The Garden
A walled Cotswold garden built for long, slow days: croquet on the lawn, dinner under the stars, and the hills rolling away past the wall.
A walled Cotswold garden built for long, slow days: croquet on the lawn, dinner under the stars, and the hills rolling away past the wall.
Step out of the kitchen and the garden opens up in front of you, a sweep of mown, striped lawn held inside old dry-stone walls the colour of clotted honey. It is properly private out here.
The walls do the work of shutting out the world, so the only sounds are birdsong, the click of a croquet mallet and, if you have left the back door open, the Aga ticking away inside.
As the sun drops, the stripes lengthen and a hoop and an old staddle stone catch the warm light at the lawn's edge.
Under a clear blue sky, a mallet waits on its stand and the whole lawn lies open, ready for whatever the day brings.
Seen from the stone patio, terracotta pots of lavender line the edge of the grass and a staddle stone marks where the lawn begins.
Clipped box hedges and the honey-stone walls keep the whole garden neat, framing the conservatory at the far end.
Hydrangea foliage spills across the foreground, the BBQ and long table softening into green behind it.
A proper Jaques of London croquet set lives in the greenhouse, ready to be carried out and laid across the lawn whenever the mood takes you.
Set the hoops, hand out the mallets and the coloured balls, and an afternoon disappears happily into the rules, or the cheerful absence of them. The grass is mown and striped for exactly this.
The mallet leans on its stand, hoops set and balls placed, the whole game waiting for the first shot.
Black, green, red and yellow balls rest in the grass by a hoop, the conservatory glowing in the evening light beyond.
Inside the stone greenhouse, the vintage green Jaques boxes sit by the window beside the mallets, a telescope and the folded deckchairs.
A putting green is set into the grass for anyone who fancies their short game, its candy-striped marker bright against the green.
Two white metal chairs sit waiting in the shade of the hedge behind, the perfect spot to watch and wait your turn.
A wide blue-sky view takes in the whole lawn, the mallet mid-game and the cottage running along the right.
From the patio's edge, the sunlit stripes climb to the thatched cottage with a tall clipped hedge running alongside.
Higher up, the lawn falls away towards the conservatory, the hedge a clean green line in the sun.
Evenings are what the garden does best. Fire up the gas BBQ by the wall, gather everyone around the long weathered table, and let supper run on into the dusk.
The table seats the whole house with room to spare, and pots of herbs within arm's reach mean a sprig of something is never far from the grill. A little birdhouse keeps watch from the wall above.
The gas BBQ stands ready against the dry-stone wall, bottle alongside and a staddle stone keeping it company.
Low light spills across the patio, the table and chairs lined along the wall beneath the birdhouse as the sun flares over the rooftops.
A blue-banded stoneware mug catches the morning sun on the weathered table, the thatched cottage soft behind it.
Pots of agapanthus and lavender soften the borders, their blues and purples cool against the warm Cotswold stone.
The white birdhouse and the honey-coloured wall sit soft behind the blooms, the whole corner working quietly through the summer.
The dry-stone wall draws a clean line under a blue sky, the table tucked below it and old Cotswold rooftops rising just beyond.
A neat run of split logs lines the gravel path beside the weathered timber gate and clipped hedge.
Up close, the log store sits stacked on its bed of gravel, the honey-stone cottage warm behind it.
A walled garden, a croquet lawn and long Cotswold evenings, less than a mile from Soho Farmhouse. Check dates and book on Airbnb.