Historic Replant Update

Today was a very important day for the gardens at Iford.  After much planning, deliberating, preparation and waiting (for the weather, mainly), the historic corrective replant has begun.

It is 45 years since Lanning Roper was asked to bring his experience to bear on Iford's gardens which were in need of significant work.  The brief was to produce a long-lasting planting scheme which could be easily maintained whilst providing colour through the summer months.  The legacy of Roper's successful work could be seen in many of the borders at Iford even in recent years.

But times move on and gardens change, as any living thing does.  What remain of Peto's earliest plants are now well over 100 years old.  The garden has evolved, as has the management, as these old forms (cherries in particular) succumb to old age and the planting schemes in the borders are therefore in need of a rethink.

New arrivals in the borders 

We approached Alison Jenkins with a view to redesigning the borders along the main terraces, and she has produced an exciting scheme which we will be implementing over the coming three years.  The key is to use plants which Peto would have had access to during his time here, or any modern form which is the equivalent thereof.  Where this isn't possible, the planting must be in keeping with Peto's critical ethos of balance.  What would he himself have chosen, were he in our shoes today?

“Old buildings or fragments of masonry carry one’s mind back to the past in a way that a garden of flowers only cannot do.  Gardens that are too stony are equally unsatisfactory; it is the combination of the two in just proportion which is the most satisfactory”

 X marks the spot
space is kept back for critical feature shrubs and plants

Over the winter the team has been preparing the borders, and whilst the cold weather has helped to sterilise the ground somewhat, it has held back our schedule for planting.  Today we got underway, and as the season progresses we will enjoy watching the borders as they evolve.