Garden Tour: A Country Plot Gains a Pool and Immersive Planting
This historic rural garden is surrounded by ancient woodland, something its designer aimed to bring into the landscaping
When its new owners took over this one-acre sloping garden, it was low on planting and lacked flow. They were keen to have a swimming pool installed, so called on garden designer John Davies to design this feature into the space, while being sensitive to the landscape in and around the garden. What he came up with surpassed anything they could have imagined.
“There was lawn everywhere,” John says, recalling how this lush country garden looked when he first saw it, back in 2018. “A gardener would come and mow all the grass, and that was the extent of the maintenance. It had this feeling of being fallow and undeveloped.”
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In this before shot, you get a sense of the garden’s slope, which is due to a difference in levels of around 5m from the highest to the lowest point in the garden.
A group woodland Tree Protection Order (TPO) covers the trees beyond the boundary and extends partially into the garden. So John and the owners took a very considered decision to apply for permission to remove a large sycamore tree to the right of the building, seen here. “You have to be very careful about removing trees and I always replace any that I do,” John says.
He got permission, adding that the tree had been dangerously close to the house. “Removing it opened up the entire site and we could then see all the beautiful trees in the background.” (See below.)
A group woodland Tree Protection Order (TPO) covers the trees beyond the boundary and extends partially into the garden. So John and the owners took a very considered decision to apply for permission to remove a large sycamore tree to the right of the building, seen here. “You have to be very careful about removing trees and I always replace any that I do,” John says.
He got permission, adding that the tree had been dangerously close to the house. “Removing it opened up the entire site and we could then see all the beautiful trees in the background.” (See below.)
“There’s very little hard landscaping in this project apart from the walls and the parts very close to the house,” John says. “We couldn’t have replaced the lawn with hard landscaping.” Instead, he used grass to create this central pathway.
It’s a stunning site, surrounded by woodland and mature trees, which John pulled into the design as borrowed landscape. The pool sits low in the garden and John layered perennials and shrubs and more trees into the banks of the slopes, which he manipulated into terraces.
Plants here include Salvia nemorosa ‘Caradonna’; Stachys byzantina; Centranthus ruber ‘Albus’, and Nepeta racemosa ‘Walker’s Low’.
“I call this the Carpinus bank,” John says, referring to the row of five, box-pruned hornbeams that punctuate the stretch. The clipped trees echo the thatched roof. “There’s a sense of the thatch being a clipped material,” he says.
Plants here include Salvia nemorosa ‘Caradonna’; Stachys byzantina; Centranthus ruber ‘Albus’, and Nepeta racemosa ‘Walker’s Low’.
“I call this the Carpinus bank,” John says, referring to the row of five, box-pruned hornbeams that punctuate the stretch. The clipped trees echo the thatched roof. “There’s a sense of the thatch being a clipped material,” he says.
The plan shows just what a vast project this was, and why it took several years to complete.
Despite the size of the space, John and the owners made a decision not to include an irrigation system. “I’ve used a lot of planting that’s reasonably drought-tolerant – purple salvias, yellow Phlomis russeliana, Artemisia and grasses,” he says.
Nevertheless, the garden will need continued care and attention to flourish. “Gardens like this are nothing if they’re not maintained properly by someone who knows what the plants are,” John continues. “For example, there are a lot of late grasses – such as Miscanthus sinensis ‘Ferner Osten’ and ‘Morning Light’, and Panicum virgatum ‘Warrior’ – which stand over winter, so you can’t have someone coming in and just chopping everything down after things have flowered.”
Despite the size of the space, John and the owners made a decision not to include an irrigation system. “I’ve used a lot of planting that’s reasonably drought-tolerant – purple salvias, yellow Phlomis russeliana, Artemisia and grasses,” he says.
Nevertheless, the garden will need continued care and attention to flourish. “Gardens like this are nothing if they’re not maintained properly by someone who knows what the plants are,” John continues. “For example, there are a lot of late grasses – such as Miscanthus sinensis ‘Ferner Osten’ and ‘Morning Light’, and Panicum virgatum ‘Warrior’ – which stand over winter, so you can’t have someone coming in and just chopping everything down after things have flowered.”
John built a path around three sides of the house using clay pavers. This little seating area is at the bottom of a sloping section of the path that takes you from the row of hornbeams (seen in the background here) along the length of the pool, parallel to the house.
