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  • The English Garden

    Letting the GRASS GROW

    Jul 15, 2020 4 minutes
    WORDS ALEX MITCHELL
    PHOTOGRAPHS
    MARIANNE MAJERUS

    Some gardens are designed in one fell swoop, but most evolve slowly, growing as their owners do. The garden of The Old Rectory is one of the latter. Hidden down a dead-end street in a picturesque Wiltshire village, it’s a labour of love created over many years by the owners and designer Sean Walter. But this romantic mix of meadow and formality hasn’t always felt so harmonious.

    Like many large rural gardens, the several acres surrounding The Old Rectory once struggled to connect. A large lawn separated the house from two formally hedged areas towards the back of the garden, a rose garden and empty grass area, and the different areas didn’t really speak to each other.

    “The lawn area was pretty bleak,” say the owners,

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