Fyfi eld Manor Colour is everything for

Exterior DESIGN

Colour is everything for interior designer Joanna Wood, who applies the same principles and colour palettes to the garden rooms at Fyfield Manor in the Cotswolds as she does to the rooms of the house itself

WORDS VIVIENNE HAMBLY PHOTOGRAPHS SUSSIE BELL

I“ t was just one of those things where you don’t really go further than the hall because you know it’s the right house,” says Joanna Wood, recalling the moment when she and her daughter Harriet visited Fyfield Manor for the first time, on the suggestion of Joanna’s husband, Charles. The couple had wanted to move from London and although Fyfield Manor wasn’t the location they first had in mind, with its friendly spirits the 1720s Cotswolds property seemed to fit. It is a charming home that once belonged to a prosperous farmer who added a grand front as a folie de grandeur. “The house looks much bigger than it is,” observes Joanna. “It’s punching above its weight.” Joanna has a long-established Belgravia interiordesign practice alongside other business interests in wallpaper, fabrics and lighting. She remodelled the house with the timeless but inimitable sensibility for which she is known. Then she began on the garden. For this she enlisted Max Askew, historic landscape architect at Askew Nelson, in nearby Burford. “I know how to lay out a bathroom or mouldings or how to do a wiring plan, but when it comes to the drainage under a lawn, or how to edge a herbaceous border, I’m out of my comfort zone,” she admits. The property had been in the same ownership since the 1950s, which was the last time the garden It is a charming home had been designed. It had grown up as the owners aged, eventually becoming too much for them. It was that once belonged to a neglected and overgrown when Joanna and Charles arrived, but there were, however, the makings of prosperous farmer who good bones in a line of pleached limes, around 70 added a grand front as a folie de grandeur Clockwise from top The colour scheme was inspired by a fabric used inside the house; Salvia ‘Caradonna’ at the foot of a statue; the pretty facade of the house; crimson Rosa ‘Munstead Wood’.

Port-red and purple are the dominant colours in densely planted borders, backed by monumental hedges of yew.

years old, hundreds of metres of yew hedging and numerous Cotswold stone walls. These were both blessing and curse: in its maturity, the yew had become overbearing, and the walls interrupted any sight lines. “My husband didn’t know if he wanted to live here because he felt the house was too blocked in, but I said, ‘We’ll get there.’” Joanna recalls.

Max helped Joanna improve the flow of the garden, beginning with removing “as much yew as was left in”. His masterplan included repositioning the drive, adding new terracing, clearing space for a swimming pool, making best use of the orchard and incorporating meadow spaces for wildflowers, which are close to Joanna’s heart.

The terraces are the most noticeable change to the property. The lawn had previously come up to the front of the house, which created its own set of drainage problems. The solution was to excavate a series of spaces at key points. Planted up, they are an exercise in joyful exuberance, with an edge of formality befitting the calibre of the house. “None of the front terrace existed. The only original thing you would have seen is the climbing rose and the magnolia tree,” remarks Joanna. The terraces were laid with York stone for which she scoured the country. She eventually sourced slabs removed

during Liverpool Lime Street station’s upgrade. They came at a cost, but she took a deep breath, held her nose and bought them. In time, a laden pantechnicon arrived but there was a surprise: the slabs were covered in soot. “We power-washed them three times. Now they are gorgeous: they’re old, authentic and some of the slabs are enormous.”

For all the differences between paints and plants, there are similarities between interior and garden design. A sense of decorating a room is key and Joanna approached the planting design with characteristic vim. “You’ll laugh, but we had colour schemes. There is a beautiful handblocked Mrs Monro linen in my dining room,” she says, referring to Jean Monro, the fabric company. “I said: ‘We’re having two herbaceous borders outside the drawing room and these are the colours for them’. Absolutely every bit is themed in colour. It’s not random. The palette is very important to me.”

On the front terrace, the tone is set by two ‘Munstead Wood’ rose standards in Versaillesstyle planters. At their feet is a chorus of blue and red. ‘Buckeye Belle’ peonies, Aster amellus ‘Violet

“Absolutely every bit is themed in colour. It’s not random. The palette is very important to me”

Above Joanna inherited good bones, including a line of pleached limes along a boundary wall. Left Ever-reliable Geranium x magnificum. Below Joanna’s skills in interior design translate to the outdoors, where there’s a clear sense of ‘decorating’ each of the garden’s rooms.

