too much for their design for the Barn Garden. The pair were also Audrey to manage, but they turned it into a space careful to select plants that were right for the setting for their young family. Magrit in particular loved and created a design suited to the way Humphrey to garden, and her daughter, Vicky Cahill, recalls and Magrit used the garden. Key to their work that she worked on it “day and night” with gardener at Sussex Prairies and at Burletts are paths that Kevin Hodges. Magrit understood that, in the way meander right through the planting, so visitors are of gardens that have built up over centuries, she and immersed in all the colours, textures and movements her family were but one layer in the archaeology of of any given season, from fresh growth in spring to their property. “One of our previous gardeners, who pared back senescence in autumn and winter. This had worked for my parents for years, said he often is something that suited Magrit especially as her saw a Victorian lady in the walled garden when he illness developed. “The naturalistic planting style was working,” says Vicky. The gardener would look has a freedom and a looseness to it that is attractive up from his digging to see the garden laid out like a to those folk seeking a wilder style of planting. It is market garden, completely different to how it looked less rigid and more embracing and is moving back in the present day. Magrit, never one to take tales of towards a more natural way of gardening with plants ghosts lightly, looked up Burletts in archives held in as the main focus,” Pauline explains. nearby Chichester. “She found an old map of Burletts Having worked with prairie-style planting for that directly related to the description, so perhaps it over 20 years, Pauline and Paul have a good sense of was a true flashback to the past,” muses Vicky. what will work in a garden like this. But for them, By the 1980s Magrit’s work in the garden was gardens are about experience and plants. In late gathering pace, only to be ruined by summer and early autumn in the Barn the Great Storm of 1987. “But my Below The pale daisy Garden, the planting the McBrides mother insisted that new trees were flowers of Kalimeris compiled has its moment, although planted immediately, and now, 35 incisa ‘Madiva’ lend a Pauline explains that they look for years later, much of that planting is touch of freshness to the plants that “offer colour and spectacle well established,” Vicky explains. mix of warm autumnal for a long time”. Mounds of brilliant colours at Burletts. Gardening had always been yellow Rudbeckia fulgida Magrit’s solace, and she var. sullivantii ‘Goldsturm’ found plants much more immediately catch the interesting than people eye, but closer inspection and their endless chatter. reveals off-white, green- Sadly, Magrit developed tinged Echinacea purpurea Alzheimer’s in the ‘Green Edge’, Achillea early 2000s. By chance, ‘White Pearl’ and Erigeron Humphrey visited Sussex annuus mingling with Prairie Garden in nearby lilac Verbena bonariensis. Henfield, with a gardening Brighter shades of pink friend. Humphrey was emerge from Persicaria so taken with the relaxed amplexicaulis ‘September naturalistic planting in Spires’, Sedum ‘Matrona’ the eight-acre garden, that and Echinacea ‘Sussex he asked owners Paul and Prairie Seedling’. Pauline McBride to create Meanwhile, grasses unite a similar garden, albeit the floral elements. “There on a smaller scale, for the are so many varieties to benefit of his wife. consider. For example, SEPTEMBER 2022 THE ENGLISH GARDEN 43

Above A large drift of the miscanthus varieties have height as well as Rudbeckia ‘Goldsturm’ fabulous colour on their seedheads. Panicums have forms a ribbon of light airy seedheads giving super texture to any sunshine through the planting scheme. And extraordinary sporobolus russets and purples of grass is scented,” Pauline observes. “We like to make grasses and eupatorium. gardens that are just as much about the feeling you Right Slender flowers of get as the actual planting combinations themselves. Persicaria amplexicaulis The two should go hand in hand and you may not ‘September Spires’. quite be able to put your finger on what provokes that response. It is all about the right plant for the Opposite from top right place, of course, but you have to think about a Echinacea ‘Sussex lot more besides.” Prairie Seedling’; Gaura lindheimeri; a melee of “Despite her illness, the garden cheered my mother verbena, echinacea, up, as the flowers were so bright and vibrant,” Vicky rudbeckia, eupatorium reflects. “The grasses created lovely movement and and Erigeron annuus. gentle rustles in the breeze; all the sensory stimuli to which dementia patients can joyfully respond.” n Read about Pauline and Paul McBride’s work in the October 2022 issue of The English Garden. Sussex Prairie Garden, Morlands Farm, Wheatsheaf Road, Henfield, West Sussex N5 9AT. Tel: 01273 495902; sussexprairies.co.uk 44 THE ENGLISH GARDEN SEPTEMBER 2022

