This large garden has been designed with an informal planting scheme to complement the tones of the fields and hedges around it. Plants with bright foliage have been interspersed to provide uplifts in the planting. The naturalistic feel is further supported by the serpentine path structure and undulations of the retaining oak sleeper walling. Cotton lavender has been used in the lower seating recess to complement this gravelled space. Varieties of Achillea and Carex have been selected chosen for their light tones, as well as hardiness in exposed situations and northerly climate. The rowans you see here are saplings, but will soon provide dappled shade that still allows the vivid under planting to thrive.

Notes on Achillea

Achillea filipendulina has been used extensively throughout thre planting design. The variety pictured above is ‘Cloth of Gold’, This ‘high-value’ plant is highly suitable for a large garden, as they flower so long over the summer months, are hardy and frost resistant, requiring little care.

It is most commonly known as Yarrow, or ‘Thousand Leaf’ in Slavonic languages, which is a very good description if you get up close and try to count the innumerable individual flowers on each stem.