The Manor House, Blackshawhead, Hebden Bridge, W. Yorks HX7 7JR

Tel: 01422 842794, Fax: 01422 842794

manorhousestudio@talktalk.net www.manorhousestudio.co.uk
WebMaster: Martin Robinson

In addition to the plan, clients are provided with a sheet giving:

- name of plant, height and spread,

- flower colour and flowering period,

- other features.

The cost of each design depends very much on the size of the garden, the number of visits necessary and the distance from Hebden Bridge.

The cost of designing a small local garden would be around Ł400.

Following my lifelong interest in plants in general and gardens in particular, I took two 1-year part-time courses at RHS Harlow Carr in North Yorkshire, in Garden Design and in Landscape Planning.

As a result of this, I have undertaken the design of a few local gardens, the most notable being my own 0.25 ha (0.6 ac), which was a wilderness when we acquired it in 2001. I tend towards the traditional and in my own garden have followed the Hidcote pattern of a series of garden rooms which seems appropriate for a hillside garden 850 feet up in the South Pennines.

These include: a yellow and white trackside garden with terracing and a small rill, a formal parterre with lavender-edged beds between straight gravel paths, a relaxed cottage garden with shrubs and perennials either side of a winding gravel path, a mini-arboretum containing some interesting trees, a pair of mixed borders, each about 15m long by 2m deep, a new rose garden using old-fashioned roses, an orchard of 10 apple and plum trees, 180 m2 of vegetable garden, separate raspberry, red/black/white currant, gooseberry and rhubarb beds, and a small field which I am trying to transform into a wild flower meadow.

This plan to the left is for another wilderness, which involved a gravel “stream” running from top right to middle to a gravel “pond” top right. A path leads from the house, lower right, through mixed borders to a fruit bed and the garden shed, upper left.

To the right of the plan is a list of plants, corresponding to numbers on the plan.

My commissions include a cottage garden at Oakworth, a small village plot at Cowling, a large formal garden at Steeton, a small informal garden at Blackshawhead, a medium front and back garden above Hebden Bridge and, exceptionally, a large wilderness behind a cottage near Devizes.