There was a lot of lawn and not much planting when the owners of this former caretaker’s lodge arrived in 2016. The exposed, northwest facing garden was laid mostly to scrappy lawn, with an old-fashioned rockery area and an unattractively high pond, but the location was outstanding. With views over rolling farmland and out to sea, their vision was for a contemporary garden in tune with the direction that they were taking with the property renovation.
There were three issues to be addressed when garden designer Declan Buckley embarked on the project in 2018. First, trying to figure out what would thrive in the garden’s chalk soil. “There is less than a foot of soil,” Declan explains. Second, how to integrate the windswept garden into the rural countryside to make the most of the far-reaching landscape at the front of the property. And finally, the awkward shape of the plot. “The house was floating in this triangle of sadness,” he says.
Working with the existing levels and with a relatively small footprint, Declan’s concept was to create several ‘rooms’ that ticked various boxes for the owners – one of whom loves plants – and included formal areas for views, eating and entertaining, and a kitchen garden. It’s the clever use of hedging types that creates the structure and defines the zones of the garden today. High, low, cloud and column hedges not only enhance boundaries, but also layer and obscure.
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“I immediately recommended that the fence be disguised by a mixed native hedge planted to blend with the hills beyond,” says Declan, who also suggested that the fence be painted black so that it receded as the hedge grew. In front of this native hedge, a low clipped hawthorn hedge was added (an idea that Declan had seen in Italy) that runs parallel with the lines of the property, and defines a formal right-angled bed filled with a strict grid system of 370 of the feather reed grass, Calamagrostis x acutiflora ‘Waldenbuch’. It is a striking design statement that encloses the terrace of polished concrete, inlaid with panels of clay pavers, and adds lovely year-round movement thanks to the sea breezes that sweep up around the hill from the coast.
This looser form of Calamagrostis x acutiflora ‘Karl Foerster’ is repeated close to the covered dining verandah and also on the newly created steps that access a high viewing deck. “The grasses are informal, but they’re arranged formally,” says Declan. “They enclose the house, link to the fields at certain times of the year, and they hold their structure in the winter.” Growing to 1.5m, they are cut down around the third week of February by the team at Cunningham Gardens, who work here three hours a week.
Three tall precision hedge units of Taxus baccata yew mark the defining line with Declan’s specified chalkland wildflower meadow mix, laid as turf from Wildflower Co for immediate impact. Mown paths allow you to wander delightedly through this naturalistic and biodiverse space.
Through an opening in the hornbeam hedgeline beyond lies a small kitchen garden. The six raised beds, made from mild steel, have locally sourced pebbles underfoot, matching the nearby beach. Here the owners grow cutting flowers from seed – cosmos and sweet peas are favourites – with herbs and seasonal vegetables.
The walk back along the meadow to the house is edged with a sloping herbaceous perennial border, which Declan says was a real challenge. “It is more than 30m long and the angle is steep.” He planted it with large groups of low-nutrient tolerant perennials – initially trialled on the bank – with a “less variety and greater quantities” approach. “With a bank like this, you are observing it from a distance; you’re not immersed in it. So larger blocks of nine or more plants are stronger visually,” he says.
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At the top of the slope, close to the viewing deck, Lavandula angustifolia ‘Brabants Lust’, Phlomis russeliana and Verbena bonariensis flourish. In the middle, Oenothera lindheimeri ‘Whirling Butterflies’, Nepeta ‘Six Hills Giant’ and Eryngium planum ‘Small Blue’ are interspersed with singles of Stipa gigantea. In the lower-growing area, bordering the meadow, you find Stachys byzantina ‘Big Ears’, Salvia nemorosa
‘Caradonna’ and the exceptionally long-flowering Euphorbia seguieriana subsp. niciciana.
A series of gently staggered pebble-filled steps with mild-steel risers, lined with a cloud-effect hedge of Veronica rakaiensis, cuts through the bank close to the house. It leads, via a custommade bench – “the perfect spot for drinks to watch the gorgeous sunsets” – to the upper level. This offers routes to the top deck or the back of the house, where shady planting is at home. There is also a sheltered tropical-style ‘viewing courtyard’ seen from the living areas inside where a Trachycarpus fortunei and tree ferns
cluster around a vintage table.
In high summer, you feel utterly immersed in a swaying body of grasses and undulating perennials. “I like to think that the garden now hugs the house,” says Declan. A feeling his clients love: “Whenever you’re inside, no matter what the weather is, you constantly feel as though you’re part of the garden.”
Find out more about Declan’s work at buckleydesignassociates.com
