A Fusion of Formal Design and Informal Abundance

Trebah is one of my favorite Cornish gardens and I've shared my previous visits on Facebook . The garden is perhaps best known for its breathtaking hydrangea valley, Gunnera Passage and a beautiful private beach which played a role in the preparation for the D-day landings, which explains why I included it in our recent tour Great Gardens of Devon and Cornwall. Yet there is a new area within Trebah that I predict will quickly become a favorite with visitors – the Court Garden.

Opened just last year, this garden was previously a tennis court (hence the name) and is sheltered by beautiful stone walls whose protection allows for a wide range of plants to be grown, many of which propagated on site.

Overall Design

View of the Court Garden taken from the entrance looking diagonally across the space

It was a sunny day when we visited – lovely – but tricky for photography so I couldn't always get the angles I really wanted. However I think these images still illustrate the clean, simple, rectilinear layout of the garden with a central water feature and a covered seating area which formed the rear boundary.

View from the covered seating area of the Court Garden looking back towards the entrance

The entire space was accessible with wide, level pathways that were easy to navigate and the perimeter plantings being in raised beds interspersed with benches.

Plant Combination Ideas

A glorious, effusive planting spills onto the well defined paths, yet still leaves plenty of space for visitors to explore. Golden grasses, dark leaved canna and other foliage plants are just as important as the blooms for providing color.

Plants were selected for their ability to attract pollinators but also to engage the senses and I certainly found it an exciting tapestry of bright colors and textures, with colorful foliage being used to set off flowers throughout the garden.

Layered plantings made the most of each square inch: Rozanne geranium and annual poppy

Rozanne geranium is always a winner, but this was a new idea for me: planting annual poppies to peek through the blue blooms. I've done this with alliums before but I need to try this. Either way, this concept of layering is a great ploy.

Restraint in color but a generous hand with quantity – love it! Sea holly, bellflower, lavender and drumstick alliums

Although the garden overall was planted with broad brush strokes of bold colors, there were quieter pockets such as the blue and white vignette above. Blue lavender and seaholly snuggled up to tall white bellflower with the purple drumstick alliums again layered in for an extra splash.

Indian Summer alstromeria not only has vibrant yellow and red flowers, it has richly colored foliage too so becomes a perfect companion for equally bold plants such as canna and yarrow

Dark foliage was used to set off brighter colors throughout the garden, but Indian Summer alstromeria has it all! A real eye catcher in a raised bed.

Adding mystery

Tall verbena adds a semi-transparent screen

I have to finish by taking you back to my leading image where a dense curtain of tall verbena (Verbena bonariensis) creates a scrim, partially hiding the garden beyond it. Perfect.

Fusion

We tend to think of gardens as being either very formal with strong geometry and restraint in plant variety and color, or of a wildly informal style featuring organic shapes and flowing curves. To me this Court Garden illustrates that you can in fact combine the two. The clear, rectilinear design adds solid boundaries and a sense of order while the sheer abundance of color, shapes and textures of the plants looks all the more striking for that geometrical restraint.

What do you think?