A horticultural masterwork
May 26, 2021
4 minutes
Photographs by Val Corbett
WHEN we arrived here, the Walled Garden was exactly one acre of Jerusalem artichokes,’ reveals Derek Johns, a distinguished picture expert and the former head of Old Master Paintings at Sotheby’s. He and his wife, Daphne, purchased the handsome 18th-century house from the late Woodrow Wyatt in 1982. ‘Except for the walled garden, there was only grass. No hedges, no divisions—I don’t think Wyatt was interested in the garden at all.’ Mr Johns, however, was extremely interested and, as Mrs Johns took on the interior alterations, he set about developing the 14 acres of fast-draining greensand outside.
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