The Brief
At the time of its conception, The Priory was the largest garden project we had ever undertaken. It was an opportunity that brought both enormous privilege and considerable pressure, with every element considered to the highest possible standard. The scale of the property allowed us to create something genuinely immersive: not simply a garden, but a collection of distinct landscapes that could each offer a different experience.
The brief was to create six individual garden rooms that would complement the recently refurbished and extended house while reflecting the clients’ appreciation for a diverse range of plants and garden styles. The result would include an Italianate courtyard garden, woodland garden, rose garden, formal rear garden, tropical meditation garden and, beyond the main garden, a wildflower meadow.
Each space needed to have its own identity while still feeling connected to the wider property. The garden therefore became a journey, with changing materials, planting styles, views and atmospheres encouraging you to move from one room to the next. It was important that the landscape worked for everyday life as much as it did for entertaining, with spaces to grow food, relax, contemplate, explore and enjoy the changing seasons.
Beyond the formal gardens, The Paddock offered an opportunity to give land back to nature. Mown paths lead through a wildflower meadow containing a rain garden, specimen trees, vegetable garden and small apiary, creating a more naturalistic counterpoint to the highly considered gardens closer to the house.
Design & Planting
The design was conceived as a sequence of contrasting experiences. At the front of the property, a cobble sett pathway winds through an established woodland garden, creating a shady and secluded arrival to the house. Ferns, hellebores, epimediums, pulmonarias and shade loving perennials sit beneath a collection of established trees and shrubs, creating a sense that the garden has been here for many years.
At the rear, the formal garden takes a very different approach. Strong geometric lines, a central lawn and deep prairie style borders create the principal entertaining space. A traditional greenhouse adds a productive element, while an extensive planting palette of perennials, grasses and bulbs provides colour, movement and seasonal change.
The rose garden is deliberately more romantic, with a formal layout packed with climbing and shrub roses in a palette of soft pastel tones. Mature trees, clipped Taxus and climbing plants give the space the feeling of an established garden within a much older property.
Tucked into a walled courtyard, the Italianate garden creates a more architectural experience. Self binding gravel paths, corten steel edging, clipped Taxus and Buxus topiary provide strong structure, while softer planting of Hakonechloa, Liriope, ferns and perennials prevents the space from becoming overly formal.
Perhaps the most personal space is the meditation garden. Created specifically as a place to escape the demands of everyday life, it is a lush, shady retreat dominated by huge foliage, palms, bamboo and ferns. Two hammocks sit within an unusual two level deck, creating somewhere to lie back, switch off and immerse yourself in the planting.
Considerations & Constraints
The scale and complexity of The Priory meant that coordination was a major consideration throughout the project. With multiple garden rooms, extensive planting and a recently refurbished property, every part of the landscape needed to relate to the architecture while retaining its own character.
The planting itself was one of the project’s greatest challenges and opportunities. Creating an established appearance across such a large landscape required careful sourcing and specification of mature plants and trees, alongside detailed consideration of how each planting community would develop over time.
The Paddock presented a different challenge: how to make an underused piece of land valuable without unnecessarily imposing a formal garden upon it. The solution was to allow the landscape to become more natural, introducing mown paths, a rain garden, specimen trees, productive planting and an apiary while retaining a strong connection with the main garden.
The result is a landscape that responds to its different environments rather than applying one design language everywhere.
Success.
The Priory became far more than the sum of its individual gardens. Each room offers something different, yet together they create a coherent landscape that continually reveals another experience beyond the last.
There is formality in the Italianate courtyard and rear garden, romance in the rose garden, tranquillity in the woodland, escapism in the meditation garden and a sense of freedom beyond the gates in The Paddock. The garden gives the clients somewhere to entertain, grow food, walk, relax and simply spend time outdoors.
For our team, the significance of The Priory goes beyond the finished landscape. Taking on what was, at the time, our largest garden project challenged us across every aspect of design and build. The experience made us better designers, better contractors and better gardeners, and its influence continues to be felt in the way we approach projects today.
The Priory is ultimately a garden about variety, experience and connection. A collection of individual worlds brought together to create one extraordinary landscape.