Landscape Design
Patio of the Week
Yard of the Week: Country Charm for a Traditional English Cottage
A rural property surrounded by ancient woodland gains a pool, immersive plantings and beautiful landscape views
When a family of three took over this 18th-century former keeper’s cottage in a conservation area, the landscape lacked flow and was low on plantings. The homeowners were eager to add a swimming pool to the sloping 1-acre property, so they hired landscape designer John Davies to introduce one to the grounds in a sensitive, thoughtful way. What he came up with surpassed anything they could have imagined for their country home in Essex, England.
“There was lawn everywhere,” Davies says, recalling how this lush country landscape looked when he first saw it, back in 2018. “A gardener would come and mow all the grass, and that was the extent of the maintenance. It had this feeling of being fallow and undeveloped.”
Before: This photo of the existing landscape gives you a sense of the slope, which is due to a difference in levels of around 16 feet from the highest to the lowest point in the landscape.
A preservation order covers the trees beyond the boundary and extends partially into the property. So Davies and the owners made the very considered decision to apply for permission to remove a large sycamore tree to the right of the building, seen here. “You have to be very careful about removing trees, and I always replace any that I do,” Davies says.
He got permission, adding that the tree had been dangerously close to the house. “Removing it opened up the entire site, and we could then see all the beautiful trees in the background,” he says. (See the next photo.)
A preservation order covers the trees beyond the boundary and extends partially into the property. So Davies and the owners made the very considered decision to apply for permission to remove a large sycamore tree to the right of the building, seen here. “You have to be very careful about removing trees, and I always replace any that I do,” Davies says.
He got permission, adding that the tree had been dangerously close to the house. “Removing it opened up the entire site, and we could then see all the beautiful trees in the background,” he says. (See the next photo.)
After: “There’s very little hard landscaping in this project apart from the walls and the parts very close to the house,” Davies says. “We couldn’t have replaced the lawn with hard landscaping.” Instead of hardscaping, he used grass to create this central pathway.
Before and After: 3 Barren Yards Become Lush, Inviting Retreats
Before and After: 3 Barren Yards Become Lush, Inviting Retreats
It’s a stunning site, surrounded by woodland and mature trees, which Davies pulled into the design as borrowed views. The new pool sits low in the landscape, and Davies layered perennials, shrubs and more trees into the banks of the slopes, which he manipulated into terraces.
Plants here include ‘Caradonna’ sage (Salvia nemorosa ‘Caradonna’, USDA zones 4 to 9; find your zone), lamb’s ears (Stachys byzantina, zones 4 to 9), white Jupiter’s beard (Centranthus ruber ‘Albus’, zones 5 to 8) and ‘Walker’s Low’ catmint (Nepeta racemosa ‘Walker’s Low’, zones 3 to 8).
“I call this the Carpinus bank,” Davies says, referring to the row of five box-pruned hornbeams that punctuates the stretch. The clipped trees echo the thatched roof. “There’s a sense of the thatch being a clipped material,” he says.
Note: Lamb’s ears and Jupiter’s beard can be aggressive spreaders, depending on where you live and your garden’s conditions. Check with a landscape designer or your local nursery before planting.
Plants here include ‘Caradonna’ sage (Salvia nemorosa ‘Caradonna’, USDA zones 4 to 9; find your zone), lamb’s ears (Stachys byzantina, zones 4 to 9), white Jupiter’s beard (Centranthus ruber ‘Albus’, zones 5 to 8) and ‘Walker’s Low’ catmint (Nepeta racemosa ‘Walker’s Low’, zones 3 to 8).
“I call this the Carpinus bank,” Davies says, referring to the row of five box-pruned hornbeams that punctuates the stretch. The clipped trees echo the thatched roof. “There’s a sense of the thatch being a clipped material,” he says.
Note: Lamb’s ears and Jupiter’s beard can be aggressive spreaders, depending on where you live and your garden’s conditions. Check with a landscape designer or your local nursery before planting.
Davies built a path around three sides of the house using clay pavers. This little seating area is at the bottom of a sloping section of the path that takes you from the row of hornbeams (seen in the background here) along the length of the pool, parallel to the house.
At this end of the path, before it steps down, Davies made space for a little table and chairs. “You’re immersed here,” he says, referencing the generous 11½-foot-wide planting bed to the left in this photo. “To be there is breathtaking.”
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At this end of the path, before it steps down, Davies made space for a little table and chairs. “You’re immersed here,” he says, referencing the generous 11½-foot-wide planting bed to the left in this photo. “To be there is breathtaking.”
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Site plan: The plan shows how vast this project was, and why it took several years to complete. You can see the row of hornbeams along the bottom of the plan, with the new steps cut into it. The new pool sits in the middle of the plan.
Despite the size of the space, Davies and the owners decided not to include an irrigation system. He used a lot of plants that are reasonably drought-tolerant, including purple salvias, yellow Turkish sage (Phlomis russeliana, zones 5 to 9), Artemisia and grasses.
