Formal Walled Garden
The house was built in the 18th Century as a three story-town house - the original gardens were much bigger than they are now and extended around part of the Abbey. In c.1920 the then owner divided the grounds up giving some to the Abbey ad leaving himself with a self-contained nearly square garden, enclosed by a brick wall.
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When we were asked to design the garden we were presented with a blank canvass. The property was in the process of being transformed from a commercial building into a private house again. The architects, Crafted Architecture, handled the complexities of the transformation which included an impressive extension at the back to provide a large kitchen and hall and to reinstate the orangery.
The aspect from these principal rooms and were the starting point for our garden design dictating views and vistas. The formal aesthetic was influenced by the impressive Abbey building itself so it was a natural desire to use lots of clipped topiary at different levels to reinforce the strength of ideal. These structural plants wrap themselves around regular shapes to create different rooms.
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The formal aesthetic matures gracefully
This beautiful garden was designed by us a few years ago and it looks better every year as it matures and develops.
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Borrowed Landscape - the power of form
We were hugely influenced by the borrowed landscape. The power of the form of the stone Abbey called for a formal garden.
You can see from the image how the garden was laid out using geometric shapes.
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A RESTRAINED COLOUR PALETTE
We used a simple palette of colour to reinforce the formal aesthetic - a haze of purple blends with the paintwork on the listed house.
Repeating forms and planting in swathes
By planting in swathes and repeating forms we kept the scheme within the framework of the prescriptive style.
The alliums, the rounded hydrangeas blooms, the clipped evergreen yews and topiarized trees work as a collective, further defining the protocols of formality.
There are moments were we relaxed the planting and this was to reflect the area designed for family play. ... so around the circular lawn the plants mingle and flow contrasting with the stronger more rigid rhythm of the formal areas.
How we got there
Building the garden was done during 2022. We used a crisp hard limestone for the terraces and a natural sustainable material for the paths. All the borders were edged in metal strips. The planting was themed in blues, white and soft pink.
