30 Years in Garden Design

As we approach our thirtieth year of designing and building gardens, it is inevitable that I am drawn back to visit previous defining projects. I have always thought that it can take 20 or more years before a garden shows its true maturity, with the relationship and interplay between trees, larger shrubs and smaller plants finally becoming resolved.

We have tackled several larger country gardens, the largest, near London, covering 140 acres. These schemes need specific attention to get right, as they often include extensive tree and shrub planting. A forward-looking vision is needed to plan and understand how the scheme will develop over many years.

Country Garden, Tarporley, Cheshire

This scheme covered about six acres and, once completed, was staffed by a full-time gardener — a rare luxury these days! The scheme is featured in one of our earlier project listings, but on a recent visit I became aware of how well it had matured, hence the need to share these images.

The lake is on three levels and follows the slope of the land, dropping a total of 1.2 m over a distance of 30 metres.

I remember the look of horror on the client's face as we used a digger to place fresh soil on the marginal, underwater section of the newly installed liner.

This allowed the many waterside plants, such as Iris sibirica, to spread and colonise large sections of the water, giving the pond a softer, more natural edge.

Rhododendrons and azaleas come from the same genus and are much loved in the spring border. Their beautiful blooms and large, mostly evergreen leaves combine well with other spring-flowering plants such as bluebells. Many of the flowers gracing the borders also bring a fragrant note to the garden.

The yellow-gold azalea shown here is the Knaphill azalea ‘Golden Sunset’. These plants originally hail from North America, from the frosty Canadian plains to tropical Florida.

These shrubs prefer fairly high levels of rainfall, so northern Europe is perfect for them.