When your home has the kind of timeless country charm that comes complete with a honey-coloured stone façade, the temptation might be to pair it with a quintessentially English cottage garden. But the owners of this cottage in south Oxfordshire had something more modern in mind.
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As part of a renovation, they had added a new glass and metal extension to the house and wanted a garden that would not only complement the historical architecture but also embrace its contemporary additions. They turned to designer Emily Crowley-Wroe for help. Other than asking for a garden that would accommodate a sauna, hot tub and trampoline alongside a secluded area where they could unwind and entertain, they were happy to give her free rein when it came to the design.
In brief: an Oxfordshire garden
- What Modern cottage garden.
- Where Oxfordshire.
- Size One acre.
- Soil Varied clay loam.
- Climate Temperate, usually drier than the rest of the UK (average minimum temperatures of -6°C to -4°C).
- Hardiness zone USDA 9a.
Working closely with Darren Watt Landscaping, Emily devised a plan that divides the garden into four main areas. Close to the house, the emphasis is on highly structured formality, with an intimate, enclosed space that echoes the clean lines and modern materials of the glass extension. A wide limestone terrace provides a smooth transition from house to garden, and is framed on one side by three Corten
steel beds packed with fragrant culinary herbs including marjoram, prostrate rosemary, fennel and bay, alongside a striking multi-stem Amelanchier x lamarckii.
Close to the house is an intimate, enclosed space that echoes the clean lines and modern materials of the glass extension
Leading on from this spacious terrace is a formal lawn, into which Emily has cut a series of six symmetrically organised, square herbaceous beds. Around two metres square in size, they perfectly balance the scale of the extension, and make the garden feel open, spacious and very modern. “That contemporary feeling also comes from the planting,” says Emily.
The planting, which she describes as “a touch of New Perennial with grasses”, includes repeated, layered waves of Salvia nemorosa ‘Amethyst’ and Monarda ‘Beauty of Cobham’, blended with a more contemporary palette of grasses Molinia caerulea subsp. arundinacea ‘Transparent’ and Stipa tenuissima, with Veronicastrum virginicum ‘Album’ and ‘Fascination’, and Cenolophium denudatum. Topiary balls of Ilex crenata add shape and structure.
Self-seeding is encouraged, but to keep the many foxgloves and forget-me-nots that pop up under control, they are carefully managed by gardener Tim Clancy. Emily also makes regular visits the garden to provide ongoing maintenance, and occasionally edits the planting.
No waste leaves the garden. We garden with consideration to the wider environment
After the family acquired a rather exuberant dog, Emily strategically added Rosa Olivia Rose Austin (= ‘Ausmixture’) to the large beds to act as a dog deterrent and moved more delicate plants away from susceptible edges.
The formal lawn is flanked on one side by a strip of longer grass dotted with bulbs and self-seeded wildflowers to offer a hint of the garden’s wilder areas beyond the pleached hornbeam hedges; and on the other by an oak pergola – designed by the owners – that Emily has softened with newly planted Clematis armandi and Trachelospermum jasminoides, and which leads to the guest house and on to the driveway.
Here a large rectangular bed is dominated by three exemplary specimens of Tilia cordata ‘Winter Orange’, under which a mix of planting, including alliums and Hylotelephium x mottramianum ‘Herbstfreude’, adds seasonally changing colour to billowing clumps of Molinia caerulea ‘Edith Dudszus’. More soft grasses line the driveway and path to the sauna, and lead the eye towards the wildflower meadow maze beyond.
From this point, the garden feels less structured, the planting looser. The meadow, a mix of two turfs from Pictorial Meadows– Purple Haze in the open areas and Woodland Fringe in the shadier spots – is alive with a colourful mix of flowering perennials from spring to late summer, and bronzes beautifully through autumn. Grass paths wind through the meadow encouraging you to move slowly through this planting and lead you to a woodland area and a campfire space, lined with logs felled from the garden, where the family can sit out on wooden stump seats (also recycled from the garden).
The looser, freer areas are especially important for habitat creation, and giving back to the garden what comes from the garden
Recycling and reuse is at the centre of the ethos of the garden. The boundary is marked with a developing dead hedge, a sign of Emily and Tim’s determination to run the garden as a closed loop. “No garden waste leaves the garden,” says Emily. “We garden with consideration to the wider environment. The looser, freer areas and boundaries are especially important for habitat creation, and giving back to the garden what comes from the garden.”
This cleverly laid out, environmentally conscious garden succeeds in combining contemporary design with naturalistic planting, and is all the more remarkable for the fact it was Emily’s first large garden design project after graduating from the Cotswold Gardening School. Justifiably, it earned her the Fresh Designer Award in the 2024 Society of Garden Designers Awards.
She may be working on similar-scale projects now, but her heart is still very much in this garden, and she returns each month to maintain the perennial beds. “I love working here,” she says.“It’s a special place, and always will be.”
Useful information
Find out more about Emily Crowley-Wroe’s work at april-house.co.uk