Topiary garden, Shropshire

When Brigette and Adam Wilson moved to Bramble Cottage in the late 1990's, the house was surrounded on 3 sides by a 3/4 acre field with no plantation besides a couple of trees. They realised the potential that this blank canvas provided to create something special and started to visit gardens to find inspiration. They both fell in love with the structure of formal gardens, especially at Levens Hall and decided to create their own topiary garden. The garden was divided into different rooms which are bordered with beech hedges, and box and yew saplings were gradually planted. At Great Dixter, Adam discovered Nathaniel Lloyd's classic book 'Topiary: Garden Craftsmanship in Yew and Box' which he stills uses to clip all the topiaries, each sculpted to reveal their own individual character. Creating topiaries from scratch requires patience as they take some years to grow but it is also addictive, Brigette and Adam have now planted 120 different topiaries in the garden, which now includes two box parterres and a yew avenue. In winter their shape is sharpened by a dusting of snow. Herbaceous perennials have not been forgotten as Brigette has created two borders along the yew avenue with Eryngium and Echinops seed heads providing interest even in the middle of winter.