Garden of the Week
By weaving contemporary plantings into historical designs, Trentham is moving into the future while still recognising its roots
The Trentham Estate may have had a turbulent past, but now all eyes are on the future. First recorded in the Domesday Book in 1086, the royal manor turned priory then country house contained formal gardens designed by Sir Charles Barry in the 1840s, with lake and parkland developed by Capability Brown, but was abandoned in 1905 when sewage polluted the lake and the hall was demolished. The gardens lay derelict until they were purchased by St Modwen Properties in 1996, who embarked on a £120m restoration plan in 2003.
However, rather than simply restore the gardens faithfully to their original glory, different contemporary garden designers have been employed to enhance and modernise them within the parameters of Trentham’s historic structure.
At the gateway to the garden, leading naturalistic plantsman Piet Oudolf has created Rivers of Grass – swathes of rustling
Molinia caerulea, dotted with colourful perennials, through which visitors are encouraged to walk. The Floral Labyrinth features a maze of paths meandering around beds burgeoning with bold drifts of perennials, including salvias, rudbeckias, heleniums, phlox and echinacea, grasses and bulbs that create a cascading tapestry of colour from spring into autumn.
His two 120m (394ft) long
borders, flanking the Italian Garden, contain similar plantings on a grander scale.
Multiple Chelsea Gold-medalwinner Tom Stuart-Smith imaginatively replanted the historic Italian Garden in 2003 by weaving more than 100,000 bulbs and perennials within the formal bones of the original design to create big broad brushstrokes in the open landscape. It’s one of Europe’s largest contemporary perennial plantings.
Professor Nigel Dunnett, Olympic Park designer, has recently introduced an extensive annual meadow, which connects to Capability Brown’s historic parkland, and is currently designing perennial meadow plantings along the two mile lakeside path. These have been chosen for seasonal interest and environmental sustainability.
“Each area has a different maintenance strategy,” says Michael Walker, Head of Garden and Estate. “In order for Nigel’s plantings to flourish, we’re spending a huge amount of effort removing invasive Rhododendron ponticum, Himalayan balsam and sycamore seedlings from the lakeside site before planting starts.”
This is done by hand, rather than machine, to avoid compaction and then a thick layer of mulch is spread into which hundreds of thousands of perennials, such as violas, pulmonarias, eupatorium and rudbeckias, are currently being planted.
“In the Italian Garden we focus
on dividing more vigorous plants to prevent them taking over, keeping couch grass and bindweed at bay and treating and replacing the box hedging that’s succumbed to box blight,” says Michael. “We’re currently working with Tom to evolve the garden, allowing him to reorchestrate and regenerate the planting while maintaining his original ethos.
“With Piet’s plantings, we constantly need to monitor the balance of the grasses and perennials to ensure nothing gets out of hand. That’s the beauty of a naturalistic garden – it never stands still!”