A sense of place

Bere Mill is a unique and tranquil garden, inextricably linked with its riparian setting, creating a timeless landscape

Creating the tranquil, riverside gardens of Bere Mill has been a labour of love for the Nabarros

Glimpsed first as you cross an ancient bridge spanning the pristine River Test in rural Hampshire, the beauty of this garden is the way it sits low in its watery setting, complementing the characterful house and mill, while blending into the borrowed landscape beyond of verdant water meadows. When owners Rupert Nabarro and his Australian-born wife Elizabeth, first saw the historic Bere Mill in 1994, with its complex of agricultural buildings, all of which were quite derelict, they also were immediately drawn to its serene location and the lozenge-shaped land following the riverbank, dissected by side streams.

There has been a mill on the site for seven centuries. The 1712 mill was historically important as the original location where Portals made banknote paper for the Bank of England, after which its uses then changed to flour-making, supplying electricity and, in the 1950s, as a fish farm. The Nabarros set about sympathetically renovating the original house to respect the continuity of the mill buildings. However, a devastating fire in 2018 meant a long process again of complete restoration using skilled local craftsmen. The house has now risen from the ashes, with the mill’s completion expected next year. ‘We hope to generate electricity as part of our self-sufficiency once the mill’s wheel is restored,’ adds Rupert.

It took months, when the couple first moved to the property, to reclaim the beauty of the millstreams and lake, which had become muddy and slow. This involved the laborious removal of silt, brambles and nettles. The resulting crystal clear water, with its shimmering reflections, brings energy to the environment. It also serves as the house’s water and heating source, and is managed carefully. ‘This is as much a landscape as it is a garden and an awful lot of the work done by myself and our three part-time gardeners is

mowing and riverbank management. It’s always a work in progress,’ Rupert explains.

Flooding is not an issue as the Test is fed by a rising aquifer and the river is very controlled with a carefully worked out regime, including cutting weeds at set times along the river. ‘The entire river is a Site of Special Scientific Interest and while looking after the margins and caring for the wild flora and fauna is supervised by Natural England, beyond that it’s up to us to manage the water meadows, hedges and bring trees back into the landscape, such as field maple,’ Rupert continues.

Fortunately, the beautiful, rather wild garden, was not badly damaged by the fire in 2018 and has continued to offer peaceful sanctuary. Developed over the past 26 years from its initial state of a few ancient apple trees, the remnant of a wall, and a windbreak of 75 leylandii - which were promptly removed – the central ethos to its creation has been keeping the spirit of the location. Beech and alder were planted for wind protection, including a line of pleached Alnus glutinosa ‘Imperialis’, which draws the eye down the garden and is accompanied by a timber serpentine bench.

A sense of strong linear allées accompanied by curvaceous form pervades the design, along with a juxtaposition of contemporary and rustic detailing from sculptural pieces. The traditional Hampshire wall of crushed chalk between hurdles, capped with terracotta tiles, was rebuilt to create an enclosed orchard and is now home to heritage apples, pears, plums, cherries and peaches.

The design and evolution of the garden has been a fusion of ideas and influences from Elizabeth and Rupert’s travels, especially to Japan, along with an understanding of the ‘sense of place’ in this extraordinary landscape. ‘Gardening is an excellent artistic expression. We like the Japanese aesthetic and the garden is loosely fashioned on a Japanese stroll garden,’ says Rupert, who is the guiding force of the design. ‘I am very influenced by the idea of the borrowed landscape – the rivers, fields and hills – being reflected in the garden, to make vistas and walkways interesting and blend in. A garden should never be seen as separate from its surroundings.’

Cultivated areas are close to the house and gradually become more naturalistic as you progress through the landscape, past double herbaceous borders and block planting in bog gardens, before finishing with a long jetty bridge across the lake and a gate into the fields beyond.

Along the front drive, past rows of limes, Mediterranean plants, such as lavenders, cistus and tree peonies have been used as this area has poor, dry ground which has been given a Beth Chatto look with a layer of gravel. Self-seeded hollyhocks pop up through the stones, adding a whimsical touch to contoured, soft grey foliage, with bright splashes from golden crocosmias, wafting Japanese anemones and deep blue salvias.

