This English Garden Epitomizes Untamed Beauty: "It Breathes and Changes"
There's a reason Dorset, England, is recognized as one of 46 regions in the United Kingdom as an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty—its emerald expanse is archetypal British countryside. And it’s there that a 7.3-acre estate, complete with medieval moat, offered landscape architects Hugo Bugg and Charlotte Harris of London-based Harris Bugg Studio the opportunity to work in such a pastoral jewel.
The property owners turned to the repeat RHS Chelsea Flower Show winners to reimagine the 1.7-acre garden after an addition to the existing historic farmhouse was complete and to “bring the rolling hills and meadows closer to the house,” says Bugg.
Better connecting the home to the wider landscape entailed removing dense ever-greens and rhododendrons that tunneled around the house. “The heavy Victorian shrubbery was a big blot. It felt jarring and we wanted to open it up, to invite people into the garden,” says Harris. The garden master plan features multilevel terraces, including a ha-ha (a type of sunken fence originally found in early18th-century French landscapes) deftly camouflaging a tennis court.
“The garden has quite a lot of infrastructure embedded, but you’d never know it,” says Harris, pointing to ornamental plantings that soften the edges, feathering into the wider landscape. Siberian iris flutters on the bank above the tennis court, while bulbs scattered throughout fields of British meadow grass bloom in seasonal sequence.
“This garden is not a fixed space; it breathes and changes,” notes Harris. Obelisk plinths of yew are a repeated motif, creating a visual link through the garden, while orchards of young apple, walnut, hazel, and other fruit trees define a leafy backdrop.
Closer to the house, raised beds of herbaceous perennials hug an intimately scaled dining terrace. A kitchen and cutting garden of herbs, vegetables, and dahlias by the armful is “a very giving garden, very productive, including being the source of a quite lethal gin,” Bugg says with a wink. “We plant and plan for the longevity of a garden,” he adds, “one that will age beautifully with the house.”
Ha-ha
A ha-ha (a type of sunken fence originally found in early 18th-century French landscapes) camouflages the property’s grass tennis court.
Terrace
Yew domes, ornamental onion, Korean feather reed grass, and herbs embrace a tranquil terrace overlooking meadows of white-flowered quamash.
Dining Terrace
Raised beds of herbaceous perennials cocoon an intimate stone dining terrace, where gin (made from ingredients picked from the surrounding garden) is often enjoyed.
Ornamental Plantings
The reimagined landscaping plan features multilevel terraces designed to invite people into the garden. Ornamental plantings soften the embedded infrastructure, disguising it as another part of the land.
Mixed Beds
A mixed bed including Siberian iris, columbine, Solomon’s seal, and Wallich’s wood fern.
Yew
Obelisks of yew signal the transition to a more pastoral landscape.
British Meadow Grass
Bulbs, like Siberian irises, scattered throughout the fields of British meadow grass bloom in seasonal sequence, so the garden is always changing.
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Featured in the May/June 2024 issue of VERANDA.
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