The wraparound garden

Multi-coloured flowers mixed with a hint of formality make Karl Suchy's hidden garden on the edge of Bristol a joy to behold, says Sue Bradley

- Sue Bradley

TRADITIONAL and contemporary come together beautifully in Karl Suchy’s garden, which lies behind a high Victorian wall on the edge of Bristol.

His unique wraparound plot has two parts that are brought together by a love of colourful planting and the use of clipped box.

This is a garden that serves many purposes: it has a formal dining area marked out by four standard lime trees, inspired by trips to France; several benches on which to sit and relax; a summerhouse and a large lawn studded with pear and ball-shaped box for dogs and children to let off steam; and a parterre with a raised fish pond surrounded by tropical-looking bananas and tree ferns.

Karl’s detached house in Stoke Bishop is more than 200 years old and he’s lived there with his wife Sally-Ann since 2000, at which time the land surrounding it was more like a jungle than the garden that’s there today.

“There were no flowers, but there was lots of laurel and paving, a leylandii screen across the plot and an old greenhouse,” he explains. “Despite the protection of the, it’s quite an exposed garden in some ways.

“A few years later I wanted to have a fish pond and brought in a designer to help me make the most of what we had here; she came up with the interesting idea of having the formal parterre and using topiary. The concept was that the box-edged flower beds on the parterre match the shape of the pond.”

Planting specimen trees