book by Randle Siddeley

Each garden is a canvas – some enormous, some tiny – on to which he imprints a design

+%6()2 RANDLE SIDDELEY

that looks as though it must always have been there. *631 8,) *36);36( &= (%:-( 0-20)=

RANDLE SIDDELEY founded his landscaping business in London in 1975. Today he has two companies: RANDLE SIDDELEY ASSOCIATES (RSA), the landscape design company; and SIDDELEY LANDSCAPE DESIGN (SLD), which is the design-and-build and project management arm of the business. Both companies are internationally landscape

recognized

architects

and

ﬁrms

designers,

acknowledged as eminent in their ﬁeld. Randle, who also holds the title The Lord Kenilworth, lives in London with his wife and two sons.

HELEN CHISLETT is a journalist and author specializing in design-related subjects.

DAVID LINLEY Trained as a cabinet-maker, David Linley is the founder and chairman of bespoke design company LINLEY and chairman of Christie’s UK.

SALLY STOREY

GARDEN draws on Randle Siddeley’s long career in landscape design, taking the reader through gardens he has himself created

GARDEN RANDLE SIDDELEY

both large and small, town and country, British and international. What unites the 26 case studies included is a desire to make gardens that suit both the landscape that surrounds them and the people who use them. Randle shows how achieving a strong core design is essential in order to then make valid and effective choices of materials, plants, trees, furniture, lighting and artworks. As well as showcasing many of Randle’s superb

gardens,

GARDEN

includes

advice for those wishing to design their

own

spectacular

garden

and

a chapter on lighting the garden by leading designer Sally Storey, who regularly works with Randle. Randle recognizes that gardens are for many people a chance to engage with nature and create an outdoors space that is both pleasing and personal. For all those who love gardens, this book is intended to be both a guide and a friend.

is a lighting designer, heading up both John Cullen Lighting and Lighting Design International. I S B N 978-0-7112-3078-1

56500

FRONT COVER: A private garden in the Cotswolds. BACK COVER: A lake on a Hampshire estate. 9

780711 230781

[[[ JVERGIW PMRGSPR GSQ

Foreword by

DAVID LINLEY

UK £45 US $65

GARDEN RANDLE SIDDELEY Words by Helen Chislett 'Lighting the Garden' by Sally Storey

I would like to dedicate this book to my family: to my father, John Siddeley, who passed on his passion for excellence in design and who commissioned the ďŹ rst two landscape projects on which my business was founded. To my mother, Jacqueline, for creating an environment for me to grow up in which nurtured my interest and enthusiasm for gardens. To my wife, Kiki, who has for years patiently put up with me being in foreign climes, often at short notice and at the most inconvenient times. And to William and Edward, who I hope will one day have gardens to love of their own.

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in July and August. Their preference was for soft whites,

scheme of stipa grasses, white aquilegia, thalictrum and

pinks and blues, rather than hot reds or yellows. Randle

more agapanthus.

kept the planting schemes relatively simple: late-ďŹ&#x201A;owering, traditional roses for the enchanting and romantic rose

R ES U LT

garden, mixed with a wide variety of herbaceous plants

This is a garden for which the clients had low expectations,

including artemisia, lavatera, scabious, salvias, hyssop,

but which they now passionately love and use as often as

astrantia, plenty of lavender varieties and agapanthus, all set

possible. Visitors are captivated by its many levels and rooms,

off by dramatically shaped yew topiary. He also introduced

while friends and family make full use of the swimming pool

thousands of spring-ďŹ&#x201A;owering bulbs along the existing

and the al fresco dining area, and enjoy the gardenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s many

driveway, with a scattering of white Shasta daisies and wild

charms. As the planting matures, their pleasure increases

barley. Around the pool, he created an informal planting

year on year.

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‘When you disrupt the landscape to this extent, cutting down into the bedrock, you have to allow time for everything to settle again before planting. It is no different to going through a complicated and dramatic operation, from which it takes time to recover. All gardeners set out to control nature, but you have to respect it too – ensuring the land drains properly, for example, is crucial. Also, planting trees is one thing, but you also have to make sure that each specimen has sufﬁcient space to thrive and grow. It wasn’t until about the fourth year that the yew planting here started to establish itself, but now it looks as though it has been there for ever. Establishing a garden of this scale properly cannot be rushed; with schemes like this clients have to understand they are in it for the long term.’

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‘There are people who talk about things and there are people, like my clients, who have a dream and commit to making it happen. Transforming a space in such a spectacular way gives a great deal of pleasure both to the client and myself, but it has to be remembered that I am like the conductor of the orchestra: originating a design is one thing, but putting it into practice only works if you have the right team to help you, as I did here.’

It is not often that a landscape designer is given a domestic project to work on that is truly grand in scale. Randle was introduced to these Canadian clients at a point when they had recently built a new country home, in palatial Franco-Russian style, on their estate in Quebec. The house sits on a hill in dramatic mountainous scenery between two lakes surrounded

CHALLENGE

– about four months between May and September, when

Weather was one of the biggest hurdles to overcome. On

everything ﬂowers intensively. This is also the period when it

Randle’s ﬁrst site visit, there was snow 2–3 metres/7–10

is necessary to carry out essential maintenance work, before

feet deep, making it difﬁcult to pace out the land properly

severe weather sets in once more.

and understand the contours or even locate the edges.

This was a project on a huge scale – about 8 hectares/20

Climate was also a big factor in deciding on the planting:

acres of formal gardens, set in an estate of many tens of

and parterre gardens, had already been added around the house, but nothing of sufﬁcient

winters here can drop to temperatures as low as –40˚C/

thousands of acres. It is very unusual in this locality to have

splendour for such a magniﬁcent location and style of building.

–40˚F with icy winds, and climb to 30–40˚C/86–104˚F in the

a garden in such a traditional style. Randle recognized that

by woodland and parkland, with its own golf course. Some formal gardens, including rose

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hottest summers. Snow begins in October and continues

designing and creating such a garden was only one half of

until March or April, so the ﬂowering period is very short

the story: he also had to ensure that it would be looked after G A R D E N ` 6%2(0 ) 7-(()0 )=

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D E S I G N : 8,) 2 ); &9 - 0 ( + % 6( )2

everything in place, into which wildﬂower seeds were sown,

wonderful views of the main lake, where Randle has created

with topsoil added. This method prevented the possibility

an island of rock taken from the estate quarry. A bold,

of rock slippage destroying the terraces. The combination of

monolithic sculpture by Ju Ming makes a powerful statement

native trees such as aspen, birch and pine, terraces planted

at the end of the parkland. The drive culminates in a circular

with wild ﬂowers, and plateaux of grass is truly spectacular.

area, set off by a magniﬁcent antique urn of marble. Laser

In addition, the garden around the music pavilion has

technology has been expertly used to clone this, providing

been designed to be a ﬂexible space to accommodate

four further urns that have been used in the parterre garden

summer concerts.

on the main terrace.

The driveway was re-routed entirely on to a new access

The rose garden has high hedges around it to protect

road. Now there are tantalizing glimpses of the house along

it from the winds. A selection of roses complemented by

the approach, but sometimes it drops mysteriously out of

herbaceous plants such as geraniums, hostas and alliums

sight behind woodland, only to reappear again moments

ensures that the garden is in glorious ﬂower through the

later from a new vantage point. This new route also offers

short summer with an eye-catching display of colour and G A R D E N ` 6%2(0 ) 7-(()0 )=