Balmoral Cottage, Kent

Hidden away in the picturesque village of Benenden, Kent, Balmoral Cottage has been home to Charlotte Molesworth and her husband Donald for the past 40 years. Having requested yew seedlings as wedding gifts, these have slowly grown and, along with various buxus transformed this blank canvas into a green living sculpture. With a very artistic eye Charlotte has clipped the evergreen shrubs into an array of shapes, especially birds and created towering topiaries divided by a long and narrow central walk leading to a pond. In the cold and crispy days of January, the garden's design is sharpened with a layer of frost. But even in the middle of winter and unlike a sculpture, the garden is perpetually evolving, especially as Charlotte recently decided to modernise her topiary design and, with the help of Darren Lerigo, lighten some of the topiaries sitting on top of the hedges. Seedheads provide further interest and are cut back at the end of the winter.