UPS AND DOWNS

This naturalistic hillside garden set in the undulating landscape of the South Downs has a wild beauty that's truly uplifting

- JACKY HOBBS

Grassed steps with wooden risers offer a gentler alternative to the main hillside staircase. (Opposite page) Tall grasses, designed to merge with the South Downs landscape, dominate the perimeter of the hillside garden with ornamentals spanning the central spine

GARDEN GUIDE

ORIENTATION Hillside and pool are north-facing, but the topography allows for sun most of the day.

SOIL TYPE free-draining chalk.

SPECIAL FEATURES Elevated terrace with countryside views, mixed perennial stepped hillside garden, herbaceous borders, floral parterres, swimming pool.

GARDEN DESIGN Nigel L Philips Landscape and Garden Design, Lewes, East Sussex, nigelphilips.co.uk.

The hilltop border’s thick drifts of perennials – Dahlia ‘Bishop of Llandaff’, Verbena bonariensis, Helenium ‘Moerheim Beauty’, Euphorbia characias subsp. wulfenii – are hemmed in by great waves of perennial grass Calamagrostis x acutiflora ‘Karl Foerster’

The essence of the South Downs has been incorporated into this garden cradled in the folds of its undulating landscape, with the untamed wild beyond the garden’s shelter-belt of hedging and trees inspiring the romantic hillside planting.