Hestercombe

During the Easter break we visted Hestercombe in Somerset for the first time. As the only time when two of my favourite designers, Gertrude Jekyll and Lutyens collaberated solely on the garden I was expecting great things.

What Hestercombe made me realise is that good garden design is all about taking the time to 'stop and stare'. You could walk through the formal garden in no time, not noticing much around you, but take a moment to look back at the way a fountain is framed, or the interplay of light, plants and structure and you realise what perfection in an English spring garden can be.

The hard landscaping, built of local stone felt part of the countryside in which it sat. The garden was broken up into a number of areas, some quite intimate, some quite expansive, with different levels allowing a number of views of each area.

A quiet seating area in the garden, with, what else, but a Lutyens bench.

In particular I liked the two 'arms' down each side of the garden through the middle of each of which ran a deep rill leading from a small fountain and paralleled by deep herbacious borders.

In this view the rill runs down the left hand side of the photo with orange shirley poppies in the foreground.

Wisteria and Clematis Montana frame an arch under a blue westcountry sky.



The planting in the main garden wasn't quite in full flourish when we visited , it being only April but this is definitely a garden worth a visit in the summer.

The garden is very much one of two halves. The formal gardens by the house, as described above and the 18th century landscape garden wending its way up the river valley behind the house, which is laid out as walk past various buildings such as a doric temple and a witches' house and with a mix of vistas and tableaux set out for visitors to admire.

Each view at Hestercombe is beautifully thought out. This is taken from beside the temple looking down over two small lakes to the gate at the bottom which leads into the formal garden. It would be a 'nice view' but the way the trees are felled as a frame, the curve of the path off behind the woods and the placement of the urn to stop your eye from moving too quickly through it all makes this a very restful vista.

The view looking back up the valley from the garden gate.