Farmhouse

We designed the six acre garden for this farmhouse, within the South Downs National Park, as a series of carefully interconnected ‘rooms’ offering a complete journey around the garden, with statement features and surprises throughout.

By removing dominant Privet hedges, overgrown Conifers and an old swimming pool, our landscape scheme opened up a wonderful panoramic view of the landscape beyond and acted to expand the visual scale of the gardens surrounding the property.

We introduced a framework of new walls and steps, constructed from Bargate stone, to take advantage of level changes and lead one into new areas. These constructed elements are designed to connect the house, of the same stone, to the gardens.

A long walk, framed by scented Lavender and burgundy and soft pink Roses, encourages one down a generous set of semi-cirular steps into the pond garden. Here a simple reflecting pool was introduced within a formal lawn, framed by Yew hedges which are being sculpted into a ‘crashing-waves’ topiary form. This now offers a quiet and contemplative space in which to sit.

A ha-ha forms the boundary to one end of the pond garden and is designed to invite the rolling countryside into the garden, but not the owners pet pigs!

Running parallel to the pond garden is an herbaceous walk, which culminates in a circular lawn from where the full glory of the sweeping vista can be fully appreciated. Naturally, this has become a favourite spot to sit in the summer months.

A maze of Yew hedges has been introduced to create further intriguing walks to discover other new areas of the garden, such as an intimate white garden, productive garden and a Yew temple garden.

​The gardens were opened for a week-long sculpture and art event in aid of Marie Curie which, to the delight of all, was a hugely successful in raising money for the charity.

We continue to advise on design of the hedging, evolving planting schemes and annual bulb planting ideas and it is always a joy to see how the gardens continue to mature beautifully along our original design aims.