SET in open wheat fields with no trees nearby to lend height and no other landmarks providing a focal point, the old farmyard at Hailstone Barn was always going to require careful handling. How could one make a garden full of colour and interest, that keeps going all through the growing season, yet sits easily in the landscape without standing out like a sore thumb?
A wildflower garden seemed the obvious solution, but, as anyone who has made one knows, this is infinitely easier to say than do. The first attempt started out well. The farmyard, trampled by dairy cattle for decades, had been dug over, with plenty of the naturally occurring Cotswold brash worked in to lower the fertility of the soil, but, even so, the wildflowers quickly succumbed to weeds.
Eventually, the owner resorted to asking an old school friend for lunch. James Alexander-Sinclair, now a garden designer, took one look and declared that the only way to achieve the desired effect was to scrap the wildflowers and start afresh, this time planting a mixture of herbaceous perennials and grasses. This would create that loose, natural-looking mix that bends in the wind and turns gold in late summers, like wheat. It would take a few seasons before the perennials bulked up and performed, but, as they settled, they would gradually push out most of the weeds.
Mr.Alexander-Sinclair designed three paths to run through the planting, radiating out from a centre point, like the symbol for the Isle of Man. These would enable his client, who uses a wheelchair after an accident left him paralysed, to get right inside the planting. The accident is why the barn conversion has windows that slide back to give access onto the broad timber deck that wraps around the buildings, thus bringing the outdoors inside.
Denne historien er fra August 05, 2020-utgaven av Country Life UK.
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Denne historien er fra August 05, 2020-utgaven av Country Life UK.
Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.
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Happiness in small things
Putting life into perspective and forces of nature in farming
Colour vision
In an eye-baffling arrangement of geometric shapes, a sinister-looking clown and a little girl, Test Card F is one of television’s most enduring images, says Rob Crossan
'Without fever there is no creation'
Three of the top 10 operas performed worldwide are by the emotionally volatile Italian composer Giacomo Puccini, who died a century ago. Henrietta Bredin explains how his colourful life influenced his melodramatic plot lines
The colour revolution
Toxic, dull or fast-fading pigments had long made it tricky for artists to paint verdant scenes, but the 19th century ushered in a viridescent explosion of waterlili
Bullace for you
The distinction between plums, damsons and bullaces is sweetly subtle, boiling down to flavour and aesthetics, but don’t eat the stones, warns John Wright
Lights, camera, action!
Three remarkable country houses, two of which have links to the film industry, the other the setting for a top-class croquet tournament, are anything but ordinary
I was on fire for you, where did you go?
In Iceland, a land with no monks or monkeys, our correspondent attempts to master the art of fishing light’ for Salmo salar, by stroking the creases and dimples of the Midfjardara river like the features of a loved one
Bravery bevond belief
A teenager on his gap year who saved a boy and his father from being savaged by a crocodile is one of a host of heroic acts celebrated in a book to mark the 250th anniversary of the Royal Humane Society, says its author Rupert Uloth
Let's get to the bottom of this
Discovering a well on your property can be viewed as a blessing or a curse, but all's well that ends well, says Deborah Nicholls-Lee, as she examines the benefits of a personal water supply
Sing on, sweet bird
An essential component of our emotional relationship with the landscape, the mellifluous song of a thrush shapes the very foundation of human happiness, notes Mark Cocker, as he takes a closer look at this diverse family of birds