22 THE ENGLISH GARDEN SEPTEMBER 2019
H
elen Keys has a
penchant for late-
bloomers. Indeed, of
the many flowers she
grows at Malthouse
Farm they are among her favourites.
She has designed her garden to be full
of interest all year round, but it is now
that it excites her the most, when the
colours in the hot borders are at their
vibrant best and vivid plants compete
with one another to be the most eye-
catching. Dahlias, salvias and tithonias
stand almost as tall as the sunflowers at
the backs of the borders, while lower-
growing plants in the foreground,
including penstemons, sedums and
nepetas, are interwoven with grasses
and follow the curves of the lawn.
But, as glorious as the hot borders
are, there is far more to this five-and-
a-half acre garden. Surrounding the
house is a series of intensively planted
rooms including cottage and kitchen
gardens and a box parterre. As you
move further away, the detail and the
bright colours gradually diminish as the
garden progressively links to the wider
landscape. A small orchard leads on to
meadows featuring strong structural
elements that include a pair of curving
hornbeam hedges, a willow tunnel,
a birch maze and a snail mound. It is
a garden full of considered design and
great planting that is a credit to the
creative force behind it.
When Helen and her husband
Richard moved to Malthouse Farm
outside Hassocks in West Sussex 20 years
ago, it was the view of the South Downs that was
the clincher: Helen knew it would make the perfect
backdrop for the garden she planned to create. At
the time there was hardly any garden in evidence,
just some small borders close to the house, a lot of
concrete and a huge paddock that was a legacy of
the space’s previous use as a stud farm, where the
owner raised Arabian horses.
“We did a huge amount to the house and when
that was done, I made a start on the garden, working
outwards,” says Helen. “We put up all of the garden
walls and planted all of the hedges except for the one
between the old and new parts of the house. It came
right up to the building, so I removed the section
closest to it, reduced it in height, and cut an archway
through from the one garden to the other – we just
changed everything.”
“I took a series of garden design classes run by a
friend. That opened my eyes to a lot of things andAbove Persicaria and
eryngium prettily frame
the expansive views out
over the South Downs.
Left In the front garden,
a path flanked by box,
teucrium and Bupleurum
fruticosum leads to
a sculptural, slatted
hornbeam hedge.