![\"Photo](\"http:\/\/glenvillaartgarden.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/broadwoodside-before-1.jpg\")
<\/a>Would I have had the courage to renovate this property? I seriously doubt it. Photo courtesy of Broadwoodside’s website.<\/p><\/div>\n
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Guy is responsible also for maintaining this elegant and inventive garden, and his work is impressive.<\/p>\n
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<\/a>The ‘before’ of this building is visible in the photo above. Architect Nicholas Groves-Raines renovated the old buildings and added an ogee-roofed corner tower and an arched gatehouse to enclose the courtyards.<\/p><\/div>\n
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He\u00a0and owner Anna Dalrymple were on site to answer\u00a0questions when the group I was hosting toured the garden in September. We\u00a0visited on a grey day that kept breaking its promise to brighten. No matter. Before entering the first of the courtyards, I knew we were going\u00a0to see\u00a0a special place. Perched on top of one of several\u00a0stone walls was a ball, striped in black and white. It wasn’t extraordinary in itself, but it did cause me to peek over the wall and into the apple orchard beyond. Here I saw the first of many features\u00a0that gave the garden its special flair.<\/p>\n
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<\/a>Three apples show the progression from the whole fruit to one that has been well enjoyed. The inside of each apple is painted gold — a subtle classical allusion perhaps?<\/p><\/div>\n
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Inside the first courtyard, a checkerboard alternated cobbled\u00a0and planted squares. Dominating the\u00a0centre was a stylish\u00a0bird cage that housed the Dalrymple’s parrot.<\/p>\n
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<\/a>The view on entering the Upper Courtyard gives a hint of the inventiveness that appears throughout the garden.<\/p><\/div>\n
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Centred \u00a0in eight of the\u00a0squares were maple trees (Acer platanoides)\u00a0<\/em>trimmed to lollipops. Each tree was underplanted with something different, with square-trimmed boxwood or boxwood balls, ornamental grasses, pachysandra or rosemary. As I mentioned last week in my post about doing the unexpected,<\/a> a label hung from each of the maple trees, misidentifying the trees\u00a0as walnuts, limes, willows and other impossibilities.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Other trees are mislabelled as limes, willows, and oaks.<\/p><\/div>\n <\/p>\n This playful touch continues throughout the garden, both in\u00a0its plantings and its art. Under the entry gateway, skinny bell-like annuals reach upwards towards the mirrored shape of bells hanging down.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Verbena bonariensis rises and bells fall: a nice mirror effect.<\/p><\/div>\n <\/p>\n On a beautifully\u00a0maintained lawn, ship’s\u00a0windows\u00a0lie\u00a0flat on\u00a0the ground, mirroring the sky and suggesting an\u00a0entry point to a watery\u00a0underworld.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Imagine a circle of blue sky reflected on the green grass. Or imagine opening one of the portholes and looking down into the underworld. Both\u00a0mental pictures work for me.<\/p><\/div>\n <\/p>\n The straight-line arrangement of buildings at Broadwoodside dictates the shape of the enclosed garden areas, and\u00a0the long rectangular pattern\u00a0has been embraced as a defining design feature. A path through the Upper and Lower Courtyards leads to a kitchen and cutting garden where a rectangular pool continues the line.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n The willow pond reflects the old farm buildings and the ever-present grey sky.<\/p><\/div>\n <\/p>\n An avenue of hornbeams on one side of the house, skillfully planted to make the distance appear longer than it is,\u00a0is mirrored by the straight lines of\u00a0white fireweed on the other.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n What North Americans call fireweed is called rosebay willow herb in England. Complicating the nomenclature, the plant’s botanical name has changed from Epilobium angustifolium to Chamerion angustifolium. Whatever you call it, although still enjoyable to see, the flower was past its peak when we visited.<\/p><\/div>\n <\/p>\n A stretch of grass seen through a vase-topped gateway leads the eye down yet another garden path.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Talk about Wow! moments — this combination of colours did it for me.<\/p><\/div>\n <\/p>\n Although Broadwoodside’s\u00a0design\u00a0is strongly linear, nothing about the garden itself is straight. Or at least, not straightforward. That’s where the humour comes in. On the wall where Anna Dalrymple served us coffee and banana bread (so delicious that the garden was referred to afterwards by members of our group as the Banana Bread Garden), the writing was on the wall. Literally.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n I want\u00a0to copy this idea. Or should I say, to adapt it. I have a place in mind…<\/p><\/div>\n <\/p>\n Across the courtyard, more writing appeared\u00a0on the wall, but this time it was all Greek to me.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n I know what each letter stands for but have no idea if they mean anything when put together. Anna Dalrymple said they were nonsensical, and maybe they are. I do wonder, though, whether they are there in order to prompt the clich\u00e9d phrase used above.\u00a0Can anyone enlighten me?<\/p><\/div>\n <\/p>\n Plantings were equally inventive. In the Lower Courtyard, espaliered apples and pears hugged one wall<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Apples were against one wall, pears against another.<\/p><\/div>\n <\/p>\n while agapanthus in pots hugged another.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Notice the immaculately tended lawn. Straight edges like that take a lot of work.<\/p><\/div>\n <\/p>\n In the centre of the courtyard, a mass of Madonna lilies scented the whole.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Madonna lilies mingle with white cosmos in a stunning centrepiece arrangement.<\/p><\/div>\n <\/p>\n And the colours! I loved this planting\u00a0of smoke bush (possibly \u00a0Cotinus coggygria<\/em> ‘Royal Purple’ )\u00a0<\/em>and Euphorbia (I don’t know the variety name)\u00a0<\/em>particularly combined with the blue posts and the red window frames.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n The blue posts hold a wire grid that keeps all the foliage upright. The smokebush is probably pruned annually to keep it at that height.<\/p><\/div>\n <\/p>\n Formal geometric lines can make a garden predictable, but that’s not the case at Broadwoodside. In this garden nothing can be taken at face value.\u00a0A stone plinth, just the right height to sit on,\u00a0held a mock-Latin inscription that made me scratch my head. (Only as I was writing this piece\u00a0did I figure it out.)<\/p>\n <\/p>\n<\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a>