Saxmundham Estate
 
The Limes is a two acre estate located in Saxmundham, Suffolk.
 
The design of the garden reflects the duality of the house; a Georgian hall combined with a new contemporary addition on the site of former stables.
 
Home to a young family, the areas for dining, for relaxing, for cooking, for play, for growing and for wildlife are carefully and consciously detailed so as to add to the layers of the garden, both hidden and centre stage. Historic structures, such as a ruined wall, and the mature trees were retained and celebrated as part of the new scheme, while new mature Yew hedging were planted to frame views, articulate different outdoor rooms and absorb the travelling sound of a garden enjoyed.
 
The planting palette of the rear garden is  designed to be minimal and restrained with pink, orange, apricot and coppery bronze coloured perennial flowers, pierced by the acid lime tones from an abundance of Alchemilla mollis - a nod to the colour of the fresh lime leaves from the trees that line the drive in the early spring. Iris germanica ‘Natchez Trace’ lines The Yew Walk in the spring, while Salvia nemorosa 'Amethyst' dominates in the early summer months, weaving its way around the rear garden and glimmering in the periphery of views looking south across the meadow to the fields beyond.
 
In the front garden, clipped yew mounds echo the architectural corner detailing of the castellated north wing of the house. The winter structure of the yew is then softened by mass plantings of Libertia formosa, Anemanthele lessoniana and Helleborus x hybridus 'Harvington White', all combining to frame the arabesque limbs of a multi-stem Amelanchier lemarkii.