Denmans Garden
Driving through rolling hills and countryside on the way to Chichester, I made my way to Denmans Garden, created by an influential British garden designer. It's an exuberant, not restful, garden, as his style is to let many plants self-seed in the beds, and then edit them out. So lots of interesting combinations occur -- some pleasing, some pretty unusual, depending on your taste! I admired a wall covered in small climbing roses, clematis, and several things I didn't recognize. Denman's use of foliage contrasts is striking. But even better, I liked the technique of letting the lawn be a meadow with a mowed edge and path system, so that layers of grass become part of the landscape. Lots of the same Allium and Euphorbia spp. that I admired at Wisley were mixed with a large purple native geranium and catmint. An amazingly diverse border was remarkable. And the attached nursery was quite interesting, with a wonderful array of plants. A Russian (I think) visitor was asking det...