The sloping gardens enveloping this modular, energy-efficient house in Surrey are awash with wildflowers and layers of sculptural drought-tolerant plants, immersing owners David and Susan in nature and reflecting the sustainable ethos of their new timber-clad home.
The carefully crafted landscape is also a fitting tribute to the spectacular hilltop setting, with its uninterrupted views over the fields and woodlands below. But designing a garden on such a steep slope and thin, chalky soil was never going to be easy.
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Undaunted by the challenge, garden and landscape designer Matthew Wilson had experience on his side, having already encountered these conditions at RHS Garden Hyde Hall in Essex, where he was curator from 2000 to 2004, and designed the now-famous Dry Garden on a hillside not too dissimilar to this one in Surrey.
In brief: a naturalistic garden in Surrey
- What Naturalistic garden with gravel areas and wildflower meadows.
- Where Surrey.
- Size Approximately 190m x 90m.
- Soil Chalk, alkaline.
- Climate Low rainfall, average 600mm per annum, with the lowest average winter temperatures of between -10°C and -5°C.
- Hardiness zone USDA 8b.
“When I first arrived at the property, the garden didn’t look very promising,” he admits. “The foundations for the new modular building were being laid, and the top half of the slope was a building site, with just a few trees and some scrubby grass further down. The clients also hadn’t had much time to consider their outdoor space, but they knew they wanted a low-maintenance scheme that would respect the environment and create a harmonious relationship with the landscape beyond.”
Using Hyde Hall as his inspiration, Matthew designed a xeriscape, with drought-tolerant plants set into a gravel mulch, and bolts of lacy wildflowers covering the hillside below.
It has a spectacular hilltop setting with uninterrupted views, but designing a garden on such a steep slope and thin, chalky soil was never going to be easy
The garden features crab apples (Malus toringo ‘Brouwers Beauty’) underplanted with grasses and perennials such as Eryngium x olivierianum Big Blue (= ‘Myersblue’), Euphorbia characias subsp. wulfenii and Calamagrostis x acutiflora ‘Karl Foerster’, while the path to the house offers a view of the sedum roof above the living room.
A concrete retaining wall divides the Pocket Garden from a small courtyard in front of the entrance to the house, which is animated with a rill and tree ferns (Dicksonia antarctica).
On the lower ground floor, at the back of the house, glazed doors open onto a timber deck and the gravel garden. “This terrace is on the only sizeable flat area in the garden, and offered the best location for the drought-tolerant plants,” says Matthew.
We planted the garden during the wet spring of 2022, and I don’t think the plants have been watered since
Highlights here include spiky yuccas and dasylirions, dwarf pines, salvias, catmint, ornamental grasses and self-seeders such as Eschscholzia californica. The kitchen garden is also on this level terrace, to the west side of the house.
The garden recently received a Futurescape Global Award, commended as ‘a shining example of landscape forward, sustainable, environmentally considered design’.
How to create a zero-irrigation garden
- To grow drought-resilient plants successfully, you ideally need well-drained soil. If you have clay, try planting on mounds about 20cm high, building up the soil by mixing it with organic matter and grit to raise it above the surface and improve drainage.
- An open site, where plants receive plenty of light, is essential, but it doesn’t have to be south- or west-facing. This garden faces north, but the low building allows plenty of light to reach the plants each day.
- Buy plants adapted to drought conditions. Look for bulbs such as species tulips and crocuses that go dormant in summer, perennials with silver foliage or small leaves, and grasses, which all tolerate
long dry periods. - Don’t plant too deeply. Here, Matthew planted the tops of the root balls just above the soil surface so they were at ground level after the gravel mulch was applied. This keeps the necks of the plants dry, especially in winter, when they are prone to rotting.
- Leave spaces between the plants to allow air to circulate around them and prevent the taller plants overshadowing the shorter plants.
- Add a mulch at least 5cm deep to lock in moisture. In this garden, Matthew used gravel, which offers the right aesthetic for these Mediterranean and alpine plants.
- Unless it rains, water after planting to settle the soil around the roots and give plants a little initial moisture.
- 8. Don’t allow autumn leaves or soil to build up around your plants, creating damp conditions that may rot stems.
Useful information
Find out more about Matthew Wilson’s work at matthewwilsongardens.com