Going flat out

Gun Hill Farm, near Burnham Overy Staithe, Norfolk A dramatic, yet difficult site has been boldly redrawn using plants that blend into the distinctive East Anglian landscape

- Tilly Ware

IWANTED to be a garden designer because I'm a problem solver,' explains Charlotte Sanderson. 'And this site was definitely problematic.' Gun Hill Farm stands in magnificent isolation on a wild stretch of field and marsh, so close to the sand and muddy creeks of Burnham Overy Staithe that you can taste the salt on your lips. When the owners bought the property in 2019, the house had been unoccupied for years and rubble filled the derelict garden. Mrs Sanderson had happily worked with the owners on their London properties and, together, they agreed a brief: restore the views, blend the planting into the landscape and be sensitive to the property's origin as a farm. 'It's also about making people comfortable, at ease, with their backs against the walls,' adds Mrs Sanderson. 'You try to make a garden on a human level.'

‘Sea buckthorn and rosemary achieve a hummocky gnarliness that echoes the wind-stunted pines’

Trained at the Inchbald School of Design, Mrs Sanderson worked with Luciano Giubbilei, whom she credits with instilling 'a sense of unabashed personal style and an appreciation of trees as structure'. She has used both to great effect across the three main areas of the garden, including the approach where pines now line the driveway in a nod to Holkham beach. A large wildflower meadow holds a tennis court and a mown patch for rounders matches, protected by a mixed native boundary hedge and holm oaks, Quercus ilex, dotted through the long grass. An enormous parking area for summer guests has been softened by a row of umbrellaed London plane trees Platanus x hispanica.