Green, White, Light And Airy...

Beautiful wedding cake tree reflects the colour theme and most of the planting in Alice’s garden.

A thick, cloud-pruned hedge of variegated box separates the brick garden from the beds below which have come to be known as Alice’s garden. This hedge isn’t straight, instead it forms a sinuous line across the breadth of the garden with one break in the middle where brick steps lead down to the next level. The box has grown so well that, despite being pruned assiduously, you have to turn sideways to get through. We might have to take out the two end bushes and readjust the shape, after all there’s no point having steps if you can’t get down them!

You can approach Alice’s garden four ways, either from steps down from the brick garden, steps up from Annie’s garden or from the track where you have the option of taking the broad path that separates it from the sleeper wall that raises up the ‘hot bed’, or through the centre up two broad steps. Although we talk about it as one garden, in fact it’s four beds separated by wide slate paths.