Hampshire garden

Date: 2009 – present

A 15-year project developing a beautiful seven-acre garden, in the South Downs, to suit the needs of a growing family.

Our client’s brief

We have been working on this seven-acre garden, set in a beautiful South Downs location, over a period of 15 years, gradually developing the existing garden to suit the needs of a growing family. This has been a close collaboration with our client throughout the entire process.

Our approach

This historic former rectory, which dates back to as early as the thirteenth century, is set in a beautiful location at the foot of the South Downs. Our clients started the formidable task of sympathetically modernising the house and garden in 2009. Having made two London gardens together, they invited us to work with them on the process of gradually the developing the garden in conjunction with the works to the house.

The site benefits from a superb borrowed landscape, interrupted only by a railway line at some distance, so an early priority was to plant semi-mature trees and evergreens to reduce the impact of rail traffic.

Paved terraces were laid in beautiful, foot-worn stone with low retaining walls in the local brick and limestone vernacular and elsewhere paths in brick and pea shingle were created to wind gently through the garden.

Existing beds, which were arranged with little coherence, were cleared and hundreds of plants salvaged. The site boasts a significant number of mature trees, most notably a huge copper beech at the centre of the garden and an imposing beech walk. We created substantial new beds and borders to create a sense of flow through the garden, linking with the established structure. Elements of yew topiary throughout the garden add solidity to the planting and driftwood sculptures by James Doran Webb were incorporated into the scheme. Around the house, the structure is somewhat more formal with rose and herb beds with low hedging in box and euonymus.

An acre of dense woodland at the edge of the property suffered from extensive ash dieback. Whilst it was sad to lose nearly 30 mature trees, what had been a heavily shaded area now admitted enough light to create extensive new woodland plantings, drawing this area more effectively into the main body of the garden.

The clients proposed that we create a stream running through part of the garden. The natural falls of the land lent themselves happily to this idea and the course of the water was blended into the landscape, designed to emerge from a dummy culvert on the boundary wall and flowing through beds and under grass paths, by way of rills under flagstones.

A water feature was created in a cool corner of the garden, using a stone trough found by the client, creating a focal point at the head of the avenue of beech trees.
We redeveloped the existing kitchen garden area by creating new raised beds and designing a large cage for soft fruit.

In a 3 acre field adjoining the main garden, we stripped the existing rough grass, prepared with 100 tonnes of grit and sowed a meadow, with the emphasis on plants for pollinators. Further semi-mature legacy trees were planted on the fringes of the meadow. This wildlife-friendly area, which includes an already established pond, is home to a rich variety of birdlife and reptiles.

Boundary plantings have been strengthened with fruit-yielding shrubs and we have planted a number of hedges thoughout the garden in, variously, yew, beech, holly and mixed native plants.

Elsewhere we have built or overseen the construction of steel railings and arches, chestnut and hurdle fences, a timber enclosure for recycling, a tree house and an enclosed garden with paving made almost entirely with remnants of brick and stone remaining on site.

The garden has developed under the expert care of the full-time gardener and it is hugely satisfying to see the plantings mature into the landscape. In consultation with both gardener and client we are able to keep up to date with progress, tackle new projects as they arise, and continue to help steer the garden in the right direction.

Book a free consultation today

Get in touch today to organise a free telephone consultation with us. We’d love to hear about the ideas and aspirations that you have for your garden and how these fit in with your lifestyle and future plans.

This is an opportunity for us to understand your vision and for you to see if we are a good fit to work with you on your garden project.