Garden Design - Breathtaking Inspiration @ 'The Newt' Somerset

A walled kitchen garden will without fail quicken my heart rate! It has always been the case, whether still being cultivated for produce or whether is has been reclaimed by nature, with brambles and bindweed tumbling over walls and glass houses. So when i heard that Hadspen House and Gardens in Somerset was undergoing extensive restoration i had to go an see for myself. Newly opened i was not sure what to expect just yet, but not only did my pulse race when i stepped through the threshing barn doors but i was astounded by what the new owners of the rebranded 'The Newt' have achieved.
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Koos Bekker and wife Karen Roos owners of vineyard, hotel and formal garden, Babylonstoren, (Africa’s only RHS-partnered garden), have taken on quite a project to restore and reinvent the once reknowned Hadpsen House and Gardens where garden designers Penelope Hobhouse and Nori and Sandra Pope had once worked their magic. 

The existing walled parabola garden has been redesigned by French architect Patrice Taravella, creating sweeping curves of evergreen hedging underplanted with ground covering Violas, Thyme, Cotton Lavender, Ajuga etc, which would have been grown in the original garden hundreds of years ago.  The whole of the walled garden at The Newt in Somerset is apple themed. Inspired by Baroque gardens, the intricately designed space with interconnecting circles and pathways is lined with Apple trees being trained against walls, as free standing forms, step-overs, cordons and over a beautiful pergola feature. The Newt aims to have the Nations largest collection of apple trees. Some 460 apple tree are already being fanned, espaliered and cordoned using beautiful sweet-chestnut batons in the Parabola garden with hundreds more being grown throughout the Emily Estate grounds near Bruton.

There are also breath taking water features with a ribbon of gently flowing water emanating from a babbling pool at the top of the parabola down towards a central dipping pond which then feeds a tumbling cascade over natural stone into deeply satisfying pools of water beneath.  The pathways too are inspirational, featuring natural stone setts, pavers, square oak setts and beautifully intricate circles of inset pebbles. 

The planting in the further garden areas is spectacular too!  There are single colour gardens with a nod to Nori and Sandra Popes work here in the 80's & 90's.  Cottage garden style planting surrounds the restored gardeners cottage, contemporary planting tumbles down the hill with swathes of grasses and perennials providing colour, form and texture, there is a traditional parterre filled with fragrant plants, wild flower meadow and much more!

The kitchen garden is set out with numerous formal beds supplying the eateries within The Newts grounds and providing a beautiful view from the original long walk which extends from the Palladian-fronted, Grade II listed stone mansion which is currently being transformed into a hotel. 

There's more, so much more i could say but i'll save that for another time!  What i really found wonderful is that all of this redevelopment and restoration felt right - in keeping with the way that these grand houses would have been created - with a generous pot of money and in an appropriate style. This has not had the disney treament i'm pleased to say - you won't find childrens play areas and climbing frames here, this is an adult garden, somewhere to bask in the finery of a grand garden. I will be revisiting to see how the fruit trees fill those old walls, sample their home made Cyder and discover the further treasures under construction.  I look forward to it greatly.

Bel Grierson

Expert Plantswoman and Garden Designer with 20 years experience in horticulture.  Bel loves to share her knowledge and enthusiasm with those with gardens large and small.