Eastleach House
Eastleach House
Eastleach Martin
Cirencester
Gloucestershire
GL7 3NW
The Walled Garden
This was begun in 1987 with the re-building of most of the outer walls, the making of the pattern of paths, and the construction of the summerhouse and raised terrace. The yew hedges, took 8-10 years to reach the required height. To begin with the borders were mainly planted with ornamental shrubs, but a number of these have now been replaced with perennials. This part of the garden is meant to be soft and relaxing with pastel colours, contrasting with the vibrancy of the rill garden.
The rambling rose arches are under-planted with Nepeta ‘Six Hills Giant’, the roses being R. ‘Blue Magenta’, R ‘Veilchen Blau’, R. ‘Princess Louise’ and R. ‘Dorothy Perkins’. On the lawn the fastigiate yews are garlanded with the rambling rose ‘Blush Rambler’.
In the centre of the garden is the raised terrace which looks down upon two small knot gardens. This also gives a good view of the topiary across the garden, which provides the structure and pattern, making this an all-seasons garden. Each meeting of paths offers a choice of ways and different focal points to draw the visitor on.
A central bed provides bulbs and hellebores in spring, followed by Rosa ‘Canary Bird’, Smilacena racemosa, backed by Euphorbia and Philadelphus coronarius aurea, Ceanothus ‘Concha’, and Buddleia alternifolia, together with Rosa Lichtkonigen Lucea’ in the summer months, and finishing with Hydrangeas, and ‘Tropeolum speciosum and late clematis climbing through the fastigiate yews.