Upper Sydling Farm, Up Sydling, is tucked into a spring-filled hollow of the high chalklands of Dorset. Organically farmed and gardened on barely a couple of inches of topsoil over chalk this Dorset walled garden has been the very passionate pursuit of its owners for nearly two decades, adding miles of hedgerows and rowing back on the destructive farming practices of the late 20th century. We joined them just over a decade ago after they asked us if we could help make it more like Hanham Court. We felt we needed to design the garden in a way that gave it structure and intimacy in a huge, actively farmed and extraordinary landscape. Water springs everywhere and in some places is just below the topsoil which had created many problems with earlier attempts at creating a garden. This accounts for the raised beds, which raised some eyebrows among the neighbours, to keep the grounding yew topiary out of the wet ground. Elsewhere yew, which is native to chalk downland, was perfectly happy. Flinty walls and green oak doors and pillars give the garden a very slightly baroque background which is lavishly overgrown and lost among rambling roses, fruit blossom and scented shrubs, flowers for cutting and verdant vegetables.
I could stare at these photos all day. There are so many beautiful details, and it is incredible that so much interest and spaces can be created from a flat space of nothing. This is brilliantly designed by Julian and Isabel Bannerman. Some photos: The Dorset Walled Garden.