Grassy lawns then stretch out with ancient apple trees framing views along the borders, in autumn

painted with a tapestry of golds, purples, blues, pinks and russets from a mix of perennials, including Rudbeckia fulgida var. sullivantii ‘Goldsturm’, Lobelia x speciosa ‘Hadspen Purple’, bog sage, asters, heleniums and chrysanthemums. Timber walkways cross the streams edged in irises to a delightfully wild assortment of bog plants, such as Darmera peltata, giant butterbur, gunnera, phormiums, bamboo and miscanthus, a mix of shades of green, with flashes of colour from cannas, gingers and Helianthus ‘Lemon Queen’.

With such an open garden, it was decided early on that to make any impact it was necessary to plant out in large blocks rather than small beds. It was important also to include places to gaze out from and soak up the atmosphere. Perched comfortably beside the lake is a bespoke teahouse, inspired by a rare Sung dynasty manuscript depicting a scholar’s riverside hut on stilts. It was built by Australian artisan sculptors Paul Jamieson and Rohan Ward on site, out of green oak. They also constructed a deceptively simple self-supporting bridge, spanning one of the streams, out of wedges of a felled local Wellingtonia tree.

As well as being a garden of vistas, this muchloved environment is enjoyed by the family and visitors as a place to take walks in, to swim in the streams, as a children’s paradise for hide-and-seek games, or a delightful spot to just sit and ponder. While spring is Rupert’s favourite time, with its swathes of daffodils and fresh greens, the garden is planted for long-term interest and has a lovely mellowness as summer melds into autumn.

‘I like the quietness and clear light in autumn and how the plants can linger on in warm, dry spells; the overblowness of the late blooming, the generosity of fruit-laden trees, the great big colourful dahlias, like women of a certain age, large and confident and a bit over-made-up,’ says Elizabeth. ‘Plus the general unruliness of it, like a burst of life before dying back in winter.

The feeling of change, I find exciting.’

Rupert’s tips

● I’m not an expert gardener, having only started when I was 50 years old, but have found many sources of expertise from other gardeners in Hampshire. Look for advice locally as gardening is a community, and is very inclusive.

● Do your best not to use chemicals, but do invest in really good modern gardening equipment.

● Gardening is long term, so you have to be patient, and it’s quite forgiving if you make a mistake – you can always fix it.

● The advantage of staying in one place for a long time is that you can think in terms of a cycle and see trees mature.

● In a large garden you can’t be too much of a perfectionist, so allow a little wildness.

● Try to have interesting plants through the year and work with your surroundings.

● Take notice of the space between landscape

The garden at Bere Mill hugs the bank of the River Test with its crystal clear water, a Site of Special Scientific Interest. The river embraces the house and landscape with its curvaceous form, and feeds the streams that flow through the garden

Clockwise from above left: Rupert is an enthusiastic member of the Mediterranean Garden Society and along the drive, where the soil is very dry, plantings such as Acanthus mollis, bergenias, grevilleas and self-seeding hollyhocks happily mingle with lavender and cistus; planted alongside one of the streams, phormiums are valued for their robust, architectural form and are softened here with the movement of Japanese anemone, appropriately also known as windflowers; chrysanthemums and rudbeckias inject colour into the borders through late summer and autumn; Rupert and Elizabeth have created a relaxed landscape of different areas, from the touch of formality with the long borders, to wild meadows in which their dog, Mud Mud, loves to romp

Clockwise from above: The bespoke teahouse exemplifies the Japanese ethos and is tucked away beside the river providing a lovely contemplative space; Michaelmas daisies are a mainstay in the borders for late interest, their soft mauves and rich purples contrasting with clumps of golden rudbeckias; textures and colours mingle loosely together in the borders, from burnt orange heleniums, repeated salvias – including sky-blue bog sage Salvia uliginosa – and spires of the deep-toned Lobelia x speciosa ‘Hadspen Purple’; flamboyant dahlias surround a sunny bench in a grove of delicate Japanese maples

features to make vistas and walkways beautiful and blend them into the surrounding landscape, as the Japanese do.

Clockwise from left: Buddleja blooms attract a range of pollinators into the garden, are low maintenance and need a well-drained soil; arching stands of Rudbeckia laciniata and miscanthus frame the pathway that links the house to the lake; the interspersing streams, fringed with irises and surrounded with beds of marginal plants, are embraced in this naturalistic paradise and fill the garden with energy; semi-tropical plantings with bamboo, cannas and gingers suit the bog garden conditions, where water is just three or four feet below the surface