The English Garden

Healthy CHANGE

Gardeners have fewer excuses than most to struggle with change. Whether it’s the result of plant growth, or seasonal and climate shifts, change is a constant in our lives. But that doesn’t mean it’s easy to embrace. As the gentle transitions of this private garden in Oxfordshire show, when it comes to making changes, there’s a balance to be struck between the old and the new. Experience helps, but a pinch of courage can be useful too.

When the owners of Greenlane Farm extended their house a decade ago, they asked landscape designer Tom Stuart-Smith to create a garden to suit. In the field at the front of the hilltop property he started from scratch, stripping the soil and establishing a wildflower meadow that now

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