How we created our dream country garden from scratch

Telegraph

4 hours ago

In August 2011, Richard and Tricia Stileman moved in their late-60s to their present home, a 15th-century Wealden hall house in Leeds, near Maidstone, Kent, with a one-acre garden.
'We'd had a three-acre garden before, which was a lot of work because it was on a slope. It was lovely but just too much for us; we wanted something smaller,' says Richard. While this is still a big garden, the fact that it is flat makes it easier to manage.
When they arrived, the garden felt 'higgledy-piggledy'. There was a lawn, several trees dotted about, and a large leylandii hedge, 30ft high by 30ft wide, dividing the garden into two. Behind the hedge sat a woodyard used by the previous owner. At the opposite end were four raised brick beds, 'which were all too close together and wrong', says Richard.
Having designed their previous garden from scratch, the couple welcomed the challenge of a new, but smaller, project. It has taken them 12 years to do – though, as the couple point out, with a garden you can never say you have finished, because there is always something more to do.
Here are some of the tips they picked up along the way.
Decide if you want to do the work yourself
Both gardeners, Richard and Tricia felt confident about tackling their new project. They have never used a garden designer, though have been lucky to garner tips from designer friends.
'If people feel they don't know anything – maybe they've lived in the city all their life – a garden designer can be a good idea,' says Richard, a retired book publisher. Even if you go it alone, you will still need to find skilled tradespeople for some tasks. 'Word of mouth is always best, from someone who has recently had similar work done,' he adds. They employed a man who had worked in their previous garden to dig up the leylandii hedge, and asked their neighbours to recommend tradespeople for other jobs, including digging a pond.
Work out what you want to achieve
'You design gardens according to the piece of land you've got, so we didn't come in with any preconceived ideas,' says Richard. 'It's more challenging but also more fun to redesign a boring piece of flat ground, rather than somewhere full of slopes.'
Both keen tennis players, they replaced the woodyard with a tennis court, and then designed the main garden – which covers two thirds of an acre – as one 'room', visible from most parts of the house.
When not working in the garden, they enjoy sitting inside and looking out at it, leaving the exploring to their six grandchildren, who live next door.
Consider what can stay, and what has to go
The Stilemans uprooted the leylandii hedge because it was oppressive and in the wrong location, replacing it with a yew hedge planted farther towards the tennis court. 'We chose yew to hide the court and to provide a wall for the rest of the garden. Yew doesn't need much work and has class, permanence and solidity,' says Richard.
Next came choosing which trees to retain. 'It's quite difficult because you have to know a bit about the trees and understand how they're going to look in 10 years' time,' says Richard. 'Are they going to take the sunlight out of your garden if they get too big? That's a common problem.'
They chopped down a weeping willow and two cedars which were 'already too big and dark', and replaced them with a 'much less oppressive' blue cedar.
They kept two silver birches, a Canadian red oak, a liquidambar (tulip tree) and two hornbeams. 'They fitted the look we wanted and they're nice trees,' says Richard. 'Anybody making a garden must have things they personally like. To have a tulip tree was marvellous, and it was in the right place too.'
The brick raised beds were demolished to make way for a garden room extension.
Choose hard landscaping with care
Pivotal to the garden is an Islamic-style paradise garden planted in four quarters, and incorporating a water feature feeding via a rill into a square pond. It was inspired by the design and spiritual tranquillity of the gardens at the Alhambra in Spain.
'People garden because they want a nice place for contemplation and reflection at the end of a busy day,' says Richard, while Tricia enjoys the sound of the water feature, which recycles rainwater run-off from their roof.
Richard advises taking care when installing a water feature, however: 'They all leak,' he says. 'I was too fast installing mine; if you choose one, do it properly to try to avoid leaks.'
Do your research before planting
Testing your soil in several parts of your garden will determine what you can grow, says Tricia. Their slightly alkaline, loamy soil sits on a bed of clay. Year-round interest was crucial, with flowering for as many months as possible. Their range of herbaceous perennials includes old favourites such as lavender, penstemon, alliums, salvia and cranesbill. Shrubs include several hydrangeas, including H. paniculata 'Limelight', with its green flowers that pinken with age.
They have planted ornamental grasses including Calamagrostis brachytricha, Stipa tenuissima, Deschampsia cespitosa 'Bronzeschleier', and Hakonechloa macra (Japanese forest grass). They find them easy to maintain and control and enjoy the movement they add to a garden. 'On a windy day, they give so much; they're like wonderful ballet dancers,' says Tricia.
'Our Ampelodesmos mauritanicus grass puts out flower heads in early April, grows to six-feet high within two weeks, and keeps its flower heads until February. You cut them down, and in April there's a new lot,' says Richard.
A 10ft-high rear fence has been transformed by priory-like arches of leylandii interfilled with ivy, an idea inspired by the Prieuré d'Orsan gardens in France.
The Stilemans' colour palette is mainly blue, mauve, pink and softer reds. 'We have a problem with orange and mustard yellow,' says Richard. 'When you put them next to pink, something goes wrong; it just doesn't look at all right. You can mix yellow happily with blue, black and white, but not with pink or mauve.'
They do not use bedding plants, because they find them too much work, and do not fit into the overall scheme. This sits awkwardly with Tricia's penchant for nasturtiums and pansies. 'We do have the odd argument about nasturtiums,' admits Richard. 'We generally agree on plants; it's just the nasturtiums leading Tricia astray.'
An experiment with Geum 'Totally Tangerine' has not gone happily. 'It's too tangerine,' says Richard. However, having seen how successfully a designer friend mixed geums with dark purple alliums, he will try the combination.
He advises reading up on plants before you start. 'You get bombarded by breeders offering new variants, but you don't know if they're going to stand the test of time. They're too early to have gone through the RHS testing regime. You can be seduced by a plant and often it won't work. Also, listen to people who have specifically tried something and it has worked. We got Rosa 'Blush Noisette' after a friend told us that hers flowered the whole summer.'
The couple also has a main, manicured lawn, and two wilder grass areas, one with a hedgehog house.
Accept that a garden will evolve
'Some things don't do as well as you expected, and others you don't like as much as you thought you would,' says Tricia. They keep trying new varieties of astrantia, which can be short-lived and not produce flowers. Sun-loving lavender planted in the wrong place proved a disaster after being drenched by roof run-off. They have also replaced box balls attacked by blight with yew balls.
They plan to introduce more white. 'In the distance, white works well; we have Rosa 'Iceberg' on the far wall, which in the late summer catches your eye,' says Richard. They are also extending the flowering season, with snowdrops, aconite and hellebores kicking-off in late winter, and dahlias and asters flowering late in the year: ' Aster x frikartii is a must-have. It's the first aster to flower, in early August through to November. It's a delicate purple, not too big, and doesn't get mildew. It takes two to three years to get to a significant size, but it's not going to suddenly peter out.'
Plants that die will be replaced by cultivars more resistant to hotter, drier summers and warmer, wetter winters. However, to avoid sun-worshippers being drowned by waterlogged soil, you need to have good drainage, warns Richard.
They have a gardener, Tony, who helps for three hours every week, but they are gradually shifting the balance between herbaceous perennials and shrubs to reduce the workload. Newcomers include Hydrangea serrata 'Morning Glory' and 'Summer Glow'.
Gardens are all about change: 'Don't think you can plant and that's it,' says Richard. 'It's a dynamic exercise; but that's the fun of gardening.'