INSPIRATION
Leafy canopies and abundant naturalistic borders bring a very special sense of serenity and seclusion to this peaceful wildlife-friendly space
i find great stillness in nature, so my garden is much more than just a collection of plants,’ says Christine Wilford at the home she shares with her husband Chris, in a quiet cul-de-sac in East Molesey, Surrey. ‘It’s somewhere to reflect and completely relax.’ From a sofa on the terrace, Christine’s carefully composed borders of herbaceous perennials and ornamental grasses are almost within touching distance, a tapestry of different plant forms, flower colours and leaf textures. ‘It’s like having a painting that changes throughout the seasons and, whatever the time of year, I can sit, look, close my eyes and just enjoy being out here,’ she explains. A narrow pebble path winds to the middle of the garden where a small lawn is edged in hydrangeas and lofty grasses that veil a dining area. Behind stands a garden room and a tucked-away work zone.
It’s a very different picture from 15 years ago when Christine and Chris, both architects, first set eyes on the 1930s house and its suburban back garden. ‘It had a big lawn, borders along the boundaries, a huge conifer and several old sheds, but it was ideal for our family,’ recalls Christine. The garden also had an additional attraction for her as she’d just qualified as a garden designer, inspired by a passion for plants and the naturalistic planting style of renowned Dutch garden designer Piet Oudolf. ‘It was to provide a wonderful opportunity to experiment with plants,’ she says.
Irregular in shape, the plot measures 23 metres in length and tapers from 9.5 to 7.8 metres in width. ‘But you don’t notice because the boundary is disguised by plants and trees,’ explains Christine. The garden is overlooked by houses on three sides, so she has established trees to create privacy, including a golden Indian bean tree, Catalpa bignonioides ‘Aurea’, which ‘brings light into the garden’, a smoke tree, Cotinus cogg ygria ‘Golden Spirit’, loved for its fresh spring growth, and a mature liquidambar, which blazes a fiery red in autumn. ‘I bought it as a
