PLANTING WITH EDGE
Designer Jo Thompson has used a classic colour scheme to revitalise a traditional English garden
Ladham House shares the same view across the rolling Kentish Weald as nearby Sissinghurst. It sits in ten acres of formal gardens that were established in the late 19th century by the Jessel family. These now comprise a rose garden, rockery, arboretum, yew walk leading to a formal pond and, framing the front façade, two 60m-long herbaceous borders flanked by bands of mature specimen trees and shrubs that include the stunning deep-red form of Magnolia campbellii ‘Betty Jessel’.
When designer Jo Thompson was commissioned by the current owners Guy and Nicola Johnson to refresh the old-fashioned borders, she recommended retaining and reshaping the shrubs that formed the backbone of the beds but starting anew with the perennials. The result is a relaxed scheme that flows seamlessly down the lawn in tones of pink, blue and purple, with accents of deep red and green and white. What was the brief? The owners wanted a fresher, more relaxed feel to the borders that would have impact but would not be formal nor too manicured. They wanted to keep the backdrop of specimen trees and shrubs and integrate a large sculpture into a circular bed beyond the borders. What elements were not working? There was no flow and many of the shrubs were overgrown and shaggy, and had crowded out the perennials. Both borders lacked drama and there was no discernible colour scheme. How did you start? I spent time taking stock of what was there, looking at what shrubs we could keep and shape, such as choisya and cotinus, and those we needed to get rid of because they were never going to get back to any kind of sensible shape.
JO RECOMMENDED RETAINING THE SHRUBS THAT FORMED THE BACKBONE OF THE BEDS
As we moved down the beds, I wanted to keep shrubs that would give medium height structure to provide a link between the trees and the low herbaceous planting. Once I’d plotted the shrubs we were keeping, there was masses of space for new planting. How did you choose the infill planting? First I decided on the structural colour, by which I mean plants that create blocks or big swathes of colour – in these borders, the roses. I slotted these into the planting plan at staggered intervals to create informality. We planted them in groups of threes, about 1.5m to 2m from each other in a looped triangle to give randomness to the overall shape. I chose repeat-flowering roses to provide colour throughout the summer months. I then plotted drifts of colour to go between the structural colour. I wanted to keep the scheme simple, so I used things like campanula, nepeta and Geranium phaeum, and plants with an airy form, such as Alchemilla mollis, in groups of five, seven and nine, and drifted them in front of, and beside, the roses. I planned for seasonality, with bulbs such as tulips and Gladiolus communis subsp. byzantinus providing a succession throughout the borders. How did you place the large piece of sculpture? The owners wanted the polished puddlestone sphere by David Harber in a circular bed that had been planted with bulbs at the edge of the driveway, against the backdrop of the Weald landscape. We wanted to hide the plinth, so I added circular tiers of clipped box. I also planted box domes within the beds in a nod to the rolling landscape and to provide useful winter structure. The informal planting has a meadow feel – we wanted to avoid anything too manicured in front of that landscape. USEFUL INFORMATION Find out more about Jo's work at jothompson-garden-design.co.uk