This is a lovely site attached to a large country house with a swimming pool and horse stables however the budget was quite tight given the scale of the project. At Chelsea this year I was inspired by the planting in one of the borders in Luciano Giubbilei’s Laurent Perrier garden: the rich burgundy reds, deep blues and feathery fennel. In this project, close to the house, I used Astrantia ‘Claret’, A. ‘Hadspen Blood’, Salvia carrodona, Paeonia ‘Buckeye Belle’, Papaver ‘Manhattan’, Cirsium atropurpureum, deep blue iris and bronze fennel set amongst box cubes to a similar effect. I particularly love the large cupped, burgundy flowers of the poppy and paeony so delicate and short lived, the veils of filligree fennel and the solid green box cubes which dominate through out the winter months.
http/www.rhs.org.uk/shows-events/chelsea/2009/show/laurentperrier
The garden was almost a blank canvas, I used a large pergola and avenues of planting to create a formal layout subdivided into areas that flow from one to the other. The garden is laid out on a new axis to draw the eye away from the boundary fence and into the garden. I used a grid framework of longer grass as a low cost solution to creating structure, these will be planted with bold blocks of Narcissus poeticus.
