Garden Tour: Wild Exmoor Evoked in a Garden of Memories
Celebrated designer Cleve West has plundered his teenage memories of life on Exmoor to create a garden that is powerfully personal
This beautiful, gold-winning garden was designed by Chelsea regular, Cleve West. It reflects his experience of living on Exmoor as a teenager. “When I was 14 in 1972, the whole family moved from Thames Ditton to Porlock in Exmoor to run a hotel,” he says. “It was quite a culture shock, but we had lovely countryside to roam in and escape into. I used to high-tail off into the hills, down to the sea, it was just perfect.” The garden is particularly inspired by an area of ancient woodland, but West was keen to evoke this special spot, rather than try to faithfully replicate it. “The atmosphere of this place was really powerful and that stayed with me for such a long time,” he says. “I’m trying to evoke a memory.”
“The amazing thing about Exmoor is the diversity,” says West. “There are rocks, sea views, moorland, combes, valleys, fields.” His garden contains a wealth of planting, stone and wood, to pay homage to this abundant and varied natural landscape.
A stone and gravel path through woodland-edge planting leads the visitor beyond stunted oaks and rocks to a smoother path, and an area with a sunken terrace and pool. An oak boundary frames the garden.
“Oak trees are key to the whole garden,” says West. “I have also used things like blueberries, but just as a token. I don’t want to try to recreate the wood in a 10 x 22m space!”
Ferns, grasses, hostas, saxifraga, irises, foxgloves, honeysuckle and several types of geranium all feature, too.
Ferns, grasses, hostas, saxifraga, irises, foxgloves, honeysuckle and several types of geranium all feature, too.
Stone plays a huge part in the garden and West has used a mix of rough-hewn stone and sawn stone for the paths, retaining walls and benches. “It gives a very contemporary edge to the whole thing,” he says.
The contrast of smooth, sawn stone, which makes up some of the pathways, and the slabs of rough stone feels exciting and original.
The front of the garden has a stony path which divides, “so it’s slightly uncertain,” says West.
The garden’s lush planting includes a combination of ferns, including Asplenium scolopendriumand Polystichum setiferum; grasses, such as
Briza media, Deschampsia flexuosa and Melica altissima ‘Alba’; bulbs such as Muscari armeniacum and Allium cowanii; and perennial plants, including Euphorbia amygdaloides ‘Purpurea’, Lunaria rediviva and Euphorbia ‘Whistleberry Garnet’ (not all of these are visible in this shot).
The garden’s lush planting includes a combination of ferns, including Asplenium scolopendriumand Polystichum setiferum; grasses, such as
Briza media, Deschampsia flexuosa and Melica altissima ‘Alba’; bulbs such as Muscari armeniacum and Allium cowanii; and perennial plants, including Euphorbia amygdaloides ‘Purpurea’, Lunaria rediviva and Euphorbia ‘Whistleberry Garnet’ (not all of these are visible in this shot).
From the rough, stony path, you then arrive at a section of the garden paved with smooth stone. “It’s much more definite; much more finely tuned,” says West. “That represents my career path and when I became more certain about how it was all going to work out. It’s a slightly cheesy metaphor for my journey through life!”
“The garden is a celebration of the moment, as a teenager on Exmoor, when I became enchanted by landscape,” says West.
Weathered timber forms the boundary fence, and has an aged, rustic quality. It is made from oak, to echo the stunted oak trees planted here.
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The planting isn’t made up exclusively of native species, even though the garden was inspired by Exmoor. “I didn’t want to recreate Exmoor,” says West. “I couldn’t better it!”
Small depressions have been cut into some of the rough stone, to create bird baths.
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Explore more at Chesea 2016: A garden to celebrate Yorkshire’s heritage and landscape
West doesn’t have a favourite part of the garden. “It works as a whole. I can’t pinpoint one thing,” he says. “You’ve got the oak trees, the rock and these lovely bird baths that robins and blackbirds have been coming to drink from.”
Thalictrum ‘Black Stockings’ (the wispy purple flower), Cirsium atropurpureum ‘Trevor’s Blue Wonder’ (thistle-like) and the beautifully butter-yellow Trollius x cultorum ‘Cheddar’ thrive in this pocket of planting.
Purples and yellows feature among the abundant green of this woodland-inspired space.
West feels this is one of the best gardens he has ever created at Chelsea. “All those memories were infused in this garden in some way, so it carries a level of emotion, which I think makes a good garden,” he says.
TELL US…
What inspires you about this beautiful garden? Let us know in the Comments below.
TELL US…
What inspires you about this beautiful garden? Let us know in the Comments below.
Show RHS Chelsea Flower Show 2016
Garden designer Cleve West
Built by Swatton Landscape
Sponsored by M&G Investments
Prize awarded Gold Medal
West wanted to create a space that acknowledged his memories of living on Exmoor as a teenager. “We’ve got all the ingredients: oak trees, stone, water and woodland planting,” he says. “The trick was to make it a modern contemporary garden that evokes Exmoor without it looking like Exmoor.”