Treasured Pieces

Joanna Wood’s black book for garden accessories

Queen’, and Astrantia major ‘Claret’ chime with Geranium sanguineum and Salvia nemorosa ‘Caradonna’. There are bold hits from Geum ‘Mrs J. Bradshaw’ and Euphorbia griffithii ‘Dixter’, while Cirsium rivulare ‘Atropurpureum’ brings dabs of cherry-plum.

The house and garden are broadly enclosed by a Cotswold stone wall, although the property is about 18 acres in all. Part of Max’s recommendation was to remove some of this to open up the views – and to work with the yew “I love flowers and hedging that remained. These structures create a sequence of rooms around the house and arranging flowers. A room without inject the sight lines that Charles, a keen gardener, was missing. flowers is like an

From the south-facing drawing egg without salt”room terrace a path leads to the east-facing kitchen terrace, where a table and chairs make for an easy summer Top A mown path leads breakfast setting. There are sunny spots around through long meadow the house all day. “We take the last cocktail of the grass to the Mound and day in the gazebo on the south lawn,” says Joanna. its plentiful wildflowers. Above Californian Elsewhere, yew encloses a swimming pool and helps poppies, Eschscholzia define a kitchen garden that is Charles’s interest. californica, among

There are roses of all kinds: a number pre-date flowering grasses. this garden, but additions include ‘Benjamin Britten’, ‘William Shakespeare’ and ‘Madame Alfred Carrière’. These are ideal for bringing indoors. “I

Joanna and Charles’s attention to detail and a lifetime of collecting is evident throughout their garden. On the kitchen terrace, an 18th-century cistern has travelled with her for 30 years. The same age as the house, it looks as if it was chosen for its current quarters. A bronze sculpture of a stargazing dog bought from Architectural Heritage (Tel: 01386 584414; architectural-heritage.co.uk) also came with them from the city. The ornate gates were commissioned from Michael Jacques, specialist blacksmith of Forge Ahead (Tel: 01865 891810; mejj.co.uk). For other garden antiques, Joanna looks to Lorfords in Tetbury (Tel: 01666 505111; lorfordsantiques. com) and Dreweatts of Newbury (Tel: 01635 553553; dreweatts.com). Exterior lights in ‘Albermarle’ design come from Joanna’s own lighting firm Phillips and Wood (Tel: 020 8222 8117; phillipsandwood.co.uk). For furniture, Joanna often considers Neptune (Tel: 01793 934 011; neptune. com) or Chatsworth Carpenters (Tel 01246 565371; chatsworth.org) when she “wants to rattle the moneybox”. Joanna had her Versailles-style planters made for her. For similar try Oxford Planters (Tel: 01608 683022; oxfordplanters.co.uk).

love flowers and arranging flowers. A room without flowers is like an egg without salt,” notes Joanna.

Beyond the house, the garden opens onto a tennis court, paddock and orchard. Joanna is an ambassador for conservation charity Plantlife and has given several spaces over to meadow. Mown paths lead through wildflowers and grass, with drifts of bulbs planted in a paisley pattern. Wildflowers feature on the Mound, too, which was built from the spoil of the excavations and was a Christmas present from Joanna to Charles. In 2020 they counted 22 species of wildflower on it. “My ambition is to have a bee orchid but you have to wait for them to find you, don’t you?” she says. That sounds much like a house with friendly spirits. n

Joanna Wood: Tel: 0207 730 5064; info@joannawood.com; joannawood.com. Max Askew, Askew Nelson: Tel: 01993 831442; info@askewnelson.com; askewnelson.com

Caroline Cazenove’s country garden in Hampshire is full of timeless elements, like these deep borders.

The Happy PLACE

Built on the bones of an existing garden in Hampshire, Caroline Cazenove’s garden grew as she learned, becoming a classic English garden of breathtaking beauty that brings joy to all

WORDS JODIE JONES PHOTOGRAPHS SUSSIE BELL