Life is GOOD

The garden of a former vicarage in Sussex now encompasses all the elements needed for relaxation and entertaining

- WORDS ANNETTE WARREN PHOTOGRAPHY CLIVE NICHOLS

WHEN landscape designer Nic Howard was brought in to create a lifestyle garden to complement a Victorian house surrounded by a scattering of outbuildings, he immediately grasped what the client required. 'It was pretty much a blank canvas,' he says. 'The family wanted privacy and a space in which to relax, swim, play sport and entertain. My job was to create a conjoined space that brought together the elements they desired, at the same time offering a relatively easy-to-maintain garden that would not require constant upkeep.'

Situated in a Sussex village, the former Victorian vicarage has been brought into the 21st century with sympathetic, soft planting that complements the modern extension and marries the various outbuildings. The front of the house is tempered with climbing roses and hydrangeas and to the side, raised brick planters containing low diagonal yew hedges beneath Acer palmatum trees lead to the main garden beyond. 'It was so open before and we wanted to screen the house from the parking area to create privacy,' says Nic.

Because the house sits on heavy clay, subsidence around the swimming pool had caused the paving to sink. This necessitated its complete removal and offered the ideal opportunity to reimagine the hard landscaping. The original garden was mostly laid to lawn, dotted with maple trees. 'The trees on the lawn didn't really bring anything to the layout,' says Nic, 'and since the owners wanted to screen the next-door property, we moved all the acers to the border, creating a curved woodland garden overlooking the lawn.