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At first approach , visitors to Allt - wye - bela , Arne Maynard ’s historical home in Usk , south Wales , might suspect the designer has been so distracted by projects around the public that he has n’t had time to tend his own shoes . Those who saw the gold - medal - winning garden he create for Laurent - Perrier at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show in London , or get laid the romanticEnglish country gardenshe designs for the manor house business firm and house of financiers and executives , might wonder if they have come up to the right-hand place . It ’s all here , though — the rose , the heave herbaceous planting , the pleached and clipped tree diagram , and the picturesque yet productive vegetable patch . It ’s just that here things are a little more subtle .
Decorative topiary meets naturalism at the fifteenth - century place of designer Arne Maynard , where his garden gradually merges with five acres of woodlands and eatage . Photo by : Tom Mannion . SEE MORE PHOTOS OF THIS GARDEN
Maynard , who writes a horticulture - tip column forGardens Illustrated , and his partner , William Collinson , own Allt - wye - bela and five skirt acres of soft , rolling grass and woodlands . Before that , they had drop 15 years living at Guanock House , a 16th - hundred manor house near Spalding , Lincolnshire , in the wide , flat farmlands of eastern England . “ We were in this ocean of barley and clavus ; you felt very vulnerable , ” says Maynard . There he make a gem box of a schematic garden , part by high hedges into rooms and filled with coloration . “ It was an oasis within the vast landscape , whereas at Allt - y - bela , I am celebrating the landscape , and I require the garden to be part of it . ”
Some of the good luck charm of Allt - y - bela ( a Welsh name that translates as “ in high spirits wooded hillside of the wolf ” ) stems from the style the sign has spring up organically over the centuries to suit its inhabitants , with no overall “ grand design ” of dwelling position and outbuildings . It is more or less anchor by a slate - cap stone farmhouse built in the fifteenth century . In 1599 , its affluent inhabitant add a three - story tower , hoping to ingrain frequent passers - by on the adjacent , once - busy thoroughfare that is now little more than a footpath beside a drained - end state lane . And impressive Allt - wye - bela is — the striking nitty-gritty of its part made even more middle - catching by the tangerine - colour lime wash the couple of late use to its exterior .
Lupine‘Masterpiece ’ andAnthriscus sylvestris‘Ravenswing ’ bloom by the kitchen garden . photograph by : Tom Mannion . SEE MORE PHOTOS OF THIS GARDEN
aside from forward-looking conveniences such as electrical energy , primal heating , and enough bathymetry , the interiors would not be foreign to the wraith of those who work up Allt - y - bela , furnished as the rooms are with flagstones , expectant open open fireplace , and antique English furniture .
Every element has earn its place in the design system as much for its congenital appealingness and rightness as for its useful purpose . Even the jars of Maynard and Collinson ’s homemade jams and chutneys are disingenuously arranged along shelf in the back passage . The jars not only contemplate the productivity of the yield and vegetable garden Maynard has rear there but do as a treat for the estate ’s visitors . The couple made three of the five sleeping room available for utilisation as a seam - and - breakfast ( alltybela.co.uk ) , and Maynard holds gardening courses every June in the granary building outside ( arnemaynard.com ) . London artist Cornelia O’Donovan ’s playful mural limn flowers and insect from the garden is an unusually cosmetic gesture in the passageway to the dining elbow room .
Pear trees are trained over hazel arches in the kitchen garden . Photo by : Tom Mannion . SEE MORE PHOTOS OF THIS GARDEN
out of doors is a similar story of pared - down beauty . The garden keeps faith with the house , which was always more rustic than grand . As with many of Maynard ’s instauration for his customer — he has designed all-encompassing garden for the Queen of Jordan and for Tricia Guild of Designers Guild — establishing a good sense of shoes is essential . He had no overall plan , though . The garden , like the house , just evolved . At Allt - wye - bela , he wants to embrace what lie beyond rather than produce a separate outer space . “ I have strip aside all the boundaries — the fencing , the hedging , the wall — as they reduce the garden off from the scene , ” says Maynard . “ It is so beautiful that it was important that that landscape roll up right to the home walls . ” That ’s not to say he give up on a garden in all . “ Closer to the house , I have more formalities : the topiary trees and the refined flower that get behind the wall that creates a small courtyard garden , ” he says . “ And as you come out from the immediate vicinity of the house , it becomes more natural , so we go into wildflower meadows and long grass . ” The longsighted grass still has topiary in it , but or else of more stately trees , he clipped the native hornbeam and haw so “ the garden recede and vanish into the natural environment . ”
It is likely the first time in the house ’s retentive story that cultivate heyday have been grown for their own sake , and , even now , they are confined to the court and a boxwood knot garden at the back . “ In the early deeds , there is mention of two yield gardens , ” state Maynard . “ I do n’t think there would have been a garden here that was cosmetic ; it would have been very much for sustenance . It would have been very beautiful , on the dot my sort of garden . hoi polloi had to produce their own fruits and vegetables and herbaceous plant to make shade and medication . ”
In keeping with the spirit of the position , and to feed guests without drive miles to the nearest shop , Maynard create a declamatory potager in raised beds , protected against forager by hazel hurdles and oak tree spot design by him and crafted at Haddon Hall in Derbyshire . It provide the table but is a beautiful mickle as well , with arches made from pear tree diagram and beds describe with step - over apples . Ribes grossularia George Walker Bush are raised as standards to resemble burred ice lolly . Maynard proceed cautiously . “ There comes a full point where you have to stop over adding , ” he says . “ There are Lot of gardens you go to where they do n’t recognise where to stop and then the magic disappears . ” Indeed , less can be so much more .
Caroline Donald is the gardening editor in chief atThe Sunday Timesin London .
