RETURNING to EDEN

From England to Antigua, the winners of our SIXTH ANNUAL GARDEN AWARDS channel nature's restorative beauty into havens for daydreaming and discovery.

- STEPHANIE HUNT

Aggrand sycamore and David Watkinson’s Sycamore Seed kinetic sculpture overlook the misty landscape of the Arun Valley, near England's southern coast.

CLOCKWISE FROM TOP: A bed of viburnums, lilacs, hardy geraniums, and lavender.. Brick-and-flint walls create terraces within the landscape. White Iceberg roses flank garden stairs.

A Symphony of Pastels

In shades of foliage and sky, an English country garden is designed to bloom in every season.

CREATING A GARDEN THAT APPEARS “simple, relaxed, and timeless” is rarely simple, but Debbie Roberts rose to the occasion when Acres Wild, the landscape and garden firm she co-owns with Ian Smith, was tasked with transforming a hillside estate overlooking the Arun Valley, near England's southern coast. The West Sussex-based garden designer cultivated simplicity thanks in part to a restrained palette, with flowers and grasses in hues limited to soft blues, mauves, creams, limes, and whites “to be in harmony with the colors of the surrounding landscape and sky,” she says. Hardscape materials— including wide brick-and-flint walls delineating terraces on the east and south sides of the refurbished house (also of old brick and flint) and tumbled limestone paving—feel at home here. To wit: The end of its undulating lane meets the ancient flint park walls of Arundel Castle.