A PIECE OF PARADISE

This classic English garden in the Sussex countryside was a true labour of love, resulting in a place where there are stunning spaces - and vistas - at every turn

- JACKY HOBBS

RARELY do you come across a design that tackles and resolves challenging issues of site and situation to such high aesthetic. Seldom are such detailed designs and intricate planting plans so successfully implemented by the garden owners themselves. This uncommon collaboration – design hand with gardener’s glove – is shrewd and ‘immensely satisfying’ for Mark and Pip Cliff, delighted owners of the garden they planted at Home Farm, Sussex. With the help of their ‘three turned-twenty daughters and their boyfriends’, they converted local garden designers Acres Wild’s paper blueprint into reality. ‘It was a logical, cost-effective, efficient solution, an opportunity to develop the surrounding acre of garden disrupted by the house renovations, with earth-moving machinery and men already in place,’ says Mark, slightly bemused that it might be unusual to undertake this feat.