The last time I met up with Rosy Sutton – for a magazine feature back in 2019 – she was still in the planning stage for reinstalling borders in the ‘Best Garden’ at Chastleton House. The planting is now done and what a difference it’s made.
Billowing plants in soft shades of lemon, mauve and pink soften the circular yew hedge that encloses the garden’s idiosyncratic topiary, turning what was just grass into somewhere that tempts you to explore.
The project to replant the Best Garden, so called because the best rooms in the house overlook this space, had long been part of the National Trust’s plans for Chastleton, near Moreton-in-Marsh, which it took over in 1991.
Documents confirm there were borders there in the 1830s and old photos show an area that changed many times over the years, finally being put to grass in the sixties.
Rosy, who’s been Garden Supervisor at Chastleton for 10 years, used these black and white images to reinterpret the planting, although grainy photos often taken in winter meant she has been able to match texture and shape rather than specific plants.
“We decided that as long as it felt right, we could just go with it,” she says, “and use modern cultivars, so they’d flower longer or be adapted to climate change. Then we’re less likely to get diseases and they would stand up without being propped up.”
The double borders that encircle the yew hedge are deliberately planted for height with things such as Stipa gigantea and Cephalaria gigantea to give the feeling of being engulfed in plants as you walk around.
Plant choices have been carefully made to ensure things will cope with the sandy loam at Chastleton House. Rosy loves sanguisorba and has discovered Sanguisorba officinalis ‘Pink Tanna’ that is growing well despite the dry. Likewise, Campanula lactiflora ‘Loddon Anna’ manages in the drier conditions as does Monarda ‘Loddon Crown’. I was taking careful notes of things for my sandy plot. I was also interested in a dwarf buddleia and Stachys byzantina ‘Silver Carpet’, which unlike the more commonly grown straightforward S. byzantina rarely flowers.
The backdrop of dark yew has allowed Rosy to use a far softer colour palette than in the rest of the garden: “This is the only bit where the backdrop for the borders is a yew hedge. Everywhere else it’s ironstone so I have to do quite punchy colours because otherwise they just tend to merge.”
Running through these soft pastels is a hint of gold – euphorbias and wallflowers early on with the colour picked up by the cephalaria and phlomis later in the season.
“We also have a touch of apricot in things like the achilleas and the eremurus. It just makes the purples pop without them having to be a strong purple.”
The original plan was to reinstate the rose borders in the central area and the discovery of old plant labels enabled the team to track down most of the old varieties. However, the roses struggled in the conditions – particularly with the changing climate – and they have now been taken out.
Instead, the borders are filled with perennials, many of them with a mounded shape to echo the topiary that dominates this part of the garden.
Reshaping the old box plants is a long term project that Rosy expects to take the next 15 years. A start has been made – notably with removing the ‘skirts’ that had appeared on many of the shapes – and they were looking a lot neater than on my last visit.
So far, the garden has avoided both blight and box moth caterpillar but Rosy is not complacent and has measures in place to tackle any problems should they arise.
Elsewhere, the Kitchen Garden, now run as a no dig area, was the same glorious mix of flowers, fruit and veg with lots of colour and some more unusual things – a row of tomatillo caught my eye.
This area was used to heal in plants ahead of planting in the Best Garden. The team also raised many of the 4,000 plants used from plugs to cut costs.
At the far end, there’s now a wildflower meadow area and an enviable new composting area with purpose-built bays.
The team of Rosy, a part-timer and three volunteers is currently bolstered by a NT apprentice who has been given responsibility for the border alongside the croquet lawn – Chastleton House was were the rules for croquet were first codified. It was more colourful and full than the last time I saw it with the rugosa roses now supported by other summer stars such as antirrhinums.
The biggest change though is the Best Garden borders and the difference they have made is immense: “People used to scuttle through here because it was too open,” says Rosy. “Now people really linger.”
For opening times for Chastleton House, see the website.
Enjoyed this? You can read about more of my garden visits here.
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