SEPTEMBER 2019 THE ENGLISH GARDEN 25I have also been working with
garden designer Alex Bell for the
past 15 years. He and I have sort
of grown-up together as gardeners
and garden designers. Alex is now
very busy with his design practice,
but he still gardens with me – he
says he loves coming out and
getting his hands dirty. We bounce
ideas o each other, although much
of the structural work is my own
design. I had done most of it before
he came to work for me.” The
garden is immaculately maintained,
so as well as Alex and his assistant,
Leila, there’s Nathan who looks
after the lawns and someone who
comes in to do the hedges. “We
have quite a lot of help,” Helen admits, “but then
this garden needs it.”
Although it faces due south with no lack of
sunshine, the garden is very vulnerable to hard-
hitting south-westerlies, so Helen has planted
protective shelterbelts to filter the wind. As for the
soil, she says: “It is terrible blue clay. We could make
bricks! We have improved it hugely over the years
by mulching with mushroom compost but I am
concerned that the long-term use of such an alkaline
mulch could a ect the current neutral pH.” It has to
be said that the entire garden is a picture of health,
but Helen is sensible to keep an eye on this.
In the hot borders, the virtual absence of any
structural shrubs and a minimum of evergreen
planting is striking. In such a large garden there isn’t
the usual pressure for ‘year-round interest’
and because the borders are concealed from the
house by the pleached hornbeam hedge, they can be
cut back in late autumn and early winter, mulched
and left dormant during the winter months. Plant
supports are essential because of the strong winds,
and Helen uses a combination of home-grown
willow, together with pea sticks and metal supports
and string. Her intention is that by the end of July
the supporting structures will no longer be seen and
that there will be no bare soil.
Tucked into a corner of the late-summer garden
is a striking louvred building painted chestnut-
brown and ochre. “Originally it housed a Jacuzzi
that Richard bought for me to sit in, in the garden”
explains Helen. “Of course I never have time for
that, so now it has been turned into a summerhouse
with lovely views through the garden to the Downs.”
There is much more to admire as you move from
room to room. In the cottage garden, mixed borders
feature roses, shrubs, perennials and herbs in a soft
palette of colours, punctuated by box topiary. Box is
widely used throughout, and Helen keeps it healthy
by spraying with Topbuxus four or five times a year
between April and September. “I thought I was
going to have to take out the box parterres behindTop Helen’s brother,
David Jackson, made
the glass water feature
at the arched entrance
to the cottage garden.
Middle Natural willow
sculpture in the orchard.
Bottom Helen Keys took
classes in garden design
to assist with her
transformation of the
Malthouse Farm garden.