Gardens

We want Wadhurst Park’s gardens to inspire people to reconnect with nature. They’re beautiful to spend time in, productive, and rich with wildlife.

Just as we do across the wider estate, we nurture the gardens in the historic context of our High Weald setting, but in a way that responds to the environmental challenges of today.

We garden in a reflective way

For us, this means questioning accepted practices and exploring new ideas. We work closely with our ecology team to encourage biodiversity, and are constantly deepening our understanding of how to garden with respect for the natural world. Naturalistic landscaping designed by Tom Stuart-Smith has helped us to navigate these changes and soften the planting. Our decisions are driven by a careful balance of encouraging wildlife and creating beauty.

A sense of natural beauty

In days gone by, the gardens featured more traditional borders and manicured lawns. These days, you’ll find meadow and woodland plants in their place. We create beauty in the gardens by bringing in elements of the countryside, from meadows to hedgerows, orchards, meandering paths and spring flowers. By curating lines of sight, we link the gardens with the landscape beyond. We create transitions between buildings and “rooms” sculpted in green, we frame or stage some buildings as they relate to the land, and screen or dress others we don’t wish to see.

Our plant palette

As we garden within our historic context, we keep elements of previous plantings as tribute to our predecessors. Our new plant palette consists mainly of plants that are wild, edible or ancient English, so we now plant the likes of hazel, oak, hornbeam, holly and native hedge species. We do include exotic or non-native varieties if it adds something special, like early or late flower, or resilience to the changing climate.

Creating habitats for wildlife

Wildlife is welcome in the gardens, and we encourage biodiversity by creating habitats for smaller animals and insects. By keeping some areas of the garden less ‘tidy’, clearing areas on rotation and creating log piles, we can encourage wildlife to thrive.

These days, we mow our lawns less often (and never too short!), and we support overwintering habitat insects by leaving sections of meadow uncut until spring. Our planting reflects local traditions, the needs of wildlife (sources of nectar, pollen and berries, and spiky plants for nesting birds) as well as the layered structure of natural habitats that transition from trees to shrubs, subshrubs, meadows, short and long grasses.

A sustainable approach

We manage the gardens to organic principles, never using peat and only using plastics sparingly. We harvest rainwater, and we minimise our carbon footprint by using electric tools and machines. While we grow fruit and vegetables for the house, we also leave some of the fruit for wildlife, and we compost our garden waste to mulch and feed the soil, building natural soil health.