Nevertheless, the landscape will need continued care and attention for it to flourish. “Gardens like this are nothing if they’re not maintained properly by someone who knows what the plants are,” Davies continues. There are a lot of grasses that stand over winter, “so you can’t have someone coming in and just chopping everything down after things have flowered,” he says.
Despite the size of the space, Davies and the owners decided not to include an irrigation system. He used a lot of plants that are reasonably drought-tolerant, including purple salvias, yellow Turkish sage (Phlomis russeliana, zones 5 to 9), Artemisia and grasses.
Nevertheless, the landscape will need continued care and attention for it to flourish. “Gardens like this are nothing if they’re not maintained properly by someone who knows what the plants are,” Davies continues. There are a lot of grasses that stand over winter, “so you can’t have someone coming in and just chopping everything down after things have flowered,” he says.
What previously had been just a slope is now a bank with steps cut into it (shown again in the next photo) and a retaining wall.
The predominantly gray-and-lilac color palette was inspired partly by the locally sourced flint Davies chose for the wall. The wall is constructed of snapped flint, which involved splitting boulders to expose the face of the stone and form a brick.
“The nearest village has a beautiful flintwork church, and it felt like the most natural product to use,” he says.
The predominantly gray-and-lilac color palette was inspired partly by the locally sourced flint Davies chose for the wall. The wall is constructed of snapped flint, which involved splitting boulders to expose the face of the stone and form a brick.
“The nearest village has a beautiful flintwork church, and it felt like the most natural product to use,” he says.
Looking up from the pool to the steps, you get the effect of all the planting layers Davies created.
The pool sits at the lowest point of the landscape. The boundary — a simple wooden fence — deliberately creates visual confusion, making it hard to tell which trees sit on this side and which are beyond.
Natural wood decking surrounds the pool. “We chose a timber deck with timber copings, which is quite unusual for a swimming pool,” Davies says. “You could imagine that material as having been taken from one of the trees beyond the boundary. It just fits with being in a woodland.”
The soft, twirling spires of ‘Fascination’ Culver’s root (Veronicastrum virginicum ‘Fascination’, zones 3 to 8) create height behind the wall on the right.
6 Ideas for Creating a Mood-Boosting Outdoor Sanctuary
Natural wood decking surrounds the pool. “We chose a timber deck with timber copings, which is quite unusual for a swimming pool,” Davies says. “You could imagine that material as having been taken from one of the trees beyond the boundary. It just fits with being in a woodland.”
The soft, twirling spires of ‘Fascination’ Culver’s root (Veronicastrum virginicum ‘Fascination’, zones 3 to 8) create height behind the wall on the right.
6 Ideas for Creating a Mood-Boosting Outdoor Sanctuary
Davies added trees throughout the landscape and retained most of the existing ones. “There’s a copper beech [with purple leaves], with a natural meadow area below that, and we planted three Amelanchiers there,” he says.
Around the front of the house, Davies expanded the gravel driveway and replaced an old painted gate with a natural wood one.
Before: In this photo of the gate, you can glimpse the estate this old keeper’s house and garden originally were part of, across the road.
After: The gate in the previous photo is partly visible in the distance here on the right.
So what do the owners think now that the landscape is finally finished and has had time to mature a little? “It surpassed all their expectations, I think,” Davies says. “That’s in terms of the planting, really, because the project is all about the planting … and this sense of placing a quite large swimming pool within this context and making it feel as if it was meant to be there and that it wasn’t an ostentatious addition.
“The whole idea was that, when you swim there, it’s as if you’re cradled by the whole of nature and the woodland,” he continues, “and the layers of planting give you this incredible sense of being immersed in the garden, in the landscape. They hadn’t really expected that.”
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So what do the owners think now that the landscape is finally finished and has had time to mature a little? “It surpassed all their expectations, I think,” Davies says. “That’s in terms of the planting, really, because the project is all about the planting … and this sense of placing a quite large swimming pool within this context and making it feel as if it was meant to be there and that it wasn’t an ostentatious addition.
“The whole idea was that, when you swim there, it’s as if you’re cradled by the whole of nature and the woodland,” he continues, “and the layers of planting give you this incredible sense of being immersed in the garden, in the landscape. They hadn’t really expected that.”
More on Houzz
Read more stories about landscape design
Browse landscape photos
Hire a landscape contractor
Shop for your outdoor spaces
Yard at a Glance
Who lives here: A family of three with their dogs
Location: Essex, England
Size: Roughly 1 acre
Landscape designer: John Davies
The owners of this large plot had recently moved into the Grade ll-listed historical thatched roof house when they called on Davies to design a swimming pool for them. For the designer, though, the project was as much about enhancing the expansive, heavily sloping landscape around the pool as it was about adding the water feature.
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