Future perfect
James Hitchmough’s vision has one eye on the future in this thoroughly modern take on the traditional perennial meadow
Behind a Georgian-style house in Wiltshire, James Hitchmough has created a contemporary take on the traditional perennial meadow
David Morrison’s enthusiasm for plants is obvious the minute you walk through his front door to be greeted by two huge displays of tropical bromeliads. It’s a hint at what lies behind the house, although nothing quite prepares you for what unfurls: a vision so brilliant and unexpected that it quite takes your breath away. The farmhouse is a flawless take on a Palladian villa, with elegant Doric arches and clean columns. The 16th-century Italian architect Andrea Palladio was famous for rarely contemplating the design of the gardens behind his villas, but you might expect a man who admires such a classical style to have, say, a formal parterre or two at the rear, or some well-ordered symmetry with a fountain and pond at the end of the central axis. Instead what you get is a very clever twist.
Behind the house is a garden that makes all the right nods to its classical setting: a beautiful pergola, long borders, a double row of neatly clipped trees and a sweep of lawn. Then, between the formal garden and the arboretum beyond, lies the surprise.
For here is James Hitchmough’s very modern making of a meadow, which happily blends the best of European and Asian species with plants from North America and South Africa. Sown from seed in 2014, this perennial meadow has been skilfully designed: the height is such that from the house you get a gently hazy vision that allows you to appreciate the landscape beyond, but up close you are treated to a feast of unexpected colour and detail, the planting rich in species diversity.
“The thing I like about the meadow is its context with the rest of the garden,” says David. “The house could have been built 200 years ago and the garden has a conventional layout, but the planting in the garden, the meadow and even the arboretum is of the moment. It’s not backward looking. James is a scientist and a plant ecologist, driven by an interest in urban green spaces and planting combinations that look after themselves.”
Meadows are an ideal ecological model in that sense, and David felt passionately that his garden should reflect such ideas. “James’s convictions are not just pertinent, but very relevant to 21st-century gardening. If one is lucky enough to start a garden from scratch, why not think about what the future holds, and how the garden will function within that scenario?”
On James’s part, a private client offered a degree of freedom to experiment with plant selection. “The challenging thing about these meadows is you never really know what’s going to be successful,” he explains. “Working with David allowed me to be semi-experimental and put some quirky stuff in that might or might not work. David is very passionate about the meadow and it’s become the basis of our friendship. It’s a lot of fun to have a meadow like that at the bottom of the garden.”
David is honest about the challenges of growing a perennial meadow from seed. “For the first two years, there is quite a lot of weeding work, and Carol, my head gardener, has done a very good job.” First, the area was treated with weed killer, then the paths were laid out, and finally the whole area
was covered with sand and sown. The sand is necessary to lower the nutrient levels so that weeds don’t out-compete the perennials.
It was also necessary to water the area a lot at the beginning. But now that the meadow has started to establish itself, maintenance is pretty routine: a certain amount of weeding in spring, and then the meadow is allowed to stand until after Christmas when it is cut to just above ground level with a hedge trimmer and the brush cleared off. Most of the seed has naturally fallen by then and other than keeping the rabbits at bay – with a rabbit-height electric fence from October to late spring when they do the most damage – little else has to be done.
However, it’s not just the meadow that is filled with unusual finds. The rest of the garden and the arboretum brim with choice plants, wild-collected species and little-known gems. David acknowledges Nick Macer from Pan Global Plants as a huge influence on both the choice of plants and the design of the garden and arboretum. “Nick is immensely knowledgeable, and has a good eye for what makes a successful garden plant. He’s taught me a lot of about scale.” It’s knowledge that has clearly been put to good use.