It’s easy to see why this ethereal meadow garden recently won the 2025 Landscape & Gardens Award by the Sussex Heritage Trust.
Today, the contemporary single-storey house is wrapped on all sides by an immersive and mesmerising perennial wildflower meadow that feels at one with the local Wealden landscape, but a very different view greeted garden designer Kristina Clode in 2022.
“It was just a building site,” she says of the uneven post-build landscape with heavy clay subsoil. “My clients had built a new ultra-modern, timber-clad, single storey, U-shaped house with a glass-link corridor at the centre. The large plot around the house was a blank canvas, as the land had all been cleared during the house build, except for a few apple trees and a large poplar.”
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The brief was to create a wildlife-friendly, meadow-rich and low-maintenance garden, with a wheelchair-accessible courtyard. Known for her previous award-winning naturalistic and sensory spaces, Kristina aimed to marry the building to the landscape both inside and out using ecological intelligence and integrity.
There needs to be as many areas of planting as there are hard landscaping, if not more, otherwise you are missing so much joy.
“A meadow was the ideal solution, as I didn’t want to bring in large amounts of topsoil, with the associated cost – both budget wise and environmentally.” She chose Emorsgate Seeds’ Meadow Mixture for Clay Soils for the main meadow, in a combination of 20 per cent native wildflowers and 80 per cent slow-growing grasses, enhanced with common spotted orchid, Dactylorhiza fuchsii, which has yet to flower. “We have our fingers crossed, as it takes about five years to come,” says Kristina.
Around the perimeter of the building, she specified a species-rich Flowering Lawn Mix, also from Emorsgate, that can be mown more frequently than the meadow, around once a month.
“Meadows only need to be cut once a year, after the yellow rattle seeds are ripe,” she says, “usually from late June.I like to leave mine until October. Meadows are incredibly beneficial to wildlife offering food and habitat and a great way of capturing carbon and improving soil health. It was the ideal solution as the sub-soil left from the build was the perfect medium to sow seed straight into, after grading and levelling.”
I have a real passion for plants of all kinds, and the more types I can grow, know and get
to know, the better
Specimen trees were planted as focal points within the meadow, including Amelanchier x grandiflora ‘Robin Hill’, Carpinus betulus, Malus hupehensis, Parrotia persica ‘Vanessa’, Prunus ‘Shōgetsu’ and Sorbus aria ‘Lutescens’.
Drainage issues meant that the heavy clay ground was very wet over winter, with run-off from neighbouring fields causing standing water in places, so Kristina opted for a French drain through the meadow, which drains to a soakaway basin in a corner of the garden that becomes a seasonally wet pool. This has been seeded with a native Pond Edge Mixture, also from Emorsgate.
The land feels naturally wild and in keeping with its place. It is the curved and organic courtyard beds flanked by two gravel borders, close to the house and adjacent to the glass-link corridor, which show Kristina’s talent as a plantsperson. “I have a real passion for plants of all kinds,” she says. “And the more types I can grow, know and get to know, the better.”
A meadow was the ideal solution, as I didn’t want to bring in large amounts of topsoil, with the associated cost – both budget wise and environmentally
Designed as a curvaceous sun trap with room for a table and seating for four people, the wide central path is resin-bound gravel, a smooth but slip-resistant, free-draining surface that is perfect for the owners’ daughter’s wheelchair.
Kristina prepared the borders by digging 25-30cm into the clay, replacing it with a free-draining topsoil and dressing with gravel, which helps to improve the drainage of the soil as well as reducing surface water evaporation and acting as a weed suppressant as the plants establish. The colour palette is predominantly purple, white and yellow set within a central framework of tall grasses such as Stipa gigantea, Calamagrostis x acutiflora ‘Karl Foerster’ and herbs such as Foeniculum vulgare ‘Purpureum’.
Levels crescendo from low to high to aid viewing from the interiors through the expansive doors and windows. “I wanted the height but I didn’t want it to be oppressive when viewed from inside,” says Kristina. In late summer, Salvia ‘Amistad’, Oenothera lindheimeri ‘Whirling Butterflies’ and Salvia ‘Blue Spire’ are in flower. “It makes my heart drop when people don’t want plants in their garden,” she says.
“There needs to be as many areas of planting as there are hard landscaping, if not more, otherwise you are missing so much joy. I want a border to be at least 80cm deep, preferably double that, so that you can create structure and layering. Shrubs require space. Then you need perennials, annuals and bulbs. Otherwise you are limiting your flowering time.”
The magic of this garden is that it has settled a contemporary new-build into its situation of quintessential Sussex countryside. It’s mostly meadow – messy and unmanicured by design – making it a seamless part of the landscape and thus filled with bird song and insect life.
How to make a perennial wildflower meadow
- Remove any topsoil and eradicate weeds from the area. The ground needs to be as inhospitable and impoverished as possible. • Rake to a medium tilth and level.
- Choose a seed mix right for the conditions. For this project, Kristina chose a variety of mixes for different parts of the garden. For the difficult clay conditions in the main meadow, she used Emorsgate Seeds’ EM4 Meadow Mixture for Clay Soils, which is made up of 80 per cent grasses, including Agrostis capillaris, Anthoxanthum odoratum, Briza media, Cynosurus cristatus and Lolium pratense.
- Sow seed in autumn (or, if the ground is very wet, spring).You can enhance your mix with wild orchids, or get strimmings from a local meadow and scatter. The meadow will flower from spring to late summer.
Useful information:
Find out more about Kristina Clode’s work at kristinaclodegardendesign.co.uk