WITHIN THESE WALLS A dynamic redesign has reinvigorated the walled gardens at Gordon Castle
Designer Arne Maynard has brought dynamic, contemporary design to a vast and historic walled garden in Scotland’s Spey Valley
At over seven acres and bounded by 680 metres of wall, Gordon Castle’s walled garden is one of the largest in the UK. Located near Fochabers in the Spey Valley, a surprisingly mild corner of eastern Scotland, it was built in 1803 as a powerhouse of food and flower production stoked by 40 gardeners. Used for commercial raspberry growing after the Second World War, it had lain dormant for some years by the time Angus and Zara Gordon Lennox took over the Gordon Castle estate in 2008.
Determined to bring the walled garden back to life, they enlisted the help of designer Arne Maynard.
‘We chose Arne because he’s a passionate kitchen gardener himself and understood that we didn’t want a “pretty, ornamental” garden but one that was in keeping with the ethos of a working, productive garden where everything has a use,’ says Zara. Apart from a couple of glasshouses and the 249 espaliered fruit trees lining the walls, well-tended throughout the garden’s history, the site was a blank canvas.
Rather than recreate what the garden would have looked like in its heyday, Angus, Zara and Arne have created an adaptable, contemporary garden, where plants form the structure. ‘Apart from the paths and the plant and tree supports there’s very little hard landscaping. Instead we have used fun, planted structures including a mown maze and raised banks, to draw people around the garden,’ says Arne.
At its centre concentric ripples of lavender radiate, a mix of purple Lavandula angustifolia ‘Hidcote’, and white L. angustifolia ‘Alba’, around a square raised dipping pond. ‘Patternation’ as he calls it, is important in Arne’s work, and the colourful plan of the walled garden shows how the vast site is broken down into smaller compartments, with repeating patterns throughout the design. In the centre are productive beds for growing vegetables, salads and cut flowers, while towards the walls of the garden larger compartments contain a natural playground, a sunken performance area and a maze with a spiral mound in the middle. Along the western side, a sequence of crescent-shaped earth mounds arc their way across the space, interspersed with cherry trees that bring blossom and autumn colour. ‘We’re going to let them get really tall so people can walk under the blossom, and they’ll also provide some shade and shelter as the garden is quite exposed,’ says head gardener Ed Bollom. Almost an acre of land in the south-east corner is devoted to soft fruit.
Four cut flower beds are colour themed, bearing evocative names: Golden Peat, Glowing Heather, Icy Glen and Scotch Thistle, and planted with over 60 varieties, a mix of perennials and annuals that always includes sweet peas, scabious, cornflowers, poppies and salvias. Borders extending from the Garden Cottage have recently been replanted with herbaceous perennials punctuated by topiary columns of copper beech for year-round structure, a tree that Maynard often uses clipped in his designs.
Ed and his small team of just one full-time and two part-time gardeners, with regular help from Zara and a band of enthusiastic volunteers, produce a wealth of fruit, flowers, vegetables and herbs that go into a dazzling array of products ranging from three different gins and two ciders to jams, condiments and scented candles. Everything grown in the garden has a use and once again the walled garden is the beating heart of the Gordon Castle estate.
“WE HAVE USED FUN, PLANTED STRUCTURES, INCLUDING A MOWN MAZE AND RAISED EARTH BANKS, TO DRAW PEOPLE AROUND THE GARDEN”
ARNE MAYNARD
GARDEN GUIDE
LOCATION The Spey Valley, near the Moray coast in north-east Scotland.
CLIMATE Mild but prone to some strong south-westerly winds since the original shelter belt outside the garden walls was removed when the land was sold.
SOIL TYPE A sandy loam, technically described as glacial runoff, with high fertility resulting from many continuous years of cultivation. DESIGNER Arne Maynard.
SIZE 2.8 hectares (seven acres).
CREATE A LAVENDER FEATURE
With its fragrant foliage and flowers in purple, pink and white, lavender looks best planted en masse.
English lavender and its hybrids are hardy, look for
■ Lavandula angustifolia and L.x intermedia.
Use dark and light lavenders for variation. One of
■ the darkest is Lavandula angustifolia ‘Superblue’;
L. angustifolia ‘Arctic White’ is a compact white; L. angustifolia ‘Miss Katherine’ is the darkest hardy pink.
Lavender does well on poor, well-drained soil. If
■ yours is heavy, work in grit before planting or plant on a 20-30cm mound or ridge or in a raised bed.
Plant in spring about 90cm apart when the soil has
■ warmed up, in full sun.
Water regularly in the first summer, but when
■ established, lavender is drought-tolerant.
Cut off spent flowers to encourage more to form.
■ However, you can leave them in place towards the end of the season as food for birds such as goldfinches.
Trim annually in late summer after flowering, August
■ for angustifolia, September for x intermedia hybrids.