A hydrangea-filled Cotswold garden thoroughly rationalised by Jinny Blom
'I love sorting out spaces,’ says landscape gardener Jinny Blom, whose design solutions tend to involve a thorough readjustment of everything – both above and below ground. Set in the Cotswold hills, this project featured an early-20th-century house that felt strangely hemmed in, with high walls near the building and views leading the eye towards nothing in particular. The long garden was a grassy slope, petering away towards a disused manège.
On seeking planning permission to convert this into a tennis court, among other things, the new owners were advised by their architect to consult Jinny Blom Studio. ‘I like convincing planners we’re doing the right thing,’ says Jinny. And she can be persuasive. After showing the clients a concept plan for the garden, it was clear that every part of their five acres needed ‘sorting out’.
The result is seamlessly modulated, with land that has been contoured into usable areas connected by staircases and lime-mortared walls. The swimming pool, which had previously been tucked away apologetically behind a hedge, has now been rebuilt inside a wind-calming walled enclosure, with the new tennis court totally hidden behind a shelf of land. The site no longer seems narrow and views from the terrace guide the eye towards unfolding countryside, as if by magic. Part of this is explained by Jinny’s skill with angles, since she has built an expansive terrace that flares away from the house on one side. ‘You never think, look at the shape of this terrace,’ she points out. ‘You just use it.’
Around the corner, the terrace responds to the more regular dimensions of the house: she used the height of the building’s façade laid flat to dictate the proportions of the paved living space outdoors. There is room for trees and planting, and large pots filled with summer flowers, as well as tables and chairs for two or 30 people. ‘When you move outside, you move differently,’ Jinny observes. ‘There’s nothing worse than being in a space that’s too mean for the things that go on in it.’
The stone used for paving and walling is a mix of old and new, while the landscape’s green contours were shaped with recycled material. ‘I have a no-muck-away principle,’ she says. ‘The ground here is Cotswold brash and stone, and it’s very reusable.’ Crushing stone and sieving soil on site during the garden build, contractors were able to redirect ‘muck’ from going to landfill. This approach allows bespoke materials to be used, too. The gravel – in different grades at the front and back of the house – was made by crushing stone that was already there, with no need to buy it in from a quarry.
For Jinny’s clients, the upsides to having to live in a sea of mud for a year, surrounded by machinery, include having not only a lovely garden at the end of it, but also the chance to consolidate the site’s sustainability. Roof and groundwater, used for irrigation, is saved in 40,000 litre tanks, buried in the garden’s level changes. Jinny was grateful for clients who were on board with the engineering side of things: ‘These projects only work if everything that’s underneath them is good. Water harvesting, drainage and that sort of stuff is so important, and most of the time, nobody’s interested. I insist on a serious contractor, as you end up being able to do a lot of good.’
In terms of a planting brief, one of the clients expressed a strong appreciation for hydrangeas. And that is what they got: Hydrangea arborescens ‘Annabelle’ x 140, shown to best advantage by Jinny’s bespoke railings between the parking area and the forecourt. ‘I wondered what a massive sea of ‘Annabelle’, with topiary coming out of it, and a line of espaliered hornbeam would look like,’ she says. Planted in volume, they have a theatrical quality, but have also been an excellent choice in terms of sustainability. Thriving on Cotswold brash, they do not need much attention during a long growing season and their dry flowers hold on through winter.
Hydrangeas continue behind the house as a leitmotif, with accents of equally self-sufficient and long-flowering Rosa x odorata ‘Mutabilis’. The trees Jinny has used in the deep beds around the terrace lawn speak to the rural location, with two types of cockspur thorn: Crataegus x lavalleei ‘Carrierei’ and the dramatically thorny C. persimilis ‘Prunifolia’. ‘The leaf is the right shape and colour for England and they flower in May – the fruit stays all winter and they have incredible autumn colour,’ says Jinny, who compares the tree silhouette to something drawn by the 19th century illustrator Arthur Rackham. Hawthorns are among the most useful trees for wildlife and feature in a tree-rich landscape that includes an orchard, with long grass that is cut and stored in a series of small haystacks for practical reasons, as well as for decorative effect.
Of the built structures, all that is not Cotswold stone is oak, including a handsome fruit cage that acts as a focal point to a view from the side of the terrace. Silvering nicely, it is a classical shape. ‘It’s only when you go through the picket-fence gate you notice you are in a kitchen garden,’ Jinny says. An accumulation of layers, her landscapes allow the eye to rest on both the materials and the plantings. Here, these are finely tuned by head gardener Judy Ubich: ‘She knows how to balance the planting in a garden – it’s the most important thing'.
Ngoc Minh Ngo1/3A staircase leads down from the lawn to the new sheltered pool area, framed by a wall of Cotswold stone softened by catalpas and crab apples.
Ngoc Minh Ngo2/3Clipped yew beehives showcase white Anemone x hybrida ‘Honorine Jobert’ and Rosa ‘Margaret Merril’ by the steps leading to the terrace outside the drawing room.
Ngoc Minh Ngo3/3Late-summer blooms of pale lime Hydrangea arborescens ‘Annabelle’ set off pink ‘Mutabilis’ roses and Anemone hupehensis ‘Hadspen Abundance’ in the shrubbery walks.
