AUTUMN RETREAT
A garden of structured terraces softened by a tapestry of feathery grasses and colourful showy perennials has given its owners the naturalistic haven that they have always wanted for their converted barn home
Terraces, grasses and perennials combine to create a naturalistic haven.
The air may be cool and the sky streaked with cloud, but there is a warmth about Alex and Graeme Ellisdons’ garden that the weather cannot diminish. It emanates in part from the mellow wooden walls of the converted barn that is their home, and in part from the garden itself, a swaying mass of tawny grasses, rosy crab apples, rich pink sedum heads and autumn-tinted leaves.
Twenty years ago, when the Ellisdons first visited this site in Hertfordshire in search of a new family home, they discovered a collection of derelict farm buildings in three-quarters of an acre of rough field and were instantly struck by the tranquillity of the spot and by its potential. “It was amazing,” Alex recalls. “All you could hear was birdsong and all you could see was unspoilt countryside.”
As the creative couple behind the leather goods and accessories brand Osprey, they were not fazed by the prospect of converting the jumble of buildings into a house, but realising their vision for the outside space was rather more daunting. “We are garden enthusiasts, but far from garden designers,” says Alex. “We needed help.”
Fortunately, they knew exactly who to call, having met award-winning garden designer Julie Toll many years ago at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show. “We were impressed by her ecological and naturalistic style, so when we found out she lived nearby, she was the obvious choice.” By the time Julie arrived, the couple had installed a swimming pool and a tennis court, and created an ornamental kitchen garden that, according to Alex, “expresses the spirit of a life we’d like to have, even though we don’t have time to live that dream, so most of the beds are filled with dahlias, not vegetables”.
The rest of the site was a blank canvas, although not
a level one, since the excavations that had been necessary to fit three storeys of living space inside the barn meant that the garden had dipped by five feet as it draws near the house.
Undaunted, Julie designed a series of interlinked terraces leading from house to garden, bounded by raised beds and a formal pool that gently divide the space without imposing physical barriers or high hedges. Into this robust structure is stitched a softening tapestry of plants in a palette carefully negotiated with Alex. “I am very particular about colour,” she says. “I love calming greens and whites but that could get boring, so we’ve introduced warmer shades of terracotta and orange. These are the colours we need in this country to counter our cool climate.”
In practice, this means a pale-barked Betula utilis var.
jacquemontii by the pond is underplanted with early white foxgloves which give way to a golden haze of tufted hair grass,
Deschampsia cespitosa, at this time of year. Meanwhile, on the terrace, fresh green cubes of Ilex crenata contrast with the mellow orange rose ‘Lady Emma Hamilton’ (which, even this late in the season, exudes a deliciously fruity fragrance) and a selection of grasses to make an unusual but hugely successful set piece near the house.
As a low beam of sunlight slides out from behind a cloud, the whole garden seems to glow. The Osprey head o∞ce is just a few miles away in Luton but on a day like this, you can understand why the Ellisdons so often choose to work from home. “A well-designed environment feeds your creativity,” says Alex. “Our garden gives us that, wherever we look.”