Kathy Brown,
The Manor House,
Church Road,
Stevington, Nr Bedford. MK43 7QB
Tel. 01234 822064
About 85% of the garden is accessible by wheelchair. Paths are mainly of gravel or grass.
Good Gardens Guide 2007
The Manor House*
A garden of exuberant imagination, atmospheric and brimful of ideas, with a strong emphasis on garden art. Each of the twenty distinct areas is completely different in atmosphere. The summer garden planted round the old fish pond is colourful and strongly Mediterranean, with a variety of succulents and imposing echiums followed by a fine display of aeoniums, agaves and dasylirions. Beautifully understated by contrast is the avenue of Betula utilis var. jacquemontii ‘Grayswood Ghost’ underplanted with acanthus. It leads to a flowery meadow through beds of grasses (dressed with pebbles or slate) which prolong the attraction into autumn and winter. The French garden is an essay in formal design; the yew hedges that back the box parterres commemorate Fouquet’s famous 1661 trial with 12 ‘jurors’ clipped into shape. Moving swiftly forward in time, the visitor comes to a ‘Rothko room’ glowing with purple beech, berberis and prunus, and an airy ‘Hepworth room’ of grasses mingling with herbaceous plants. Major collections of clematis and roses are dotted around the garden.
