An Oxfordshire country house garden
The client had recently bought and remodelled a late twentieth century country house with a 1-hectare garden located on the edge of a village with attractive views to open chalk downland.
However, the existing terraced garden did not work particularly well with the house and failed to encourage much use of the garden. The addition of a new conservatory provided an opportunity to rethink the whole garden through a masterplan that could be carried out in stages.
Key to the design are new paved terraces accessed directly from the main living areas of the house, including the conservatory. These provide stylish relaxation and dining spaces for the client who enjoys entertaining, occasionally hosting large parties. The terraces are located to take advantage of the sun throughout the day with a breakfast terrace facing east plus house, dining and entertaining terraces facing south and west. The entertaining space includes a dedicated deck for a large inset jacuzzi screened from the seating and lounge areas but linked to the changing facilities and bar.
Each terrace is edged with relaxing textural planting with views out across the site. Linked by paved steps, they flow down through the sloping garden to the lowest entertaining terrace, where deep planting beds enclosed with clipped curving beech hedges guide you to explore further into the garden.
The destination is a natural swim pond which sits comfortably and naturally within the garden at its lowest point. Enclosed with perennials, grasses and trees it is a calming retreat all-year round. A cascading water feature and rill encloses the dining terrace helping to mask the sound of traffic from a local road with a further cascade sited within the more intimate breakfast garden.
Clipped evergreen yew hedges enclose softer planting areas close to the house and provide privacy from an adjacent public footpath. Away from the house, the landscaping becomes more naturalistic with grass left uncut, dotted with wildflowers and blossom trees, with year-round interest offered by peeling paperbark maples and evergreen compact Scots pines.
At the front of the house a new landscaped entrance court guides visitors to the front door. The clean modern country design of the house continues out into the garden with a steel and timber screen replacing the existing ugly brick wall, timber and steel cladding to the changing facilities and corten steel retaining walls to the terraces.
The rusty colour of the steel as it weathers and the timber tone well with the surrounding chalk downland landscape, as does the planting with the rusty shades of beech hedge in winter, tawny grasses and a range of greens from soft lime to emerald and grey green. Pops of lavender, orange and soft yellow complete the palette.
