MAPPERTON IS THE VERY DEFINITION OF A GARDEN WITH GOOD BONES

Steve recently moved from Allt-y-bela, Arne Maynard’s beautiful Welsh garden, and wants to bring to Mapperton the same sensitivity to the spirit of the place, while respecting its 20th-century heritage. He feels that there are similarities between Allt-y-bela and Mapperton: “What attracted me here was the same thing that attracted me to Allt-y-bela: it has a timeless feel to it.” He recognises, however, that it will need a different approach. “It would be wrong to try to turn it into Allt-y-bela,” he says, “because the houses and landscapes are so different. But I want to find its character and enhance and work with what is here in a similar way.” There are early 20th-century roses such as ‘American Pillar’ climbing the walls and while the obvious thing might be to take these out and replace them with something with a more traditional feel, Steve thinks this would not be true to the history or the spirit of the garden. He is also tempering his love of soft, old-fashioned, muted pastels. “The most striking view of the garden is from above, so you are quite a long way from the planting and there is lots of hard landscaping and topiary surrounding it,” he explains. “This means it needs plants with some punch – such as brightly coloured tulips in spring. They create necessary impact.”

Despite this careful preservation of the atmosphere and integrity of the garden, it also has to evolve. “It isn’t set in aspic,” Steve says, and he hopes to revitalise the planting of the borders that soften the edges. The winter planting is pretty perfect as it is, though: vast, looming topiary yew and box shapes, the skeletal forms of trees at the top of the valley, a little bare bark from the Acer griseum and pearls of fruit on the crab apple trees down below. You can just imagine a cosy fire burning in the grate of one of the grottos, and Ethel holed up there, painting her creation. USEFUL INFORMATION Address Mapperton, Beaminster, Dorset DT8 3NR. Tel 01308 862645. Website mapperton.com Open 3 March – 31 October 2019, Sunday – Thursday, 11am- 5pm, and for Snowdrop days on 3, 10 and 17 February. Admission £9.

Right The Italianate garden is built in a natural valley, overlooked by the Jacobean and Tudor house, and sloping down to two large pools where topiary and the subtle colours and shapes of winter branches provide the principal points of interest. Beyond this is an arboretum that is carpeted with snowdrops in January and February.