A Garden Make Over in the Notswolds

Bunny re visits a garden that she made over for a client which was completed around two years ago.

The garden was predominantly a gravel driveway that was removed and transformed into a  well used terrace and other plain grass areas were made into two smaller courtyards. New owners have moved in, they bought the property primarily for the view and are enjoying the garden.

Fairly easy to maintain plants were used, and the boundaries were planted with pleached trees and yew hedges to give privacy. Six multi stem Osmanthus trees  are planted in huge baseless pots to flank either side of the terrace and provide year round interest. Planting in gravel areas that are broken up with stone setts make for easy to maintain areas that have a simply structure to them.

#notswolds #gardenmakeover

on this beautifully sunny September day. It’s lovely to come back and look at a job that we started um in 20 well 2020, five years ago. So we started on site then and then we it was actually finished probably two years later because there’s quite a lot of building work to the house but we’re in the notworlds or in Rutland. Um and the whole layout has changed massively because instead of this being guard well this was just grass here before there wasn’t the gate here um we designed the gates all to coordinate there’s some double gates around the other side. So when we came to the property initially the cars went around the other side of the house through the garden along the front and then they parked in the garage there. Um, and we changed all that because the garage is now being converted into um, a dwelling for someone to stay, a guest house basically. And the owner that I did it for has now sold. We’re now working on her new bigger house and garden. And, uh, someone else has moved in now, but they’ve kept it pretty much the same. Um, and so my brief for this garden was really to create interesting little spaces [Music] and we were going to um have the main arrival in this side. Um, and then you’ll come in through the gate and we’ve actually put the hole in the wall. We moved it so it’s not central to the front door because of the holly tree and that’s obviously just such a wonderful tree. We raised its crown and made quite a feature of it. And so you come in off center and then you come to the front door. And this bit here is by the road. Um and so this is really a sort of area you walk past. It’s not really a private sitting area. So we wanted to make it lowmaintenance and just a sort of interesting little courtyard in effect. Now there has been one the biggest changes here. We had four pots on each of these squares. Baseless pots would you believe and we designed them and they were in the aged bronze finish as I remember it. But the client liked them very much and so she’s taken those to her new garden. And um the new owners brought in this lovely olive tree and the lavender there. But this was really designed to be sunny, easy maintenance planting. The stackis that hardly flowers, the lavender, the lovely areniums. Um and it’s a very sheltered little space. And the hedging we put in because there’s a low wall the other side. So he put in the hedging which has grown really well. And so it’s sort of divided up into little compartments. I always think when you have a long thin space. If you divide it up then it makes two nicely proportioned spaces instead. And there is a slight level change. And here we just did a cluster of box ball of U balls of various sizes. The hydrangeas doing magnificently in that sort of shady place despite the dry summer. is looking really lovely. And the medlas, come and have a look at the medlas. So in this space, because it’s sunken down, it just makes it slightly more private, slightly more sheltered, and it’s an again a nice proportion space. So we’ve done the same thing. We’ve used a pattern. We’ve made this one into squares. That one we did off center on the diagonal. um just to ring the changes and things like my favorite cypia which just seems to get bigger and bigger slowly into the most lovely clump um and the aigon daisy comins anus that flowers a lot of the year and then these rather nice medas behind standard meds you often see them with multi stems they’re characterful trees and you see it’s absolutely dripping with fruit and Um, a lot of people think because it gets cracks around the base, you can see of the fruit, they think it it lets in, rots, but it doesn’t really. A lot of people describe that as the dog’s bottom. It looks a little bit like a whippet’s bottom. That um, but actually that’s just the way it is. And when they are almost ripe or when they’re ripe, you take them off and you let them blet. And it doesn’t mean to rot. They just age. And then they become very palatable and you can just pull out that the flesh which is really sweet and I just eat them raw but a lot of people make them into jellies and things like that. Um but in Iran they’re highly prized fruits and when you go to the market you see huge piles of them and they use them a lot but Iranian cooking is I think sublime. We have some Iranian clients