Beside the studio

Hillside Garden

Beside the studio

This little area is a space that I wanted to feel quite particular and intimate. This called for a bold colour contrast offset by key grasses to capture the breeze and light, whilst playing to the free-draining conditions and connecting to the rest of the garden.

The context:

• A huge granite trough that helps to frame the space,
• Two small boulders that form the main point of focus in the garden,
• A little ha-ha wall that separates the garden from the field,
• There's very little natural soil in this space, as it was the old yard to the milking barn.

These were my guiding principles in putting together a plant palette:

1. I've gone with the fact that we've got very dry, free-draining conditions, and so used plants that are adapted to that.
2. I wanted this area to feel very delicate – a contrast to the main garden, which is very full at this time of year – so I've used a palette of plants that are very light in feel.
3. I wanted it to transition very naturally into the wildflower meadows, so I've used ornamental grasses quite heavily to connect with the grasses in the meadow.

The plant palette

There are three different grasses here:

1. Calamagrostis × acutiflora 'Karl Foerster' – a tall grass rising up above everything else.

• This is a brilliant grass for holding its structure throughout the winter.
• Its flowers start thundery purple and later turn a muted golden brown.

1. Sporobolus heterolepis (prairie dropseed) – a very delicate grass smelling of hay when in flower.
2. Bouteloua gracilis (eyebrow grass) – a Californian native well suited to these dry conditions.

I've used these two latter American grasses around the boulders. They're so delicate you can hardly see them, but this allows a few other plants to rise up between them to give the space more definition:

• Summer-flowering bulbs, such as the wonderful Allium carinatum subsp. pulchellum (keeled garlic), which is very happy here and seeds through the gravel.
• Dianthus carthusianorum (German pink), which also seeds, and provides little studs of pink.
• Liatris pycnostachya (Kansas gayfeather), with tapering candles of colour that sway in a breeze.

Here, the grasses capture the breeze, the Liatris follow that movement, and then other plants emerge through the light cloud of low American grasses to delicately spangle colour into the planting. This captures the backlighting in the evening, so looking out from the studio, it's full of light and movement.

Creating a connection to the rest of the garden

To make a connection with the main garden on the other side of the studio, I've brought the Euphorbia ceratocarpa through. This is a brilliant plant because it flowers right through from Easter into December, and provides a lime-green constancy in this area. I've then picked up on this with:

• Bupleurum falcatum, an umbellifer almost like a lime-green cow parsley, which spangles the edges to give this area a lovely wild feeling and keeps it feeling informal.
• Patrinia scabiosifolia, another emergent with acid-green flowerheads. This seeds around but is never a problem – it has a small basal rosette and I just edit it out if it lands in the wrong place.

I love the brightness in this part of the garden, and I wanted it to be a repeating theme. To tie in with that whilst linking with the meadows, I've used a yarrow called Achillea 'Moonbeam'.

• The native yarrow Achillea millefolium appears in the meadows here. 'Moonbeam' is a form with silvery leaves and bright flowers that start an acid greeny yellow and then deepen to saffron.
• This strengthens the connection with the meadows whilst helping to create the particular mood I want in the planting.

Another plant I've brought through from elsewhere is giant fennel, Ferula communis. I love its drama – it emerges very early and punches up huge flowerheads, which stand throughout winter as skeletons.

Giant fennels step through the garden as a repeating theme and appear in several dry, sunny spots.

• When you're thinking on the macro scale, these are something you can revisit as you move through the garden to form some sort of constancy and continuity.

Using materials to create mood

I wanted to make this place feel distinct, and the materiality here is central to this.

• The big granite trough at the back forms a backdrop.
• The two boulders are resting places for the eye and make a good place to sit amidst the planting.
• The gravel we've used, which runs right through the beds, is just a crushed concrete, which feels right with the breeze block of the building.

So I've kept the whole area quite 'mineral' – there's no bare soil visible, and the planting just emerges out of the gravel. This makes it feel like a pioneer space where plants have taken hold of an old yard, but in fact, these are ornamental plants that have been specially selected and then made this place their own.

Trees and shrubs

I've just planted one signature tree in this area, by the trough. This creates a nice moment with the monumental feeling of the stone trough and then the Prunus x yedoensis (Yoshino cherry) to one side.

This very pale pink cherry is one of the absolute best single-flowered ornamental cherries:

• It's one of the first plants to flower, lighting up the whole garden as a big gesture to open the season.
• The petals fall into the water of the trough, creating a very romantic moment.
• The tree has a lovely form in summer, provides some shade and has a good autumn colour.

The only shrubs in this space are next to the building. I've chosen winter-flowering wintersweet (Chimonanthus praecox) and witch hazel (Hamamelis mollis) to provide interest at the other end of the season and bookend the year with the Yoshino cherry.

• The perennial planting is mainly a summer event, so these winter- and early spring-flowering shrubs complete the succession and sustain the year-round interest, keeping the space feeling alive.

Colour

I wanted the colour in this area to be really distinct, so I played with opposites:

1. Bright, acid lime greens in the Achillea, Patrinia, Euphorbia and Bupleurum.
2. At the absolute opposite end of the spectrum, bright carmine pinks and mauvy purples to create this lovely contrast and friction with the lime greens.

• These colours are provided by the Dianthus carthusianorum, Liatris pycnostachya and a cultivar of the native bloody cranesbill, Geranium sanguineum 'Tiny Monster'.

I like to use that friction between colours sometimes. It can be quite easily achieved with tiny flowers that just delicately pepper the space with colour, because you don't get a big jarring moment as one big block of colour hits another. This friction sits perfectly against the form and neutrality of the grasses.

Plant Directory

Calamagrostis × acutiflora 'Karl Foerster'

Sporobolus heterolepis

Bouteloua gracilis

Allium carinatum subsp. Pulchellum

Dianthus carthusianorum

Liatris pycnostachya

Euphorbia ceratocarpa

Bupleurum falcatum

Patrinia scabiosifolia

Achillea 'Moonbeam'

Achillea millefolium

Ferula communis

Prunus x yedoensis

Chimonanthus praecox

Hamamelis mollis

Geranium sanguineum 'Tiny Monster'

Your Assignment

Do you have a dry, sun-drenched area in your garden that you'd like to develop? Think about what plants you might like to use. Divide your planting list into the layers below:

Trees

Shrubs

Climbers

Perennials

Annuals/Biennials

Bulbs