Contemporary conifers
Conifers are making a quiet comeback. Having shaken off their unfashionable associations they are enjoying an overdue renaissance. Unsurprising as they are largely hardy, disease and pest free and grow in a diverse range of habitats. Often evergreen, they are architectural plants with a broad colour spectrum of foliage. At the Garden House they fit neatly with the mid-century aesthetic and provide valuable evergreen interest and structure throughout the year. Alice positioned dwarf cultivars through the garden, giving each its own space, while also creating textural contrast by close associations with soft fluid grasses such as Stipa tenuissima and stiff strappy colourful phormiums. “In Vanessa’s garden I have used Juniperus squamata ‘Blue Carpet’ to hang over the curved, white wall and soften where the step and decking meet, Thuja plicata ‘Whipcord’ next to the yucca to provide a complete contrast of leaf shape, and Pinus mugo sprouting out of the flinty gravel – as a nod to the dry, rocky slopes of more arid regions,” explains Alice. Conifers bring balance and depth to the composition, providing sculptural, evergreen volume and groundcover in contrast to the seasonality of the shimmering voluminous summer grasses.
Above Shapely conifers, such as the columnar scopulorum ‘Skyrocket’ and moundy Pinus mugo, furnish the garden with a sense of rhythm adding depth to the composition. The glowing foliage of Cotinus ‘Flame’ is a bold addition.
Above At the feet of a semievergreen ‘Edward Goucher’, oak landscape sleepers are abutted by a lower tier of planting. Rhizomatous Bergenia ‘Autumn Magic’ reflowers sporadically after its first flush, its leathery leaves bringing a blaze of autumn colour.
expanses of single pane glass and sliding windows allow light to pour in and frame outside views, closely relating the interior space to the surrounding seasonal landscape.
Alice’s design aesthetic uses an unusual and varied planting palette, underpinned by her understanding of what plant is likely to thrive where. Her clients favoured simplicity and required year-round interest. They admired broad Oudolfian sweeps of ornamental grasses, but also the informality and understated all-season interest inherent in Beth Chatto’s dry, gravel garden. Alice proposed an informal gravel garden that runs like a dry riverbed around the terrace, but while the dry, breezy growing conditions of Beth Chatto’s East Anglian garden benefit drought-tolerant Mediterranean plants, Alice was aware of the challenges posed by the retentive soil and high rainfall of this west Dorset location. Improved drainage was of paramount importance. Extensive land drains were installed and tonnes of gravel were mixed with imported topsoil and oak sleepers used to create raised beds at the front of the house, a solution that works well with the slope.
Alice describes her planting scheme as both gravel and prairie echoing the modernist philosophy of marrying practicality and style. Driven primarily by structure, loose drifts of statuesque grasses,
including Miscanthus and Cortaderia, thrive in the moist conditions, but are airy rather than overbearing. The gravel river bed is punctuated by intricate yet dense textural conifers and vibrant glossy phormiums and a yucca. Self-seeders, such as Verbena bonariensis, are kept in check by Alice’s regular development and maintenance visits, and there is plenty of negative space between plants, which brings a sense of serenity and encourages wandering among the plants. The grasses and shrubs are a satisfying backdrop to the seasonal white, maroons and purples provided first by bee-friendly Allium sphaerocephalon, and later by Agapanthus cultivars and Perovskia ‘Blue Spire’. Fleshy bergenias, brightly berried Cotoneaster horizontalis, low lavenders and prostrate rosemary and junipers provide a lower tier of planting that feathers the edges of the hard landscaping.
Good taste prevails in this stylish and unpretentious modern garden.
USEFUL INFORMATION
Find out more about Alice’s work at alicemeacham.co.uk
Above Surrounding the terrace is a gravel-filled central depression, or dry river bed, which also acts as the principal walkway through the gravel garden creating an atmospheric and serene meander past airy, metallic grasses and tactile conifers.