THE LANDBefore Time
Tucked in a wooded valley on the border of England and Wales, the garden at Lower House in Cusop Dingle appears like a horticultural Eden – a flashback to a time before box blight and box-tree moth caterpillar arrived. Its centrepiece is a congregation of remarkably healthy clipped box bushes gathered around a glossy umbrella of Portuguese laurel, Prunus lusitanica.
The creation of Nicky and Pete Daw, the garden is so visually pleasing, with its confident sculptural shapes, contrasting textures and unfolding sequence of spaces, that it comes as little surprise to learn that the couple met at art school in Bristol in 1970. Pete excelled at design and construction; Nicky was a superb plantswoman with an artist’s eye.
