The Hepworth Garden is inspired by Barbara Hepworth’s painting called Green Caves 1946.. Following the geometric patterns, we have planted groups of different grasses, sedums and echinaceas all centred on a weeping birch. The outline has been turned to fit the space and every winter is cut back to the ground, so that the green slate mulch sings out. The summer garden teams with butterflies, while the autumn and winter garden whistles in the wind.

It is a garden of strong moods, alive with constant movement, yet, strange to tell, even in storm, it is an oasis of calm.

There is a gravel path around the edge of the garden with taller planting beyond. The inner space therefore becomes womblike and the eye tends to delve into the centre of the main border, seeing between the outer edge of plants, through the widely spaced calamagrostis, through to the inner space. At certain spots the visitor can glimpse right through to the otherside, while elsewhere it is blocked.

The seasons bring immense change but its hard to say which I like the most. Truth be known these sort of naturalistic gardens, with their simple pallette and spacing between the plants mean that they look splendid in autumn and winter as well as in summer. Is East Anglia with its drier climate better suited to this style than elsewhere…I simply don’t know but I am hooked!

The light dappled shade cast by the birches makes this one of my favourite gardens; inviting, enticing and so changeable as to the light and the seasons all creating very different moods.