At this end of the path, before it steps down, John made space for a little table and chairs. “You’re immersed here,” he says, referencing the generous 3.5m-wide bed of planting to the left in this photo. “To be there is breathtaking.”
At this end of the path, before it steps down, John made space for a little table and chairs. “You’re immersed here,” he says, referencing the generous 3.5m-wide bed of planting to the left in this photo. “To be there is breathtaking.”
What had just been a slope previously is now a bank with steps cut into it (shown again below) and a retaining wall.
The predominantly grey and lilac colour palette is partly inspired by the locally sourced flint John chose for the wall. It’s a snapped flint construction, a technique that involves splitting the flint boulders to expose the face of the stone and form a brick.
“The nearest village has a beautiful flintwork church and it felt like the most natural product to use,” he says.
The predominantly grey and lilac colour palette is partly inspired by the locally sourced flint John chose for the wall. It’s a snapped flint construction, a technique that involves splitting the flint boulders to expose the face of the stone and form a brick.
“The nearest village has a beautiful flintwork church and it felt like the most natural product to use,” he says.
Looking up from the pool to the steps just seen here, you get the effect of all the planting layers John’s created.
The pool sits at the lowest point of the garden. The boundary – a simple wooden fence – deliberately creates visual confusion, making it hard to tell which trees sit this side and which are beyond.
Natural wood decking surrounds the pool. “We chose a timber deck with timber copings, which is quite unusual for a swimming pool,” John says. “You could imagine that material as having been taken from one of the trees beyond the boundary, it just fits with being in a woodland.”
The soft, twirling spires of Veronicastrum virginicum ‘Fascination’ create height behind the wall on the right. Pink Lythrum salicaria ‘Blush’ sits just in front.
Natural wood decking surrounds the pool. “We chose a timber deck with timber copings, which is quite unusual for a swimming pool,” John says. “You could imagine that material as having been taken from one of the trees beyond the boundary, it just fits with being in a woodland.”
The soft, twirling spires of Veronicastrum virginicum ‘Fascination’ create height behind the wall on the right. Pink Lythrum salicaria ‘Blush’ sits just in front.
John added trees throughout the garden, as well as retaining most of the existing ones. “There’s a copper beech [with purple leaves], with a natural meadow area below that, and we planted three Amelanchiers there,” he says.
Around the front of the house, John expanded the gravel driveway and replaced an old painted gate with a natural wood one.
In this ‘before’ photo of the gate, you can just see the estate this old gamekeeper’s house and garden were originally part of, across the road.
The gate in the previous photo is just visible in the distance here on the right.
So what do the owners think now the garden is finally finished and has had time to mature a little? “It surpassed all their expectations, I think,” John says. “That’s in terms of the planting, really, because the project is all about the planting … and this sense of placing a quite large swimming pool within this context and making it feel as if it was meant to be there and that it wasn’t an ostentatious addition.
“The whole idea was that, when you swim there, it’s as if you’re cradled by the whole of nature and the woodland,” he continues, “and the layers of planting give you this incredible sense of being immersed in the garden, in the landscape. They hadn’t really expected that.”
Tell us…
What’s your favourite thing about this impressive country garden? Let us know in the Comments.
So what do the owners think now the garden is finally finished and has had time to mature a little? “It surpassed all their expectations, I think,” John says. “That’s in terms of the planting, really, because the project is all about the planting … and this sense of placing a quite large swimming pool within this context and making it feel as if it was meant to be there and that it wasn’t an ostentatious addition.
“The whole idea was that, when you swim there, it’s as if you’re cradled by the whole of nature and the woodland,” he continues, “and the layers of planting give you this incredible sense of being immersed in the garden, in the landscape. They hadn’t really expected that.”
Tell us…
What’s your favourite thing about this impressive country garden? Let us know in the Comments.
Who lives here? A family of three with their dogs
Location Just outside Saffron Waldon, Essex
Property An 18th century Grade ll-listed former keeper’s cottage in a conservation area
Garden size Roughly one acre
Designer John Davies of John Davies Landscape
Project year Between 2018 and 2021
Photos by John Davies
The family who own this large plot had recently moved into the historic thatched roof house when they asked John to come and design a swimming pool for them and blend it into the grounds.
For John, though, the project was as much about how to enhance the expansive, heavily sloping garden around the pool.