Butter Wakefield has spread her wings. Renowned for her beautifully detailed city gardens, she now has a five-acre, award-winning design in her portfolio. “I love our London gardens, but being able to stretch out on this one was a real treat,” she says. “It’s a huge project and at times it was all I could think about, but it has been so rewarding.”
While their house in East Sussex was being extended and completely remodelled (by architects DKN Jamm and interior designer Rebecca Wakefield – no relation), the owners engaged Butter to simultaneously reconfigure the garden. As their confidence grew, the clients added more areas for Butter’s attention, asking for a series of plant-rich sections inspired by nearby Gravetye Manor, and arranged like rooms, where they could relax and entertain guests.
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Starting behind the house, there is ample space to play host, spilling out from the drawing room, dining room and kitchen onto a generous terrace with four-season interest in parterre-style beds. “The rear elevation is quite symmetrical, so we took our cue from that,” explains Butter. “And, as it is south facing, we provided shade and vertical interest with a pair of multi-stemmed Parrotia persica trees.” Clipped yew domes help create a structural winter scene, with tulips and narcissi in spring giving way to a tangle of effusive, immersive planting in summer, including Nepeta racemosa ‘Walker’s Low’, Salvia ‘Blue Spire’, Geranium ‘Azure Rush’ and geums G. ‘Prinses Juliana’ and G. ‘Totally Tangerine’.
Throughout the project, all of Butter’s plant choices have been aimed at increasing biodiversity. “I always concentrate on adding as much scent as I can,” she says. “It’s good for us and it’s good for pollinators. So I have gone to town on that here, which is something my client appreciates and understands.”
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Beyond the terrace is an expansive lawn with wide flower borders either side, backed by beech hedging and leading to a substantial pergola, which Butter has had rebuilt in oak, improving its proportions by increasing its height. Hydrangeas proliferate here, along with wisteria, climbing roses and late-flowering anemones.
© Alister Thorpe
The dividing lines between the various different areas of the garden have been carefully considered. Butter chooses an appropriate backdrop for each individual space, such as walling or hedging, then
incorporates what she calls “purposeful, good access” with a choice of routes to take, and allows glimpses through to carry the eye from one part of the garden to the next. The pergola offers tempting views through to a small orchard, where Butter has added to the existing fruit trees with a couple of craggy old apple and pear trees and some new Malus toringo and M. ‘Butterball’. Mown paths wind through this area, leading to a magical tree house, complete with zipline, and a sculptural log pile made from some of the trees that needed to be felled.
For Butter, one of the joys of this project was selecting and placing new trees and shrubs. For the gravel garden beyond the pool area, she was thrilled to find seven multi-stemmed Osmanthus x burkwoodii on a nursery visit to Deepdale Trees. “I almost fell off my perch, I was so excited. Their scale is perfect and their outline so beguiling, I knew they would add serious amounts of form, texture and interest to the space without overwhelming it. Also, their highly scented spring flowers offer great nectar for emerging bees.”
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Butter has succeeded in creating a distinctly Mediterranean feeling in this area with buff coloured gravel and a series of galvanised steel water tanks, which reflect the sky and act as anchor points among the planting. This includes evergreen Pinus mugo, perennials such as Dianthus carthusianorum and Echinacea pallida, and grasses Deschampsia cespitosa ‘Bronzeschleier’ and Calamagrostis x acutiflora ‘Karl Foerster’.
© Alister Thorpe
Steps lead from here to one of two existing upper terraces, which has now been much improved by the addition of a line of yew hedging to screen it, plus a collection of Malus ‘Evereste’ trees. At their feet, in the long grass, Butter has threaded Narcissus poeticus var. recurvus for spring, followed by denim-blue Camassia leichtlinii subsp. suksdorfii Caerulea Group and C. ‘Blue Candle’. From here, you can skirt around the house, along a pathway lined with lilacs, to eventually reach the drive at the front with its striking collection of topiary forms.
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Butter is full of praise, not only for her own team, including Kappy Hawkes and Laura Bujarrabal, but also for landscape contractors The Outdoor Room, especially James Sponder, who she says “had the patience of Job”. She is effusive, too, about Birchwood Tree and Estate Management, who now lovingly maintain the garden. The client’s “playful approach” is also greatly appreciated. “She would often say to us, ‘That’s a great idea, let’s go for it’, which is always lovely to hear.”
USEFUL INFORMATION
Find out more about Butter Wakefield’s work at butterwakefield.co.uk
