“Pruning is the secret to good structure”
This magnificent garden is an object lesson is how to create ‘good bones’ in winter. Wrought iron gates and dramatic sculptures draw the eye along frosty vistas lined with pleached hornbeam and espaliered apple trees, while box hedges mark out dormant flowerbeds punctuated by neatly clipped topiary in beech and yew. “It’s actually the pruning that makes the winter structure so strong,” says the garden’s award-winning designer, Julie Toll. “The shapes you can make with a little creative pruning can really stand out at this time of year. Take the multistem birch trees, for instance. We have to clean up their silhouette by removing unwanted lower branches and thinning out the canopy to SHAPE & FORM (clockwise from above) Multistem Himalayan birches form a mini copse in the courtyard garden, among dome-shaped beech standards and asplenium ferns; buxus spirals frame the front door; beech topiary ‘cake stands’ with assorted grasses; handsome ‘Spin’ water feature with neat mounds of hebe, grasses and pleached beech
create a nicely shaped head of foliage. It’s a thoughtful, creative process; you can’t just chop the top off a tree when it gets too big.” A plant’s natural shape is an important consideration. “It’s useful to contrast pillars and dome-shaped plants in a planting scheme,” says Julie. “You just have to be sensitive to the plant’s growth habit, and how you can train it with the secateurs.” While yew and box are the big favourites for topiary, Julie says there’s an awful lot of other plants that can make exciting forms. “Here we’ve used green and copper beech, hornbeam – even Pittosporum tobira.” Julie designed the garden about 10 years ago. “It took about six years to complete the
It’s actually the pruning that makes the winter structure so strong
initial layout,” she says, “but I’m still heavily involved with its evolution.” The garden was formerly owned by Jacqueline Duncan, head of the famous Inchbald School of Design. “She was very interested in gardening,” says Julie. “Yet the garden had been minimised in recent years, so for its new owners my job was to ‘maximise’ it again.” One of the main new areas is the walled garden, where Julie has created a new orchard and kitchen garden with raised beds made from corten steel, natural stone and brick. “It’s an interesting design that’s coordinated with a patterned brick path,” she says. “In winter, the brick path, corten steel beds and terracotta rhubarb forcers bring a warm orange accent to area, as well as offering important structure.” An avenue of espaliered fruit trees lines the route to an orangery. “It’s a bespoke Alitex greenhouse where we keep the citrus trees in winter,” says Julie. “The apple trees include heritage cultivars ‘Kidd’s Orange Red’ and ‘Ribston Pippin’. At the base of them are mounds of Hebe rakaiensis, which forms a low evergreen hedge.” Pleached hornbeams divide this productive area from the ornamental garden beyond. “We have deep herbaceous borders alongside a grass path, which leads to a swirling metal water feature made by local firm, Arcangel of Bendish. They also made the beautiful metalwork gates, which represent elegant pleached pear trees.” A new courtyard garden has buildings on two sides and a yew hedge on the third. “Running through the garden is a sinuous brick path that winds through a small copse of birch trees and late-flowering perennials such as rudbeckia and lavender,” says Julie. “There are clipped topiary forms in yew and beech, plus Luzula sylvatica, Euphorbia robbiae, carex and ivy trained into balls.” The shapely beech trees were bought in Belgium. “I’m always scouting for plants that have good structure for the garden,” she says. “One of the owners loves formality, while the other prefers the natural look, and this contrast is what drives the design. So, I’m always on the lookout for feature plants that can be softened in summer with perennials.” The beech forms are trimmed by a couple of freelance topiarists called Andy and Luke. NEAT LINES (clockwise from above) Rhubarb forcers and lantern cloches in the veg patch, with netted raspberries and espaliered apples beyond; the temple garden, with reflecting pool and large laurel; topiaried beech, carex and Luzula sylvatica; the garden’s simple geometry uses a triangular brick pattern CENTRE Espaliered malus, with Hebe rakaiensis
“They work alongside our full-time gardening team, trimming the topiary using clippers as often as two or three times a year,” says Julie. “The owners like everything neat for winter, because it helps to emphasise the garden’s clean lines.” To one side of the house is a classical temple framed by a large laurel, overlooking a formal pool. “It’s shadier here than in the rest of the garden,” she says. “It has a backdrop of mature shrubs such as liriodendron, Stachyurus praecox and sorbus planted around the rectangular lawn, plus evergreen Euonymus fortunei ‘Emerald ’n’ Gold’ and low-growing forsythias, which are cut back to keep them small.” It’s no surprise the garden draws visitors from near and far when it opens for the National Garden Scheme in late May. “Last year the garden made £8,000 in four hours,” says Julie. “It really is a huge success.”
I’m always scouting for plants that have good structure for the garden