Older Than Its Years!

A stylish garden now accompanies this picturesque thatched cottage in Devon, thanks to careful planting and design by its owner

- Marina Jordan-Rugg

Creating the right ambience for her 17th-century cottage garden, situated in the centre of an Iron Age settlement, put Penny Pritchard’s design skills to the test. “I was virtually starting from scratch, so it was important for me to create a garden that felt older than its years,” she explains.

She began by redesigning the parking area so the garden had a proper feeling of entrance, installing a metal archway and incorporating a light and flowing borders with undulating box balls. “They’re huge now, but I had to imagine how they might look because they just started out as cuttings,” Penny says.

An extension on the back of the property was complemented by a sunken courtyard that provided an outdoor seating area, where Penny placed an unusual specimen tree – Robinia pseudoacacia ‘Twisty Baby’. “It’s a lovely, compact tree with fresh green leaves that reveals its delightful shape in winter,” she says.