Hidden deep in the Kentish countryside, somewhere between Great Dixter and Sissinghurst, lies an idyllic, small field of gently undulating pasture bound by brooding, mature oaks and surrounded by grazing sheep. With a brief to create a series of notional spaces for entertaining, while still respecting the Wealden location, garden designer Jo Thompson has been working on this project off and on over the past ten years. Her initial reaction was to do nothing. “When I visit a scene like this, my first instinct is to leave it alone, with, at most, some gentle intervention.” But the field on two levels, surrounding a farmyard with a newly built house above and the remains of a 14th-century barn below, is owned by a family who wanted space to eat and cook outside, a pool, and, above all, privacy.
The house, now happily settled, and with its reclaimed Kent peg tiles and red brick, rustic shiplap and Arts and Crafts leanings looking as though it has always been there, is separated from the barn (now barely recognisable with its modern surround of glass and timber) by a sloped series of three brick-faced terraces. The texture-rich beds are crammed full of Great Dixter-inspired planting: high-waving Molinia grasses, architectural Euphorbia x pasteurii and airy Cephalaria gigantea are punctuated with large pittosporum balls, creating a see-through hedge that both links and divides the two living spaces. The owner explains: “Looking out at the terrace from my office in the barn, the planting provides interest all year, from bulbs in the spring to grasses constantly moving in the wind.”
Moving on across York stone terraces that cover a former farmyard, there’s a change of mood. Here a tranquil, shady spot with a fountain in a formal garden of box-surrounded, pleached hornbeams, backed with Hydrangea arborescens ‘Annabelle’, and climbing star jasmine and Clematis ‘Alba Luxurians’, overlooks an understated swimming pool. This is surrounded by a low, beech hedge punctuated with sanguisorbas, Verbena bonariensis, Calamagrostis x acutiflora ‘Karl Foerster’, fennel and bistort, all late-summer stalwarts to see the family through the summer holidays.
Read more about the garden below.
The view from the house down a gentle slope is framed by several island beds featuring shrubs and grasses. Here, black elder (Sambucus nigra f. porphyrophylla ‘Eva’) and Physocarpus opulifolius ‘Diabolo’ are interspersed with grasses Molinia caerulea subsp. arundinacea ‘Transparent’ and Panicum virgatum ‘Shenandoah’.
The outdoor kitchen arena and firepit are surrounded with texture-rich clumps of Calamagrostis x acutiflora ‘Karl Foerster’, and Molinia caerulea interspersed with evergreen Euphorbia x pasteurii.
The formal garden features half a dozen pleached hornbeams, with Hydrangea arboresens ‘Annabelle’ behind and low beech hedging Fagus sylvatica f. purpurea in the foreground.
A low border of orange and yellow Helenium ‘Waltraut’ and Rudbeckia fulgida var. deamii with Verbena bonariensis curves round behind the outdoor kitchen, with ancient oak trees behind.
The top terrace features an avenue of birches to the left and twin herbaceous borders of Eutrochium dubium ‘Little Joe’, Helenium ‘Waltraut’ and Agastache ‘Blackadder’, which frame the view from the house and offer routes down to the lower garden.
The avenue of white-barked Betula utilis subsp. jacquemontii ‘Doorenbos’ slopes gently down, showing the landformed slope from the upper level to the lower lawn.
The pool terrace surrounded with late-summer flowering perennials: Sanguisorba officinalis ‘Red Thunder’, Bistorta amplexicaulis ‘Blackfield’ and Foeniculum vulgare ‘Purpureum’, by the side of the barn
The view of the countryside beyond is interrupted by island beds full of shrubs, the colours of which pick up shades of dark purple, red and bronze taken from the shadows of the oak trees, using Magnolia Black Tulip (= ‘Jurmag1’), Acer palmatum ‘Bloodgood’, Cercis canadensis ‘Forest Pansy’ and Pittosporum tenuifolium ‘Golf Ball’.