Rowland Byass – Landscape Architect

Location: Rothley, Leicestershire

A walled garden in the centre of a Leicestershire village. The garden was redesigned following the construction of a housing development along one of the boundaries, and the construction of a new timber-framed building within the property.

I wanted to emphasise the inward-looking, bounded nature of this old walled garden, which already had a few mature apple and pear trees. The space is now centered on an octagonal reflective pond, flanked with four cypresses. Along the southern boundary, where the new development overlooks the garden, a small orchard of fruit trees stand in a meadow area of unmown grass, in which flowering perennials have been naturalised. As the trees mature, they will screen the  garden and strengthen its enclosed character. A new timber framed building provides storage space, and an open-sided shelter from which the meadow can be viewed. Spoil from the pond and new building has been used to create two mounds which soften the visual impac of the building. These have been planted with fruit trees and bushes, spring bulbs and wildflowers.