“Formality gives us structure in winter”
With its box parterre, yew hedging and topiary, this exciting garden is full of evergreen interest. Owners Amanda and Simon Mehigan show us around
With its box parterre, yew hedging and topiary, this exciting garden is full of evergreen interest
An overgrown conifer plantation covering almost half the garden would put most people off a property, however charming its location. “We weren’t daunted by the prospect at all,” says Amanda Mehigan, who lives here with her husband Simon. “We’d moved from London to a small cottage near Bridport and were looking for a bigger project to take on.”
In 1995, a year after they moved in, timber contractors felled the trees, removed the logs and left huge mounds of wet brushwood behind. “It wouldn’t burn, and the garden turned into a muddy quagmire,” says Amanda. “In the end the landscaper buried most of it, and piled the rest up to make a viewing mound.”
With the conifers gone the couple could at last sketch out a basic layout for the garden. “The design was dictated by the lie of the land,” says Amanda. “We had a small valley with a long central path, one side of which was very wet, so we got the digger driver to exaggerate and widen the path and extend it the entire length of the garden. We also made the existing pond about three times bigger and dug a stream for the wet ground to drain into. The area has become a natural bog garden, ideal for plants such as candelabra primulas, arum lilies, hostas and astilbes.”
When it was time to start planting, the couple drew inspiration from visits to Sissinghurst Castle in Kent and Beth Chatto’s garden near Colchester in Essex. “Simon is keen on formality and strong architectural shapes,” says Amanda. “He planted a formal avenue of yew pyramids, fastigiate hornbeams and solid hornbeam hedges along the 180m (590ft) central axis of the garden. This leads to a gothic beech summerhouse at the far end of the garden. Twenty years on, our avenue is a dominant feature in winter, creating
The avenue creates parallel lines that frame views across the garden
parallel lines that frame views across the garden. It divides the well-drained slopes to the north, planted with sweet chestnuts, walnuts and fruit trees, from the low-lying wet areas to the south, shaped by the pond, bog garden, stream and pollarded willows.”
Formal evergreens frame the house. “The front drive is surrounded by clipped holm oaks and hollies,” says Amanda. “In the formal courtyard behind the house we have clipped umbrellas of Portugese laurel (Prunus lusitanica), underplanted with herbaceous plants.
“There’s a crenellated yew walk behind the house that leads to the church tower
of St Mary the Virgin and to one side we have our formal kitchen garden, whose sloping beds are fenced with chicken wire between finial-topped posts. Its glass cloches, rhubarb forcers and metal obelisks look very picturesque in winter.” Though formal in structure, nature washes freely in and out of the garden. “Our grassy slopes are full of naturalised bulbs and wild flowers,” says Amanda. “Snowdrops and cyclamen are followed by primroses, narcissi, fritillaries and Tulipa sprengeri in spring. In summer the grass is full of red campion (Silene dioica), ox-eye daisies, foxgloves and cow parsley. This creates a dramatic contrast with the more formal areas – Simon loves the symmetry of the garden, while I like to soften it with planting, to blur the edges.” The transition from owning a small cottage garden to a large plot covering five acres was hard for Amanda. “I began by planting close to the house and drew a plan of the beds and paths in the courtyard at the back. At first I used familiar cottage garden plants, such as lavender, peonies, foxgloves and roses, creating a tapestry effect, but then I started to look at flowering trees such as magnolias and Cornus kousa, which do well in the damper areas. That helped me see things on a larger scale.”
The garden now has masses of ornamental trees including Magnolia sieboldii and a ‘thornery’ of more than 30 different hawthorns.
In January and February, the mossy grass below the holm oak is spangled with white and purple Crocus tommasinianus and Cyclamen coum, while sloping ground behind the house is coloured with hellebores, snowdrops, cyclamen and Iris reticulata. “I became interested in snowdrops because they f lower in the depths of winter and I’ve built up quite a collection,” says Amanda. “I prefer those that bulk up well and spread, such as galanthus ‘Atkinsii’ and ‘S. Arnott’.” Winter is a busy time in the garden. “From autumn we’re constantly clearing leaves off beds and borders so the bulbs can make their way up through the soil in spring,” says Amanda. “Dead herbaceous material gets cut down too. The fallen leaves make a wonderful leafmould soil conditioner, which we apply as a thick mulch once it’s rotted down.” Amanda and Simon plan to introduce more naturalised bulbs, especially the vivid scarlet Tulipa sprengeri. “They burst into f lame-like f lowers beneath our avenue of scarlet oaks in May,” says Amanda. “It’s such a warming thought on a cold winter’s morning!” ✿