Introduction

Introduction

In this section, we'll take an in-depth look at a project on the south coast of England with a number of different environments, including an exposed front with views of the sea, and a sheltered walled garden.

The Site

Little Dartmouth is a farm above the cliffs near Dartmouth in Devon. The owners wanted to make this piece of land really work properly.

At the centre of the 150-acre farm is a farmhouse, with some farm buildings immediately behind it. These were dominated by a huge asbestos barn that sat over them, and my clients had the brilliant idea of removing this to liberate the buildings. They made a new functional farm building close by, so the farm could be kept running separately to the central living area.

The Masterplan

We came in and made a masterplan to look at how the spaces might all work together again. It took us 2–3 years to go through the planning with the clients and to get everything set up so the build could follow. It was a very thorough process – we really wanted to think about how this place could work.

Our guiding principles were:

1. Using local materials. We wanted to keep as many materials on site as we could – we wanted to work very much in context.

• All the stone was locally sourced from a small quarry, and the stonemasons were local.
• We kept to a very simple palette of materials that were right for the place, and repurposed things – e.g. the concrete from the old farmyard was crushed up and used to make the new drive.

2. Doing the right thing for the right place. This is a tough site – it's very windswept.

We needed to find places where there was shelter, and then really work with the context and the plants that would thrive here.

3. Re-working the approach to the house. One of the key elements of the masterplan was to re-orientate the drive to make the most of the setting. Originally, the approach to the house involved slipping in from the lane through the trees and suddenly you were there at the front door – there was no sense of the amazing sea view. The arrival though could be very much part of what makes this place so special, so we wanted to make the most of that. We used some of the farmland to make a sweeping drive that gives a glimpse of the sea for a wonderful reveal of where you are, and then re-orientates to continue the approach to the house.

4. Creating a seamless transition between the landscape and the gardened areas. The garden spaces were kept close to the buildings, and the landscape (farmland, meadows and shelterbelts) brought up to meet these, with a natural segue from one area to the next.

Context-Led Design

Like most of our designs, this project was very much about context: you're high up on the cliff with an incredible sea view. That drove all the decisions – the materials, plant choices and how we put everything together so the outside landscape worked in and influenced the garden areas. It was all about creating that connection between where you live and the environment you're living in.

To achieve this, we borrowed some land from the farmland to make those blurred edges a bit softer.

• The field containing the new drive was reseeded as a meadow, echoing the clifftops with their coastal wildflowers.
• Biodiversity has bloomed as a result, and the space feels much more in context.

Since the house is perched on a hill, there was a level change at the front that needed resolving.

• A ha-ha separated the immediate grounds from the fields beyond, which was a lovely feature.
• I made a second ha-ha to form the base of the terrace, which brought the land up to the house and stopped it feeling so perched on high.

The landscape sweeps up to the garden and meets it in a very gentle way, working into the spaces around the buildings. Mown paths lead to a small lawn, and the beds sit close around the buildings.

Using Plants Adapted to the Environment

All the planting here is driven by the site. There are strong, desiccating winds, so I needed to choose plants that are adapted to these exposed coastal conditions.

That doesn't mean, however, that we only used plants from the locale. The meadows allow us to tap into the locale, but closer to the buildings we've got Mediterranean plants, like Phillyrea angustifolia, and Mexican daisies (Erigeron karvinskianus).

With this approach, everything feels right in its place, and the plants are happy in their environment. And when plants are thriving, your gardening becomes so much simpler.

Plant Directory

Phillyrea angustifolia

Erigeron karvinskianus