The Garden House, West Sussex

Charmed by the picturesque location of the Garden House, up on a hill of the High Weald of West Sussex, Zoe and Toby, set to transform it into a family home. However, the renovation works turned the surrounding space, including an old paddock into wasteland and reduced the whole area to compact clay. They turned to designer Alex Bell to tackle this new project and help them convert the blank canvas into a garden. Because of its location, the garden needed good hedging to protect the planting from windy conditions, but Alex has softened the boundaries with the addition of grasses such as Miscanthus 'Morning Light'. Beds were then carved out of the large lawn, these are punctuated with wavy hornbeam hedges and filled with perennials such as Salvia 'Amistad' and Perovskia atriplicifolia, as well as grasses including Pennisetum 'Hameln' and Molinia 'Skyracer'. A network of winding lawn paths snakes around the garden whilst a larger central path leads from the more formal borders near the house, planted with Hydrangea 'Annbelle' and Ceratostigma willmontianum, down to the end of garden which has a more naturalistic feel. Alex chose a palette of plants to provide colour, texture and structure all year round, including in winter when the foliage of the large beech by the house adorns flamboyant colours.