Garden rooms around a 16th-century farmhouse within the Hastings Country Park
Set within the Hastings Country Park, this garden project around a 16th century farmhouse has been a major work of hands-on lead gardening since autumn 2017, frequently in design collaboration with the owners, one of whom is Madeaux fabric designer Richard Smith.
The garden is young and evolving. The yew and hornbeam hedges that form the architecture of the ‘garden rooms’ were planted as small saplings to better acclimatise to the sea winds. They are now well over head height and the creative shaping of them is in response to how the garden matures.
The flower borders are richly planted for a succession of seasonal displays. The dedicated picking garden is a place for flamboyant colour and experimentation. This effectively links the garden with the splendid house interiors.
Throughout the garden the energy of self sowing plants is harnessed. These are coaxed into the garden and then find their own niche. Two areas in particular are flooded with wildflowers and cottage garden favourites mingling. On a sun-baked terrace facing south to the sea, fennels, bloody cranesbills, lady’s mantle, quaking grass and Mexican daisies flower out of paving gaps. On the other side of the house Verbena bonariensis, lady’s bedstraw and sea kale thrive across a cobbled courtyard.
As the garden has come into fruition we have begun to work on the outer land at the gardens edges where we are developing grassland habitat verges and maintaining wildflower areas for the benefit of biodiversity on the site. This, together with making a large pond and carefully siting and planting over 200 trees is connecting the gardened land to the natural haven of the Hastings Country Park.
JH ~March 2022
White honesty flowering along the house border in April
The terrace with a proliferation of self sowing plants
Daffodils beneath the copper beech, the centre of the garden
View into the courtyard
