{"id":38364,"date":"2024-07-23T14:39:54","date_gmt":"2024-07-23T12:39:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/56192112-c031-48b6-9393-68ad7a7e106d"},"modified":"2024-07-23T15:31:36","modified_gmt":"2024-07-23T13:31:36","slug":"a-dreamy-italian-garden-with-an-english-flavour-designed-by-stuart-barfoot","status":"publish","type":"rss_feed","link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/gardensillustrated\/rss_feed\/a-dreamy-italian-garden-with-an-english-flavour-designed-by-stuart-barfoot\/","title":{"rendered":"A dreamy Italian garden with an English flavour designed by Stuart Barfoot"},"content":{"rendered":"

Vast lawns, roses and a mix of cottage-garden favourites give this stylish garden in central Italy a distinctly English flavour. Words Tim Richardson, photographs Claire Takacs <\/p>

By <\/p>

Published: Tuesday, 23 July 2024 at 12:39 PM<\/p>

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For the past century and more British garden designers<\/a> have gone out to work in Italy, offering something of our romantic Arts and Crafts style<\/a> to a different climate and culture. Cecil Pinsent, Russell Page and Dan Pearson<\/a> are among the leading designers who have trodden this route. Stuart Barfoot \u2013 who runs an international practice from Brighton \u2013 in fact worked for a decade as head gardener at one of Pearson\u2019s Italian gardens, before going on to train as a designer himself. So he was well-placed when asked in 2012 to advise on a one-and-a-half acre garden surrounding a sturdy shuttered farmhouse in the agricultural countryside of northern Lazio.<\/p>

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\u201cMy first reaction whenever I go somewhere is to see what is there \u2013 the natural landscape,\u201d Stuart says. \u201cIt was very strong in this case. There\u2019s a huge energy. I think it\u2019s something to do with the Etruscan history of the area \u2013 a spiritual atmosphere.\u201d But Stuart also saw something strangely familiar in the landscape. \u201cIt felt like it was almost English: rolling countryside, a lot of green. There are sheep and arable farms, and woodland, and lots of wildflowers<\/a> in hedgerows<\/a>. It does look a little like the Cotswolds.\u201d<\/p>
\u00a9 Claire Takacs<\/figcaption><\/figure>
Stuart\u2019s clients are a couple who had decided to relocate to Italy. \u201cThey\u2019d had enough of London, I think,\u201d he says. \u201cThey said that they wanted a sanctuary<\/a> from their busy working lives, something magical that transported them. They believe in [landscape] energies, which do not move in straight lines. That\u2019swhy they wanted no straight edges and nothing geometric<\/a> in the garden.\u201d<\/p>
Accordingly, the main moves of Stuart\u2019s design are a substantial amorphous terrace on the southeast side of the house with two oval lawns spinning off it, enveloped by large-scale, shrub<\/a>-dominated plantings, where roses \u2013 especially \u2018wild\u2019 sorts such as Rosa forrestiana<\/em> and Rosa californica<\/em> \u2018Plena\u2019 \u2013 create an \u2018English\u2019 feel. These large areas of planting might even be described as shrubberies, if that wasn\u2019t such an unfashionable term.<\/p>
In brief<\/strong><\/p>
What<\/strong> Italian garden with English inflections. <\/p>
Where<\/strong> Lazio, Italy.<\/p>
Size<\/strong> One-and-a-half acres.<\/p>
Soil<\/strong> Fertile and free-draining, with chunks of tufa (limestone).<\/p>
Climate<\/strong> Short, hot and dry summers, with temperatures rising to 42\u00baC and long, cold winters with temperatures dropping to -7\u00baC.<\/p>
Hardiness zone<\/strong> USDA 9.<\/p><\/div><\/div>
$\"\"$ \u00a9 Claire Takacs<\/figcaption><\/figure>
On either side of the lawn on the main garden front are shrubberies, lent structure by clipped box shapes, offset by the intense blue of Salvia<\/a><\/em> x sylvestris<\/em> \u2018Mainacht\u2019, foxglove spires and the acid-green of Euphorbia<\/a> characias<\/em> subsp. wulfenii.<\/p>
$\"\"$
\u00a9 Claire Takacs<\/figcaption><\/figure>
The scarlet Rosa<\/em> \u2018Scharlachglut\u2019 is the rose that perhaps lends most definition to the garden, cropping up as a link plant across the piece. Here, it adds excitement to the swimming pool area, with roses Rosa<\/em> \u2018Rambling Rector\u2019 on the banks, and Rosa Iceberg<\/em> (= \u2018Korbin\u2019) on the pergola next to the house. Later on in the season, green mounds of Hydrangea paniculata<\/a><\/em> take centre stage, alongside the rugosa rose Rosa<\/em> \u2018Blanche Double de Coubert\u2019 with asters and Pennisetum<\/em> grasses cominginto play by late summer<\/a>.<\/p>
$\"\"$
\u00a9 Claire Takacs<\/figcaption><\/figure>
A little farther from the house, the planting becomes even more unburdened in tone \u2013 groups of Allium hollandicum<\/em> \u2018Purple Sensation\u2019 with nepeta and the spiky foliage of Cynara cardunculus<\/em>, set against a backdrop of Rosa moyesii<\/em> and white Philadelphus coronarius<\/em>.<\/p>
$\"\"$
\u00a9 Claire Takacs<\/figcaption><\/figure>
A sculptural group of cypresses, set in the grassy meadow at the fringes of the garden, helps to anchor everything in place. In the foreground are the frothy Hesperis matronalis<\/em> var. albiflora<\/em>, white foxgloves, nepeta, Geranium<\/a><\/em> \u2018Brookside\u2019 and Nicotiana<\/a> alata,<\/em> together with the box balls, which provide a sense of structural weight to the overall planting design.<\/p>
$\"\"$
\u00a9 Claire Takacs<\/figcaption><\/figure>
Rosa<\/em> \u2018Rambling Rector\u2019, here used as a link plant, is one of a number of classic cottage-garden plants deployed by this English designer for his clients, who were previously based in London.<\/p>
$\"\"$
\u00a9 Claire Takacs<\/figcaption><\/figure>
The rose Rosa Munstead Wood<\/em> (= \u2018Ausbernard\u2019) makes a deep, rich pool of red amid clipped box and nepeta, gathered around a secluded terrace with seating. Beyond, white foxglove plumes and golden Stipa gigantea<\/em> light up shadier areas.<\/p>
$\"\"$ \u00a9 Claire Takacs<\/figcaption><\/figure>
A mown path wends its way through the grassy slope above the swimming pool, with thickets including wild species roses such as Rosa rubiginosa<\/em> and \u2013 beyond \u2013 more Rosa<\/em> \u2018Rambling Rector\u2019.<\/p>
$\"\"$ \u00a9 Claire Takacs<\/figcaption><\/figure>
A mown oval lawn creates a play area at this family garden set deep in the Italian countryside. Big-scale shrubberies seem to embrace the house, while beyond it the land rises up sharply towards an area of newly planted ornamental thickets.<\/p>
Here’s another great garden in Italy <\/a><\/p> <\/body><\/html>\n
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