Prairie Style Advice from Pauline McBride on this distinctive form of planting How long does it take for a prairie garden like this to start looking established? A garden like this should be showing its full potential in height and colour by the second year after planting. The growth of plants should be well established by then, too. The beauty of using herbaceous perennials and grasses for this type of planting is that they are relatively cheap and quick to establish. They will also help to create an important and diverse habitat for wildlife. What do you have to do to keep the different planting groups balanced? It’s all about knowing the plants you are using for your scheme and being aware of which will be the thugs and which will be the shrinking violets. Gardening is all about control, so although the plants feel very wild there has to be some control underlying the scheme. You may also choose to let some plants run wild if you love that effect. How easily does this style fit into the English landscape? Well, I think this sort of garden fits very nicely into a countryside setting. But we do not have to be constrained to using naturalistic planting only in the countryside: it can fit into many other scenarios. It can give a softness and a fullness that you would want from the natural garden as well as dynamic energy through the varying textures and movement it can exhibit. It can also offer the possibility of an immersive experience if you can bring people in among the plantings. And do prairie-style plants suit the English climate? A lot of the material we use in our schemes is from North America but not exclusively so. Some plants also come from Japan, Siberia and parts of China that are on the same latitude and enjoy the same climate that we experience in the UK. Climate change is another issue. We are looking closely at plants that will answer the climatic questions being asked of us all in our gardening styles at the moment. Our discoveries so far have shown that these plants are doing well under the conditions we are now experiencing. SEPTEMBER 2022 THE ENGLISH GARDEN 45

The cascade appears to flow from a source beneath the house itself, when in fact it is pumped up from the lake below. 46 THE ENGLISH GARDEN SEPTEMBER 2022

SoNmOetThiHngINouGt of Making a garden from scratch for a house that did not yet exist was no easy task for designer Alistair Baldwin, but at Tunstall Grange in North Yorkshire he has united the existing landscape with coherent planting and a dramatic new cascade WORDS LOUISE CURLEY PHOTOGRAPHS RAY COX

F or garden designers every project brings Right A dreamlike with it different challenges, but one of tapestry of planting the trickiest has to be creating a garden unites grasses with vivid for a house that doesn’t yet exist. That heleniums and pale pink was the conundrum that faced Alistair Persicaria polymorpha. Baldwin when he was commissioned by his clients Bottom right Paths are James and Jo Lambert in 2013. “We were in the softened by planting to process of knocking down our old house to build give an immersive feel. a new one,” explains James, “and our architect, Bottom left The stone Michael Tempest, said to us that when you have a cascade’s series of pools house built, it’s a bit like baking a cake: you need are lined with pebbles a cake stand for it to sit on to show it off. That from a local quarry. really struck a chord with me.” Below James and Jo Lambert, the owners The eight-acre plot surrounding Tunstall Grange, of Tunstall Grange. on the outskirts of Catterick in North Yorkshire, consisted of a collection of old farm buildings that were being incorporated into the new house design, a field grazed by sheep, a lake that James had dug and some shrubs that had been planted by James a few years before. “Our brief to Alistair was to join the field, the lake and the new house together so it felt like a coherent space,” says James. “Our architect, who loves caves and grottoes, also sowed the seed of an idea for a water feature, and Jo and I both thought it would be lovely to be able to hear the sound of water from the terrace and the house.” “When I first visited the site, the old farm cottages were in the process of being demolished and the architect was still designing the new house, so I had to use a huge leap of the imagination,” says Alistair. Coming on board at this point, however, meant it was possible for Alistair to work on the idea for a stone water cascade. “We spent weeks coming up with a design for the cascade, which would create the illusion of water emerging from beneath the house, when in fact it’s pumped from the lake up to the house into a grotto-type structure under the main garden terrace. We also designed it so that it would utilise the rainwater run-off from the roof of the new house. From the grotto, the water would then tumble down into a series of pools formed by stone walls, with each pool lined with rocks and pebbles from a local quarry, before joining the curving lake lower down the garden. The idea was to draw the eye down the cascade, along the lake, over the rolling North Yorkshire landscape and out to the horizon,” says Alistair. “We looked at lots of different configurations for the cascade. I didn’t feel that something formal would fit the rural location and I was keen to avoid anything that would feel twee or contrived. The resulting design is flowing and organic, but on a sufficiently grand scale to sit within the large space.” Because the building of the cascade was so inextricably linked to the building of the house, this became the first phase of the garden project, which included digging out the lake to make it deeper. “The lake that was already there was too shallow 48 THE ENGLISH GARDEN SEPTEMBER 2022

and murky because it collects a lot of water from the land drains on James’s fields, so the deeper lake meant that the water could drop its silt making it much clearer,” Alistair explains. Alistair was keen that the cascade could be traversed at certain points, so he designed two curving bridges constructed from crisply cut timber, which appear to float over the water. “The planting around the cascade acts as a visual plinth to the house, so it needed to be both natural in its aesthetic and strong in its massing, holding its own against the confident stone mass of the new house. I designed it to clothe the sloping ground on each side of the cascade in broad natural sweeps, which echo the lines of the far horizon to form a tapestry of spires, plumes and dots.” The result is a dreamy impressionistic landscape where the greeny-yellow domes of Phlomis russeliana contrast with the SEPTEMBER 2022 THE ENGLISH GARDEN 49

Above left Autumnal shades in the path-side clumps of Hylotelephium ‘Munstead Dark Red’. Above right The courtyard garden is more restrained, with green hakonechloa and buddleia against yew. Below Ferns thrive in shady pockets in the replanted field. 50 THE ENGLISH GARDEN SEPTEMBER 2022