'Freddy has been working with us for several years. Over this time, he has completely transformed our garden.  He followed our initial brief to the letter, adding innovations and improvements that we would never have thought of.  His attention to planting and colour is exceptional. Since then, he has redesigned our entrance, set out an internal courtyard and re-designed the terrace around our new orangery.  We look forward to his visits, and his knowledge and continued input is of great value to us.  We are excited to be working with him again on our swimming pool and garden.’ Lloyd and Allison Berry

An old farmhouse in the Norfolk countryside.  Having renovated their home, our clients turned their attention to the garden.  An extensive lawn, mixed borders, and a swimming pool beyond. Initially, we were asked to review the main garden’s layout and planting. Nascent gardeners, our clients asked us to devise a striking, but traditional country house garden planting scheme. 

The garden layout was essentially sound: appropriate to the context and the brief.  We redefined the rectangular lawn, formalizing with a brick basketweave pattern mowing edge.  As part of this, the borders were deepened. We created a threshold leading onto the lawn from the forecourt.  On the opposite side of the lawn, we introduced a small brick terrace to accommodate a painted Lutyens bench as focal point.  To accentuate this, the existing Yew hedge was pruned to descend on either side.

The west-facing border was significantly wider, which allowed us to introduce a herringbone pattern brick path, leading from the existing terrace to a cross-axial water bowl: a contemporary note in a traditional context.  

The garden lacked verticality.  We introduced small, flowering ornamental trees in each corner of the rectangular beds, creating perspective and framing the vista into the landscape beyond.  The leading roles in our planting palette of blues, purples and pinks were given, in sequence, to: Irises, Peonies, Roses, Hydrangeas and Dahlias.  Long-standing favourites such as Lavender, Salvia, Sedum, Phlox and Veronicastrum provided seasonal support.