MODERN COUNTRY
Debbie Roberts of Acres Wild blended this rural garden with the scenery beyond in her clever design, which won the People’s Choice Award sponsored by Homes & Gardens. Here, she tells us how she created such a verdant space
Sense of place is so important. This modern country garden relates completely to its situation in the Sussex Downs, with all the colours, textures and forms in the garden chosen to best associate with the wider landscape beyond the boundaries.
To make the most of the setting, I created a new, car-free entrance garden. Before, the driveway went right up to the house, but I pulled it back. We got rid of the old garage by the house, and placed a timber-framed barn at the bottom of the garden in which to hide the cars.
It is very formal around the house, then beyond that the garden becomes more natural. The main garden looks north over a valley, with a little terrace to catch the sunrise and a flat lawn, before a big bank of planting, with swathes of grasses and perennials, sweeps down to a larger, sloping lawn.
To maximise space around the dining and seating terrace outside the kitchen on the south side, we extended the retaining brick and flint walls to sitting height, so when the clients are entertaining, they have plenty of space for people to perch on.
The plants we used were limited to those that will grow on chalk soil, so we chose species such as lavender, cistus, hebe and ornamental grasses. We restricted the palette to just blue, white and mauve flowers, in order to keep the colours soft, but we also included a few off-white plants, like Rosa ‘Penelope’, which has a little bit of peach in it, to help lift the garden in summer.