When Donald and Charlotte Molesworth first arrived at their small Kent cottage more than three decades ago, there was a derelict house and an almost totally blank canvas.
Photography by Clare Coulson for Gardenista.
What the couple have created since then is nothing short of extraordinary, a flourishing garden that centers around Charlotte’s awe-inspiring topiary and a cluster of small buildings (including a holiday cottage to rent) in the beautiful Kent landscape.
Balmoral Cottage is down an unmade track and tucked away behind St George’s church in the picture postcard village of Benenden. They requested yew seedlings as their wedding gifts and they planted them all before transplanting them at a later date.
All the boxwood in the garden (and there are many varieties) was also grown from seedlings – many collected on Charlotte’s travels.
Charlotte’s advice for those starting a garden is to think vertically: “When you start a garden, I think it’s the one thing that you often don’t think about, yet it’s this structure that is so valuable in the garden.”
Her father was a farmer on the nearby North Downs and her mother was a plantswoman who grew and sold primulas and had a love of yew.
The central walk of the garden is lined with box and towering topiary which leads down to a large pond. The large pinus radiata and Scot’s pine that edge the garden also contribute to a wonderful borrowed landscape.
Charlotte, who is also an accomplished artist, says that you have to look at each plant and decide what it wants to be. She uses an organic treatment of effective microorganisms to keep the plants healthy and she is fanatical when pruning, sterilizing tools as she trims with a bleach solution.
She will grow yew up to a good bushy size then transplant it into its final position before “waisting” it—that is, cutting into the plant to create an hourglass shape.
In one commission she added her signature wit to a Luciano Giubbilei designed garden by topping off the perimeter hedge around a pool with a flotilla of topiary ducks.
The zingy lime color of euphorbia also makes a great foil for the deep green yew topiary shapes.
The Potting Shed (which as its name suggests was once an outbuilding when the site was a kitchen garden) is a one-bedroom timber framed cottage for two enclosed with its own private garden, summer house, and nosy sheep from the pasture next door.