The best gardens tend to evolve over time and that is certainly the case with this one-acre cottage garden in West Sussex. “One of the joys for me is that I have never heard my clients Sam and Misha utter the words ‘low maintenance’,” says designer Annie Guilfoyle. “They are among the busiest, hardest-working people I know, and if anything, they lean towards high maintenance.”
Annie was invited to assess the couple’s new property after they bought it in 2017. The garden wraps around the cottage with a large sunny front garden and plenty of space out back. It had been well loved by its previous owner, but the couple’s young children needed safe areas in which to play, so changes were needed.
“I already knew Sam and Misha as friends – they’re fun, quirky and creative, so I designed with that in mind and it became a wonderful collaboration,” Annie says. Talented makers, including a woodsman and a metal worker, were invited to contribute – a fluid process with everyone throwing in their ideas. “Things were always moving and morphing, but we were all on the same page and no one was getting precious, so it was a very enjoyable project.”
A major change has been made in front of the cottage, where a boring, under-used flat lawn and unsightly parking space were marring the property’s appearance. Annie shifted the car parking away to the front boundary and brought in a digger to create an undulating bund, 1-1.5m high, incorporating rubble and hardcore to create new planting opportunities.
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Now buzzing with life, it completely hides cars from view and the sense of arrival has been greatly enhanced, via a gravel path curving through drought-tolerant Mediterranean planting. The results are spectacular, with globe artichokes (Cynara cardunculus Scolymus Group), giant fennel (Ferula communis), Phlomoides tuberosa ‘Amazone’ with its whorls of lilac pink flowers, Nepeta ‘Six Hill Giant’ and Geum ‘ Totally Tangerine’ providing colour and interest.
Annie describes her longstanding landscape contractor Graham Burman as pretty bomb-proof, taking any challenges and alterations to plans in his stride. Immediately behind the house he built a wide terrace to Annie’s design, in Indian sandstone setts, giving room for the children to scoot about and for the family to eat at a large cedar dining table. From here, a gravel path skirts around enlarged flower beds filled with perennials and shrubs to a new raised deck, made from locally sourced larch.
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This is the sunniest area and as Sam and Misha love to be outside they have turned it into an all-singing, all-dancing outdoor living area. Under a green roof is an outdoor kitchen, with built-in oven, fridge, sink and pizza oven, constructed in local chestnut by Sam and a friend. Alongside it is a lime-rendered concrete sofa, built by Graham, and a bespoke dining table made by local woodsman Henry Williams from a eucalyptus that had to be felled. To provide shade, Annie specified two umbrella-trained Morus alba ‘Fruitless’ mulberry trees – sterile, so they don’t drop fruit.
The deck is surrounded by grasses and perennials, such as Stipa gigantea, Miscanthus sinensis ‘Flamingo’, Panicum virgatum ‘Shenandoah’, Thalictrum ‘Black Stockings’ and Cirsium rivulare ‘Atropurpureum’, which create a softened, natural-looking boundary between the garden and the adjoining smallholding, where the couple raise livestock. Already a keen gardener, Misha feels her plant skills, particularly in propagation, have grown exponentially. “I wanted our garden to be horticulturally interesting and Annie has given us that by introducing me to a much wider variety of plants.” Some invaluable help from local gardener Shelley helps Misha keep on top of everything.
New trees have been added, including Amelanchier x lamarckii, silver birch, damson and apple trees, with stellar-performing shrubs such as Nandina domestica, Physocarpus opulifolius Lady in Red (= ‘Tuilad’) and Buddleja alternifolia, alongside perennials chosen for their structure and foliage, as well as scent and colour. Mauves and lilacs are favoured, with a good smattering of cottage favourites, including foxgloves, alliums, lupins, peonies and honesty.
In 2020, Annie drew up plans for a productive area where Misha could grow salads, cut flowers, espalier fruit trees and soft fruit. Ten Corten-steel raised beds, made to Annie’s design by bespoke metal work company Peter Potter Ltd, have been set into an area of gravel. Beside these is a large fruit cage made by Henry Williams using steam-bent chestnut, completing an area that is both pretty and practical. Also, tucked out of sight, Sam has built Misha a polytunnel, so propagation and food growing have taken off still further, and new guttering on the cottage and outhouses now harvests rainwater for irrigation into a 7,500-litre underground tank.
Sam and Misha are thrilled with the garden, which they view as a sanctuary from their busy lives. “In its full glory, particularly in summer, it really does feel pretty special.
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Find out more about Annie Guilfoyle’s work at creative-landscapes.com
