Rooms With a View at Barnsley House - Gardenista
Photographs by Kendra Wilson for Gardenista. “David and Rosemary Verey made a garden here for their pleasure” is the simple statement on a carved oval, set in the Doric temple at Barnsley House in Gloucestershire. Their garden was made for themselves, but because they were well-connected and gregarious people, its renown spread and it was soon shared by many, with tens of thousands of visitors a year during the lifetime of garden designer Rosemary Verey. Yew and box topiary are integral to the Verey style. The octagonal pond in an enclosed garden by the temple. The Herb Garden was celebrated in its day but herbs are now gathered from the Potager and the vegetable beds behind the house. As the Head Gardener Richard Gatenby notes, the most innovative gardens have been created often by keen amateurs. The laburnum trees may not be trained the way a graduate from Kew would do it and the trees, which were a 25th anniversary present to the Vereys, have their own quirks. Wisteria grows up around the laburnum. A late David Austin rose, Golden Celebration, at the front of the house brings out the warm hues of the Cotswold dry stone wall behind it. Even trees present hedging opportunities. Verey pulled things together in an original way,” explains the Head Gardener, who has been at Barnsley since Verey’s time. A classic Verey planting, combining complementary colors with contrasting form, is perfect for a decorative vegetable garden. Others see beauty in lines of vegetables, and are gratified by the huge increase in productivity. The field behind the lane at the back of the house is home to the vegetable plot which supplies the hotel restaurant. One of Verey’s most interesting books is A Countrywoman’s Notes, published in 1989. The garden gate at the back of Barnsley House, which connects the garden to the Potager, across an unpaved lane.