First Ladies of Gardening by Heidi Howcroft

Author:Heidi Howcroft
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: MBI

The excitement of the Summer Garden is followed by calm; an opening in the hedge leads to the Pool Garden and brings a change of mood. Enclosed by yew hedging, the rectangular swimming pool is surrounded by lawn, creating an area which could not be simpler. Following on from this is another opening where formality gives way to more natural surroundings, described by Mary Keen as ‘the dell, a wild place with species Malus, Crataegus and Euonymus, and roses, and surrounded by banks of snowdrops which are followed by blue Anemone blanda and Anemone apennina.’ From here a long, narrow path guides the visitor along the boundary to two strategically placed yews, which frame a view of the church.

EXUBERANT COLOURS

The path then takes the visitor with great finesse up a slight slope to a small apple orchard, passing the schoolhouse and the hellebore borders en route to the ‘loud beds’ either side of the gate leading into the Kitchen Garden. Whereas white flowers were banished by Mary from the Summer Garden, they are on full show in this area. No attempt has been made to stick to a specific colour scheme: the gaily coloured and casual profusion of plants includes old-fashioned light brown and pale yellow bearded irises – Mary Keen finds the modern cultivars ‘too frilly’ – along with blue aquilegias and the lacy white flowers of umbellifers. The result is glorious and refreshing. Compared with this kaleidoscope of colours, the meadow under the apple trees on the other side of the path appears almost disciplined, even restrained. Having come finally to a halt, you suddenly become aware of the panorama visible from this point in the garden. Looking towards the house and into the landscape beyond, it seems as if the meadows and woods form part of the garden. Punctuated by the yew pillars of the lower terrace and framed by the apple trees in the orchard, this is the epitome of the English country idyll (pictured on pages 10–11). It was this corner of the garden that particularly impressed me on my first visit, the informal structures alongside formal ones, set off by wild ox-eye daisies in the orchard. The more time you spend in the garden, the more you realize how important these contrasts are and how the harmonious sequence of areas is what sets this garden apart.

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