‘Freddy has demonstrated his inspiration and design skill to create a ready-made garden for us. Our friends cannot believe how established it looks after only a few months. We are delighted. The colours exactly match what we imagined and more, the variety of plants and grasses provides a delightful view, and the scent is heavenly.’ Charles Bishop

Our clients’ home, a seventeenth-century hunting lodge, is set in the beautiful Essex countryside. An inherited swimming pool from previous owners was unhappily positioned close to the house and our clients’ main living space. Our brief was to either renovate or remove the pool. After careful consideration and much concept work, we decided to remove the pool and create a sunken garden with surrounding borders in its place. 

Inspired by the property’s history, we created a formal space with a double knot garden at its centre. We blended the Jacobean knot with Italianate drama. The knot was surrounded by a recycled York Stone paving circuit, and generous planting beds. We aimed to create intimacy, and seasonal interest. Views across the countryside were framed by fastigiate Taxus baccata.

From the kitchen/dining room, the knot is viewed across a deep border of herbaceous planting. Ornamental grasses are blended with roses and Agapanthus in antiqued shades of blue and dusky pink. A second Taxus baccata hedge divides the two tiers of planting. The lower tier combines bearded Iris, Pennisetum alopecuroides, Achilleas and geraniums. Outsize Fagus sylvatica (Beech) beehives punctuate the cross-axis. Weeping and early flowering ornamental pears (Pyrus nivalis and Pyrus salicifolia ‘Pendula’) are planted both within and beyond the boundaries of the space, blending it into the garden beyond.

Since these initial works, we have created two west-facing borders along the boundary wall and framed the main façade with wide borders of ornamental grasses and flowering perennials.