ESCAPE TO THE COUNTRY
An informal garden deep in the Suffolk countryside creates a surprisingly traditional getaway for the masters of contemporary design Tommaso del Buono and Paul Gazerwitz
Suffolk is a pretty county, full of winding lanes, undulating fields and houses painted in pastel shades. Beside every other front gate stands a table with a handwritten note, an honesty box and a selection of homegrown produce for sale. It feels a very long way from London, and quite a long way from the 21st century. It is most definitely not the sort of place you would expect Tommaso del Buono and Paul Gazerwitz, famed designers of sleek modernist gardens, to choose as their weekend bolthole.“It is wonderful to have found somewhere so set apart from our Monday to Friday lives,” says Tommaso.
It was Paul who first came across the house. “It needed some renovation,” he recalls. “There was no kitchen to speak of and the bathroom needed quite a bit of work. The garden was open to the road on two sides, sloping up from front to back, with a rough driveway that ended right outside the living room window.” Yet both men instantly fell for the potential it offered and bought it in 2009.
With a limited budget and less time, they focused first on making the house habitable then in 2011 that they started work on the garden. “By that time we had a feel for the place,” says Paul. “I used to set up a deckchair in different places and just take in the view, the way the light fell, what time of day was best where.” Once it was time to start work, it took less than an hour to sketch out a plan. “We wanted it to be understated. People think they know our style, but as a designer you should respond to your surroundings,” says Paul. “A contemporary urban garden would look ridiculously out of place here.”
They wanted a sense of informality with a minimum of hard landscaping. It took just a couple of days for a man with a JCB digger to level out a small potager terrace by the kitchen door, to lessen the slope of the lawn beyond it and then to bank up the resultant spoil into a gentle mound at the far end of the garden. Like all good design interventions, it has been so successful that it is hard to imagine it ever looked any different. Paths were laid in Breedon gravel and Suffolk
PEOPLE THINK THEY KNOW OUR STYLE, BUT AS A DESIGNER YOU SHOULD RESPOND TO YOUR SURROUNDINGS
Geranium psilostemon A large but delicate geranium with wiry stems and shocking-magenta flowers. It is best planted among grasses and other plants that can support its lax flower stalks. 1.2m. AGM*. RHS H7, USDA 5a-7b†.
Euphorbia schillingii The long-lasting, lime-green flowers of this plant beautifully complement a blue and magenta colour palette. It has delicate foliage with a white rib and stems that turn red in the autumn, making it perfect for multi-seasonal interest. 1m. AGM. RHS H5. Knautia macedonica The flowers are the colour of ripe cherries and become luminescent in the morning sunlight. It is prone to powdery mildew so is best planted among herbaceous plants to disguise this inevitable occurrence. 80cm. RHS H7, USDA 5a-9b.
Borago officinalis This useful, pretty herb should be more widely grown. Its heavenly blue flowers are adored by bees. It will self-seed where it is happy. 90cm. RHS H5, USDA 2a-11.
Centranthus ruber Prefers to grow in gravel and walls and likes the sun. Does not stay put and will seed itself freely into its preferred spots. Flowers in June and will repeat if cut back after the first flush. The nectar of the flowers is the favourite tipple of the hawk moth. 90cm. RHS H5, USDA 5a-8b.
Lychnis coronaria A striking combination of silvery foliage and magenta flowers. It makes a great companion plant among bearded irises as it will take over the display once the blowsy blooms of the iris are over. 90cm. AGM. RHS H7, USDA 4a-8b. Turn the page for more key plants *Holds an Award of Garden Merit from the Royal Horticultural Society. Hardiness ratings given where available.