Beningbrough Hall Mediterranean Garden opens

The beautiful new Mediterranean Garden at the National Trust’s Beningbrough Hall in Yorkshire has officially opened. Designed by the acclaimed garden designer Andy Sturgeon, this initiative represents the latest phase in the Trust’s long-term plan to rejuvenate and reinvent the eight-acre garden.

Accredited Contractor Blakedown Landscapes has been instrumental in executing the hard landscaping works and planting of specimen trees and hedges, playing a crucial role in bringing this vision to life. The Blakedown team demonstrated exceptional resilience in successfully executing these works amidst one of the wettest winters on record.

Key features of the garden, built by Blakedown, include a series of dry stone walls that seamlessly emerge from the garden’s natural contours.  A rill, elegantly set atop one of these walls, flows into a newly constructed pond with stepping stones across it. Sandstone boulders were installed, which evoke the essence of a Mediterranean hillside, together with water bowls spaced to attract wildlife and create reflections throughout the garden.  Winding footpaths, constructed from a variety of surfaces including Breedon self-binding gravel, invite exploration. A complex system of drainage was installed to ensure this garden, which is close to the River Ouse, remains free draining ensuring the carefully selected plant species by Andy Sturgeon Design thrive.

Site grading works modified the contours of the garden and formed localised mounding for the planting beds. Topsoil was carefully stripped, stored and re-used, mixed with grit, to form the beds and improve drainage.  Once established, the garden is designed to thrive without the need for supplementary watering.

This garden is designed to adapt to a changing climate with plant selections chosen for their resilience to hotter, drier summers and wetter winters. 

Designer Andy Sturgeon said:

"In the UK we can expect warmer summers with prolonged dry periods and drought, but also an increase in very wet days, particularly in winter. We need to start changing the way we garden and I have taken the opportunity to embrace this at Beningbrough. What we have created is in effect a vast gravel garden that sits comfortably in the historic setting – I hope that it will feel quite timeless."

Chris Wellbelove, Director, Blakedown Landscapes said,

"We are immensely proud to have contributed the hard landscaping to this transformative project, which will enhance the beauty and sustainability of Beningbrough Hall’s gardens for future generations. This marks Blakedown’s second phase of works at Beningbrough Hall, following our collaboration with the National Trust on the creation of the Pergola Garden, one of the first major phases of the garden vision, in 2018."