Facing page
Top row, from left The foliage of Anemanthele lessoniana contributes bronze tones throughout the year; a raised rill offers a sense of calm to the Front Mosaic Garden, its smooth lines creating a contrast to the ruggedness of the coastal pools along the Firth of Tay. Surrounding it, the structural silhouettes of Phlomis russeliana draw your eye around the planting, Achillea filipendulina ‘Gold Plate’ contrasts in colour and form with upright Perovskia atriplicifolia and Salvia nemorosa ‘Caradonna’, with the evergreen grass Stipa tenuissima mingling throughout; at the top of the terrace, Calamagrostis x acutiflora ‘Karl Foerster’ lines the boundary wall.
Second row, from left Planting in the Secret Garden offers a pleasing variety of form, texture and colour with the bronze foliage of Anemanthele lessoniana and transparent Stipa gigantea alongside blue flowers of Perovskia atriplicifolia; swathes of Stipa tenuissima, punctuated with young Pinus sylvestris line one side of the path leading up to the house. Facing these a glass balustrade looks down on a sheer drop to the sea; Euphorbia myrsinites thrives in the well-drained conditions in the garden.
Third row, from left The deep-blue flowers of Echinops ritro ‘Veitch’s Blue’ are much loved by pollinating insects and, once they have finished flowering, provide structural seedheads; the muted tones of Perovskia atriplicifolia and Anemanthele lessoniana blend with the tidal bathing pools below; Hylotelephium ‘Matrona’ adds a dark accent against the stone walls.
Bottom row, from left Euphorbia characias ‘Blue Wonder’ is a neatly structured sub-shrub, offering the bonus of large chartreuse flowers in the early spring; the grass border at the head of the drive, contains only two species of grass – Stipa tenuissima and Helictotrichon sempervirens – but they have been planted in great masses to form a soft biscuity border between the sandstone paving slabs and the gravel driveway; reaching the end of the drive, with Calamagrostis x acutiflora ‘Karl Foerster’ growing close to the high wall, you catch a first glimpse of the Firth of Tay framed within a rectangular open ‘window’ in a sawn sandstone wall.