Christopher Bradley-Hole made a stir a few years ago with his Chelsea Flower Show garden, mainly consisting of different heights of boxwoods. Maybe we just needed more time to decide; these abstract landscapes grow on you.
The Chelsea garden was a potted version of the English landscape, with its quilt of fields and hedgerows.
Bury Court is divided into two sections: The Courtyard, which came first and was designed by Piet Oudolf in his early days, and the Front Garden, that of Bradley-Hole, which came after.
As the grasses grow up over the season they undermine the linear formality. However the Central Oak Structure (designed by Bradley-Hole, above), reinforces the grid pattern of the garden.
Christopher Bradley-Hole has written several books on modern garden design: The Minimalist Garden and Making the Modern Garden, in which he surveys the contemporary garden scene from around the world.
Bradley-Hole mixes different types of grass together, along with meadow-like perennials (including Eryngium and Agastache shown here). The garden is laid out on a geometric grid pattern: the grasses shimmer and the planting flows, within strict limits.
The Front Garden is criss-crossed with straight paths made of granite setts, to reflect the materials of the house, which is mainly pale stone and brick.
A planting of silvery Stachys ‘Big Ears’, the dark Sedum ‘Matrona’, phlox ‘Rosa Pastell’, with Echinops ritro ‘Veitch’s Blue’ to the rear (Left) and Agastache foeniculum (Right).
A rectangular pond is home to a sculpture made from oak, by Paul Anderson.
The blackened reflecting pool sits at the heart of the garden. The pool sits between this building and the oak pavilion.