Sloping gardens are common in the Cotswolds but standing at the top of Ian and Angela Todd’s plot, I realise I’m almost level with their rooftop. Such is the fierce incline, I’m many feet above the bottom of the cottage. Yet, while it’s obvious from inside that the garden rises quite steeply upwards, there’s no sense of being overshadowed thanks to careful planning by designer Sam Taylor-Hunt.
He was brought in by the couple after they had finished renovating the Avening cottage, transforming it from a group of three separate buildings into a modern yet historically sympathetic home.
There had been a garden that ran to within a few feet of the house – what Angela describes as ‘very damp and very ferny’ – but it was badly in need of a rethink.
‘They wanted to bring more creativity and life to quite a bland, very steep site,’ says Sam, who runs Modica Gardens.
His starting point was the couple’s love of Iford Manor Gardens and the Mediterranean style.
‘They really loved that established Italianate terrace and they knew they had a similar site with the slope and chalky soil.’
Sam based his design upon the Fibonacci spiral with structural, designed elements at the centre, radiating out to a more naturalistic style. He added features that include two seating areas, including one for dining out in the evening sun, space for growing vegetables, wildflowers, lawn and herbaceous borders. The builders had already put in some paving, a block retaining wall and space for steps and these were worked into the design.
Sightlines from the house – one from the back door and another from Ian’s study – were also important along with dividing up the slope to create level space.
The pillars were sourced at a Gloucester reclamation yard and their installation was overseen by a team of cathedral stonemasons with the finishing touches by John Bendle, a local dry stone wall expert and lecturer who also built the garden’s many walls.
Pale limestone was chosen for paving under the pillars as it adds light to the design. The lower terrace is also now paved in limestone to echo flooring in the house and create a seamless transition from indoors to outside.
The focal point at the far end of the pergola is a planted basket, one of many containers that give an opportunity for more planting and colour in a space that is only around a quarter of an acre.
The generous willow basket has an inner pot full of summer flowers including nepeta, Erigeron karvinskianus and salvias. This insert, cleverly balanced on chocks so that a smaller pot can be used, will be replaced at the end of the season with plants for a winter display.
The nepeta is echoed in nearby herbaceous beds where it’s teamed with persicaria, Echinops ritro ‘Veitch’s Blue’, veronicastrum, white alliums, and Achillea millefolium ‘Lilac Beauty’ in a classic mauve, pink and white colour theme.
‘I wanted the borders to be quite big in scale, hip height, plants.,’ says Sam.
Structure comes from Ilex crenata and fastigiate yew that echo the upright silhouette of the pillars.
‘What I love about this garden is Ian and Angela never lost their eye for detail,’ says Sam. ‘The pergola came quite late on the build and that can sometimes be when budgets kick in. It would have been easy for them to go for soft wood but it’s what ties the garden together and gives it its identity. Likewise, with the cedar shingle roof there might have been cheaper options but this ties better into the landscape.’
A mature beech hedge at the rear of the garden has been kept and evergreens, including holly and nandina added to add more structure. Rosa banksiae is being encouraged to sprawl through it all.
Below is an area for the family to sit out carefully shaded by four Liquidambar styraciflua that are being pruned to stop them getting too big. They also screen the house from the road that runs alongside.
‘It’s all about not casting so much shade that the house feels gloomy again.’
Wanting to minimise the maintenance needed – Sam and his team come in once a month to work on the garden – some areas have been turned into wildflower planting.
At the top of the garden, wide gates have been introduced, making it easy to access for any machinery and to take out green waste.
Near the original gate is Angela’s small but productive vegetable garden with raised beds planted with lettuces, beetroot, celery and spinach with trained apple trees as a boundary.
Indeed, not wanting to have retaining walls right across the garden is the reason one section has been left as a slope and planted with lavender – inspired by a 2018 Chelsea garden by James Basson.
Three rows of lavender come down the slope, set into a crushed stone shale – much of it made from offcuts when the walls were constructed. Every year, things that will self-seed, such as poppies, are sown over the ground.
Mature trees run along the boundary with the neighbouring estate and the garden is left deliberately informal to soften the transition.
The garden has come a long way from the uninspiring plot that Sam first encountered but his vision for it was clear from the start.
‘I was able to ‘see’ the levels of the garden in the unformed hillside when I first saw the garden. When I presented the design to the client it did take him by surprise – plus the contractor called in to do the digging – but, as they drew the topography back to the broad strokes on the plan, the garden started to reveal itself.’
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