FRESH APPROACH

Colm Joseph’s design for this new garden, which surrounds a modern house within a heritage setting, uses clever planting to give a historic site a contemporary feel

- CHRIS YOUNG

Just as parents aren’t meant to have a favourite child, garden designers aren’t meant to have a favourite project. And even though designer Colm Joseph would never admit to having preferential feelings for this scheme, he does agree that “it is certainly one of my most important”. From concept to execution, and from client buy-in to project maturation, it’s clearly a garden that gives Colm a great sense of pride.

Situated just three miles from the East Anglian coast, this site in Suffolk is one of ten properties that was created as part of a walled garden development adjoining a country house. “The new property sits in the middle of the site. It’s single storey, as the architects took inspiration from the former glasshouses that occupied the walled garden,” explains Colm. Pitched roofs, timber cladding and glass hallways are all horticultural references to the former buildings and work as a perfect backdrop for the garden. The result is a modern house with four different garden spaces orbiting around it.

Before he could establish a design concept, Colm needed to look more broadly at the setting. “I often try to connect my gardens to their location,” he explains, “and here I looked to the wider landscape and site history.” The naturalistic and loose planting is redolent of the Suffolk coast and neighbouring heathland, which is in an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB).

Three tree types – pines, beech and silver birch – are characteristic of the arboreal planting locally; and the hedging and topiary reference the garden-making skill of the estate’s past. The pavers used visually connect to the historic walls.