Late summer SPLENDOUR
As summer advances and cows roam lazily across the grassy fields of Blackmore Vale, the garden that embraces Hilltop Cottage could be expected to wane following a high summer fest of flower and foliage. However, this garden is no one-hit wonder, because its beds and borders are composed of a long succession of flowering plants, plucked from a broad palette. ‘A traditional cottage garden would limit us to a few glorious weeks in summer, whereas we like colour from April until first frosts. Last year, we were still picking dahlias in late November,’ say Josse and Brian Emerson, who have created this harmonious picture.
It is a far cry from the day when the couple, already very keen gardeners, decided to integrate the additional strip of land into an existing garden that was already bursting at the seams. The greatest challenge was to relocate the boundary — a long-established
