“I love the garden’s sculptural geometry”
Inspired by 17th-century Dutch garden design, this elegant formal garden in Norfolk offers plenty of ideas for yearround structure. Owner George Carter reveals its best bits
Inspired by 17th-century Dutch design, this elegant garden offers ideas for year-round structure
I wanted to create an architectural and sculptural garden
This stylish formal garden offers a wealth of clever ideas for winter structure. “My basic inspiration came from 17th-century Dutch gardens,” explains owner George Carter. “They had a simple geometry that I admire, a green architecture and minimalism that looks quite modern.” An RHS award-winning designer and former sculptor, George created new elements for the gardens at Burghley House, Lincolnshire, Penshurst Place, Kent and The Royal Hospital, Chelsea. Here in his own garden George set himself the challenge of using, in the main, only plants that would have been available in the 17th century. “Plants such as Phillyrea latifolia, the green olive, have been used in Britain since Tudor times and were mentioned in Gerard’s Herbal in the 1590s,” he says. “It’s a robust plant that clips well and manages to cope with our cold Norfolk winters. I’ve also used Rhamnus alaternus, Italian buckthorn, which is a Mediterranean evergreen introduced to Britain early on.” George has gardened here for 28 years, transforming a windswept Norfolk farmstead into a handsome showcase of his formal design ideas. “I wanted to create an architectural and sculptural garden where objects and ornaments stand out against an evergreen backdrop,” he says. “When I first arrived the farmhouse was surrounded by gravel so it looked like it had
been dropped here from outer space. We built walls, introduced hedging and trees to link it to the wider landscape, gradually colonising our three large farmyards with plants. Now it has a wonderful geometry.” Crisply trimmed evergreen hedging creates a soothing green architecture that divides the garden into gallery spaces, views and vistas. “The main structural hedging is hornbeam,” explains George. “It’s more adaptable than beech, and it does better in my claggy, wet clay soil in winter. I’ve used it for most of the taller hedges and to create a ‘green theatre’, which is a curved double hedge with arches cut through it. The hornbeam semi-circle is backed by rather unhistoric Cuprocyparis leylandii, which actually makes a nice hedge if kept in trim. “Elsewhere, for colour contrasts, I’ve used yew (Taxus baccata) and a blue holly, Ilex meserveae ‘Blue Prince’. There’s beech hedging, Fagus sylvatica and ‘Atropurpurea Group’, which, although deciduous, hang onto their bronze leaves until spring.” There are hardly any flowers here except for a few climbing roses and seasonal bulbs planted in tubs. “Flowers are a distraction in a sculptural garden,” says George. “I prefer to use grey and silver foliage plants for a more monochromatic colour scheme. The soil here is a bit too wet for santolina, so I’ve been replacing it with hebe ‘Pewter Dome’, which is a mounding grey form. Silverleaved Helichrysum italicum is a good infill plant for parterre plantings and also works as a low hedge.” Topiary and cloud-pruned shrubs punctuate the garden. “Box seems to suit balls and hedging best, while hawthorn makes good pyramids,” says George. “I also use native privet, Ligustrum vulgare, for topiary – it’s a dark, blackish-green and can be cloud pruned or clipped into loose balls. Other good plants include Ligustrum delavayanum, which is like a small-leaved privet but is a very fast grower that makes good, dense topiary. We also use bay (Laurus nobilis) for standards and mopheads. The low winter sun helps to emphasise their architectural, three-dimensional quality.” Statuesque Lombardy poplars (Populus nigra) and allées of pleached limes (Tilia europaea) provide height and frame views. “The lime trees are as tall as my Japanese tripod ladder will allow – 3.5m!” says George. The garden is traversed by two main axes that run the full length and width of the
Flowers are a distraction in a sculptural garden... I prefer silver foliage plants
property, aligning with George’s red brick Edwardian farmhouse and older, brick-andflint barns. Poker-straight paths lead along these sightlines, passing broad areas of lawn. “The Dutch tradition was to include architectural ornament (pavilions, arbours, pergolas) and sculptural ornament (urns, benches and obelisks),” explains George. “They also used wooden trellis panels to mark out the eventual height of new hedges, either removing the trellis once the plants had reached full height or leaving them in situ and letting the wood rot away in time.” They were also fond of formal water features. “Here we’ve created a canal with a flint column at one end, a pond with a floating island, and various wall fountains that add a bit of sparkle to the monochrome. Our lead-lined fountain looks particularly good with icicles hanging from it in winter and has a gilded ball at the top,” says George. “A flash of gilding here and there cheers everything up in winter!”