![\"Hedges](\"http:\/\/glenvillaartgarden.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/untitled-9.jpg\")
<\/a>Hedges define the boundaries of this walkway into one of the nine garden ‘rooms’ within Scampston Hall’s Walled Garden.<\/p><\/div>\n
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Or so it was in 1999 when Oudolf began the design. I feared that after\u00a0sixteen years, when both his work and the New Perennial movement that he fostered have become\u00a0better known and widely imitated, the garden would no longer\u00a0appear fresh and vibrant.<\/p>\n
I need not have worried.<\/p>\n
I visited Scampston Hall on a rainy day in September, first circling the garden along\u00a0The Plantman’s Walk, a long narrow pathway sandwiched between the 18th century\u00a0brick wall and an Oudolf-planted beech hedge.<\/p>\n
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<\/a>The Plantsman’s Walk leads around the perimeter of the garden, following an avenue of pleached limes planted in blocks of three. A border of shrubs and perennials provides colour throughout the growing season.<\/p><\/div>\n
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Entering the garden proper, I\u00a0encountered\u00a0the first of\u00a0Oudolf’s innovative plantings. Aptly named Drifts of Grass, this garden room contains swathes of Molinia\u00a0caerulea<\/em> ‘Poul Petersen’ that curve across closely mown grass in serpentine bands\u00a0unlike any I’ve seen before.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n On a mid-September\u00a0day, the grass’s inflorescences\u00a0were so full that they almost obscured the paths separating the drifts.<\/p><\/div>\n <\/p>\n Heavy with raindrops, the purple spikes\u00a0arched over the lawn, sparkling as the sun began\u00a0to peek through.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n The purple tones of the inflorescences were particularly attractive in the soft light.<\/p><\/div>\n <\/p>\n These curving bands\u00a0of purple moor grass delighted me. They exploded like firecrackers, exuberant and frothy. But at the same time, they were quiet, whispering about colour and movement rather than shouting about it.<\/p>\n The design was simple and effective in its overall impact.\u00a0Plants were not arranged by height as they are in traditional borders, where low plants are backed by progressively taller ones. Instead a single plant provided a singular sense of calm. There were two planes only, the base of grass and the spilling haze of the moor grass. Together, they established a broad view, a level horizon that felt tranquil\u00a0without being static.<\/p>\n I entered the rest of the garden with a sense of anticipation. Was it possible that the success of Drifts of Grass could be repeated?<\/p>\n I quickly discovered that\u00a0Scampston Hall’s Walled Garden is a playful symphony. Its\u00a0theme is stated in the first room, varied in the rooms that follow and stated anew in the final room, transformed by the process of variation. Dividing space\u00a0is\u00a0the theme, the shape of the divisions and the materials used are\u00a0the elements that vary. Oudolf\u00a0plays with space, lifting horizontal lines into mid air.\u00a0He plays with materials, transforming a familiar straight-sided hedge into a similarly shaped set of chairs. Using mown and ornamental grasses, beech, yew and boxwood, he\u00a0plays with shape, repeating a curve of grass in a curve of hedge, a circle of hedge in a circle of grass. And all this he does with a degree of subtlety that isn’t immediately obvious.<\/p>\n It was easy to notice that the curved swathes of Molinia<\/em> I saw on first entering the garden were echoed in the serpentine forms of clipped hedges that appeared at the far end. Other echoes were not as evident.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Yew hedges with straight side and undulating tops mimic the drifts of grass.<\/p><\/div>\n <\/p>\n Some became clear only in retrospect, as I thought\u00a0about the garden spaces and examined the photos I had taken. In the Cut Flower Garden, for instance, low circular hedges are arranged like polka dots on a skirt of green grass. Each circle uses a variety of plants, arranged in a variety of ways.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n The Cut Flower Garden was full of plantings designed by students from a local horticultural school.<\/p><\/div>\n <\/p>\n Circles appear elsewhere, in fountains and repeated dots of trees. In the centre of the Katsure Grove, a single ring is stretched to an oval, then filled with a single plant, Molinia\u00a0<\/em>‘Transparent.’ Theme and variation, varied rhythmically.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n The oval ring is surrounded by Katsura trees whose autumn leaves are said to smell like caramel. They didn’t. Not to my nose, at least.<\/p><\/div>\n <\/p>\n In the Silent Garden, round pillars\u00a0of yew rise up like columns supporting\u00a0the roof of a cloister that isn’t\u00a0there.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n These round yew columns grow to 3 metres\/10 feet before their tops are squared off. They are mirrored in the square reflecting pool, just visible at ground level towards the back of this view.<\/p><\/div>\n <\/p>\n The columns rise up from\u00a0square bases. Inverted, the square shapes appear again in the pleached\u00a0limes that form a\u00a0backdrop to Drifts of Grass.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Limes are trimmed to appear like square boxes held aloft.<\/p><\/div>\n <\/p>\n In\u00a0the Spring and Summer Box Borders, boxwood squares appear\u00a0at ground level, marching down a\u00a0central grass strip between dramatically planted perennial borders.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n To give a sense of scale, each box of boxwood is three metres square.<\/p><\/div>\n <\/p>\n Backed by tidily trimmed beech hedges, these borders are themselves a riff on traditional herbaceous borders. They are full to overflowing with Oudolf’s characteristic plant palette, soft hued perennials punctuated by ornamental grasses and dry\u00a0seed heads.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n<\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a>