Woodpeckers in September

A garden as beautifully conceived as this suggests a masterplan, but in fact the owners’ approach was simpler — they simply started from the house and worked outwards. Close-by, a summerhouse is approached between twin mixed borders, whilst ‘rooms’ evolved for a greenhouse, raised deck, box parterre, grass walk, orchard and twin herbaceous borders that create an unrivalled ebb and flow of colour and texture. Overlooked by a pretty Shepherd’s Hut, the borders are composed of repeated clumps of sedum, Japanese anemone, salvias, cosmos, asters and Verbena bonariensis, separated by a catmint-edged grass path that leads to a potager, a formal arrangement of four square raised beds in which cutting flowers vie with vegetables and fruit.