Manor House - Dorset

Status | Completed Spring 2022

The brief for this storied old manor house was to re-invigorate the garden that had been mostly turned over to grass. Large areas of shingle near the house led out to wide expanses of blank mown lawn that lacked any planting and served to make the garden feel smaller. An existing tennis court dominated one side of the space and the woodland alongside the stream at the other side was dark with Leyland cypress.

Creating a rectangular lawn with planting beds by the house mirrored by wildflower panels opposite re-focused and created a sense of space within the garden boundary. New Cotswold gravel paths provide for year-round circulation and link entertainment spaces near the house that are enclosed by generous South facing beds with rescued pink roses and soft planting that is set-off by a combination of large-leafed trees and grasses in chartreuse green. Drought-tolerant gravel planting including Thymes softens the gravel areas. The wildflower panels are divided by meandering paths with clearings from which to enjoy the garden. Reducing lawn mowing whilst also bringing the countryside and ecological diversity back in.

A staggered row of winter flowering cherries softens and obscures the fence of the tennis court from the garden and creates a vista between planted borders. Directing the eye towards a sculpture before bordering the continuation of the path through the wildflower meadow opposite.

Clearing the Leylandii brought light back into the woodland and combined with Rhododendron planting, new paths and focal points has created circulation and reasons to explore the wider garden and the stream. While an old buried pond has been excavated to draw the eye out towards the woodland, and boundary hedging to the South has been softened to ‘borrow’ the landscape beyond whilst retaining privacy.

Photography | Nicholas Morton© Copyright