and the food you have um with berberous and berries and all sorts of unusual things and I just love it. Um so you I’m showing you the lights on the steps here because it’s a conservation area and they’re very keen on keeping the dark lights um and not lighting the whole sky up at night. We put in these little side lights. These light fittings are called dark lights. They’re made by Luxer and they’re very low voltage and they just give a gentle glow but it just stops you falling down the step. But I think they’re rather nice. They’re nice and discreet as most of the um Luxar fittings are. Now when the people who bought the property came, they looked over that wall and they saw the view and they said that’s what made them want to buy. decided they wanted to buy the property even before they entered because they saw the garden and the view and it is spectacular view of Parkland with sheep grazing all the air and um I don’t think people really realize the importance of fantastic views out of your house windows because it really lifts your spirit and it makes so much difference to your mood because you’re often enjoying the garden and f from the house and particularly with the extension that the architect Bob Weaten put on. Um it floods into that main living kitchen space. So you’ve got that wonderful view of the parkland which looks equally beautiful I think in mid January, mid July or the autumn. It changes but it’s subtle and it’s always stunning. Come and have a look at the terrace. So this is the main terrace. the room where they live in just floods out into here or this floods into there. And this was what was the driveway for the cars initially. So what I did was I balanced the new extension either side with these osmanthus in baseless pots. So you’ve got sort of semi garden either side. And I’ve just raised them up. I did these meter squares with the new granite sets. And then we put box around the edge. And then I’ve done very simple planting in. The girl who I did it for initially was very busy. She’s chairman of a huge firm and she does not have lots of time to garden. So he kept it really simple with just an enemies in one block and then these stackers in another and um just rotated them really because they’ve got all year round green from the canopy and interest from the structure of the osmanthus. I think I would have put something around the top of the pots. Um probably uh the ridgeon daisy or you could put tulips in the spring and pelgoniums in the summer. But obviously that’s fallen by the wayside now with the change of owner. But they I think they’re big pots. Um look great anyway. But if you wanted to do a bit more gardening, you could do that. So I put the two identical blocks either side and then there’s this huge space outside for the sofas and for the table and chairs. And um and I always think if you’ve got a big space and you have generous furniture, generous repetition of plants, it makes everything feel bigger and more generous rather than going diminish and small. I like to overe egg everything and you just can’t help but admire the fantastic view over there. Now, we did put bleached hornbeam trees there just to slightly separate off the guest house so that it gave them flexibility if they were going to rent it out more permanently. Um, so we put a the U-headed there in between u-head on that side to hide the neighbors and they all went in. I think we moved some plants around that were here and then we brought some more in to make up the numbers. And the idea was initially that we had moan lawn in the middle section and then on the two wings either side we’d do longer grass with bulbs and wild flowers and paths moan through it. Um but whatever I think you know the the view is the dominant thing and whether you want just straight moan grass I think the current owner would like to introduce that. So we might do that element and come and look at the final little bit of space. And so this was designed as a separate little space. So, we put more bleached horn beam on that side and that’s to give screening from the neighbors um because your eye always seems to leap the fence and leap to their new extensions or whatever. And so, it’s quite nice just to focus it out. Um and then we just put very simple white shrub roses underneath the bleach trees and then this is all now in the process ready to be converted into a separate living dwelling. So they have their own little space when they’re not next door. Um, and I I’m really pleased at the way the U hatches have grown. They’ve done fantastically. So there we are. There’s a little garden. Always nice to go back and see your work a few years later, especially when there’s a different owner just to see if they like it or if they’re changing it or what’s worked, what hasn’t worked. Um, I do remember there’s level changes here that we were playing around with. Um, but it seems to have worked quite nicely because this ground floor level is quite different from the ground floor level of the kitchen. So, we had a bit of level. We’d swoop the levels down in between. Anyway, nice to see fat, happy woolly sheep in the Knoxwells.