Self-ceding

In her new book, Clare Coulson explores the personal gardens of Britain’s leading landscape designers. Free of budgets, clients and (most importantly) time constraints, these private spaces reflect the genuine tastes of horticulturalists when left to their own devices

By Amy Merrick

1 June 2025

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How do the cream of Britain’s horticulturalists choose to fashion their own outside spaces, free from the pressure of deadlines, rigid master plans or client demands? In Wonderlands, Clare Coulson pushes open the garden gate to find out. Featuring 18 of the country’s most influential designers on their own terms, in their own properties – from country estates to postage-stamp mini-meadows, picturesque cottages to a disused quarry – the author captures the spirit of each with profiles and philosophies in turn. Illustrated with sun-soaked photographs and intimate portraits by Eva Németh, the book is showcasing the work of no mere mortals but modern-day masters. Meadows shimmer and sway, threaded with mown paths and naturalised bulbs. Rambling roses heap themselves promiscuously along brick walls, self-seeded volunteers spring up from the cracks of well-worn flagstones. Formal yew topiaries are tousled with gentle summer growth, plots melt into the landscape beyond: this is British gardening at its finest; personal sanctuaries made for love, not money. It adds up to a compelling premise for the nosy and horticulturally lustful among us. After all, who wouldn’t want to peep over the proverbial hedge to see the private paradises of the likes of Tom Stuart-Smith, the Bannermans or Mary Keen?

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If there is one thread that ties these wide-ranging gardens together, it’s the gift of time. Making a garden is an ongoing practice, day by day, season by season, and to be released from the rigid schedule of client-based projects must be a relief. Plants can be added and edited as inspiration strikes, long-term visions can be manifested in a way which only the most patient clients could abide. At Allt y Bela, Arne Maynard’s Medieval hall in Monmouthshire (WoI May 2015), he admits the garden looked like a Christmas tree farm while waiting for his signature yew topiary to establish, but it is now both the soul and structure of his luxuriantly planted garden. ‘This is what I like about being able to do my own gardens. You’re not pushed into time constraints, where things have to be finished.’ These gardens may remain unfinished, but they are certainly undone to perfection.

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Freedom to test out ideas is another joy when designers tackle their own spaces. Dan Pearson’s poetic garden Hillside in Somerset is not only a personal sanctuary, it’s also a proving ground for the evolution of his ideas about sensitive planting and plantsmanship. ‘I’m constantly learning through this place. And constantly trying to push my own boundaries.’ His latest experiment is a new sand garden where he is trialling drought-tolerant methods and combinations in light of the changing climate. These ideas inevitably cross-pollinate with his practice and to the industry at large.

Would that we could walk through the wildflower meadow with Pearson for a tour of his personal idyll, chatting plants and plans. We should be grateful to Coulson, then, for bringing us along for these quiet moments and to these generous designers for opening their most personal of gardens to us, if only on the page.