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Gardens and Gardeners

7th October 2022

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Having featured in a number of publications in recent years it may not be the first time that you have set eyes on the garden at Ordnance House. You may have read about it in publications like ‘The Garden’, ‘The English Garden’ and more recently than that it’s been featured on the popular television show ‘Gardeners World’.  It’s also one of only 27 gardens to make it into Clive Nicholls’ latest book ‘Brilliant English Gardens’. Or perhaps you’ve seen it on Instagram where Terry has amassed over 65,000 followers admiring his garden from around the world. In any instance, when considering a greenhouse for a beautiful garden like this, it needs to be the right fit. We’re not talking size here but more about the aesthetic. It’s more about the combination of materials, the proportions, and the right design.

In Terry’s own words this is not a typical English Garden, it has a European feel to it. There are clues in the plant names, like the Portuguese Laurel, that is trained as standards throughout the garden. That are Provencal scents throughout the garden with lavender planted en masse. Or it could be design elements, there’s a Scandinavian feel to the garden with natural wood being featured on structures throughout the garden. The boundary hedges are less formal are in fact cut to the same shape as Dean Hill in the background, a nod to the surrounding landscape.

Surrounded on three sides by beech hedges the central porch the greenhouse is accessed via a riven sandstone path. A narrow gap carved through the hedge, enough for a gate, leads the eye to the greenhouse door, a new production hub for the garden. The same riven sandstone path continues into the greenhouse where another texture comes into play where the Cotswold stone chippings provide drainage under the staging where essential plant watering takes place.

And now with a new Accoya Greenhouse the garden has a production hub, a place to plant seeds, take cuttings and unwind.  The main body of the greenhouse measures 2408mm (8’) but the porch extends this centrally to a 3270mm (10’9”). The length of the greenhouse is a 4752mm (15’8”). Running the full length of the structure greenhouse benching (often called staging) is being put to good use for propagation. Higher up, at shoulder height say, shelving provides additional space and being closer to the roof glass will provide a little more warmth too. A small detail, to match with the existing buildings, was the addition of accoya finials. This beautiful private garden in Wiltshire has been 11 years in the making and is testament to what can be achieved. The gardens at Ordnance House are certainly a special place.