There’s a quiet, understated charm to the Lords of the Manor Hotel gardens.
Pale narcissi sit under gnarled apple trees, starry magnolia flowers catch the spring sunshine and daphne scents the air.
This is a country house hotel and the gardens perfectly reflect the aim of providing a peaceful retreat deep in the heart of the Cotswolds.
‘We want a nice, family atmosphere here,’ says head gardener Mike Dron. ‘We want soft edges to the garden.’
Mike has been at the Upper Slaughter garden since 2020 inheriting what he describes as ‘a beautiful garden with a few issues’.
These included areas that needed redefining and a problem with flooding in a far corner thanks to the River Eye, which runs through the site – part of it was turned into a skating pond by the Victorians with weirs and sluices regulating the water level to make it freeze.
Mike saw the flooding as the chance to enhance the garden.
As he says: ‘There are not disasters in a garden, only unexpected opportunities.’
Rather than utilise expensive flood relief measures, he used the naturally damp area to create a wildlife garden and pond.
There are dead wood piles for habitat, comfrey is grown for use as a plant food, nettles are tolerated and planting has been of native trees, such as birch and field maple.
‘We wanted to keep it natural and encourage as much wildlife as possible down there, so that brings in the pest control for the rest of the gardens.’
Encouraging natural predators is seen as important in the organically run garden, while creating somewhere that largely takes care of itself was crucial as the eight acres are managed by just Mike and his sister, Annie.
‘It comes down to experience. You know how to prioritise your tasks. Then it’s nowhere near as bad as it could be,’ he says with a smile.
Even so, unlike a private space, hotel gardens have to be on top form year-round and the pair assess borders weekly with regular hoeing to tackle weeds at seedling stage a priority.
They are helped by the good clay loam soil, unlike the Cotswold brash of most of the area – the village’s name comes from an Old English word meaning a muddy place.
Creating a more informal garden style reduces the workload and makes it somewhere guests can relax – some have used it for early morning yoga.
Borders are filled with perennials rather than bedding, with shrubs providing a structural backdrop while what was once lawn is now a wildflower meadow with mown paths. Seasonal colour comes from narcissi, Martagon lilies and wild orchids.
It’s managed traditionally and cut with a scythe, which Mike explains is more effective than machinery because it doesn’t cut the grass into small pieces that are impossible to completely clear away.
In front of the old manor house, borders that would once have been ‘bedded out’ are now planted with roses, bulbs and herbaceous perennials. ‘It’s much more sustainable and I think it suits the building so much more,’ says Mike.
The narcissi were carefully chosen to give a succession of flowers, starting with the delicate ‘Sailboat’, moving on to pure white ‘Thalia’ and ending with the pheasant eye daffodil, Narcissus poeticus, in May.
Not only do they flower one after the other, the selection also gets taller as the season progresses. ‘They get successively taller, which keeps them ahead of the herbaceous that’s growing around them,’ explains Mike.
‘Then, when the daffodils are over, the herbaceous grows over so you don’t have to worry too much about it looking messy.’
That herbaceous, planned to keep views from the hotel’s sitting room clear, includes hylotelephium, brunnera, eupatorium and heuchera along with alliums and roses in a purple, pink and white colour palette that echoes foliage on copper beeches further down the garden.
‘It’s very simple but really effective.’
Despite this being at the front of the hotel, the first view most guests get is of the walled garden as they approach from the car park. Altered in the 1970s to create parking, it’s still a sizeable space enclosed by Cotswold stone walls that support figs and espaliered pears.
‘The pears had been let go for quite a while. It’s taken years to try to straighten them up and get them back on the wires, just a little at a time, year after year.’
The first part was designed by Julie Toll and mixes shrubs, including Magnolia stellata, Viburnum bodnantense and daphne, with hellebores, skimmia and ferns.
A flowing gravel path is broken up by pieces of slab, creating a pleasing contrast of textures.
Old apple trees frame the main path, the only remnant of the original walled garden, in an avenue that Mike has extended with more heritage varieties. ‘They’re not particularly local varieties but locally sourced trees that I know will be reliable and useful to the kitchen,’ he says.
At their feet are white and lemon tulips and more Narcissus ‘Thalia’ – the same bulb mix is used on both sides of the hotel.
A counterpoint to this pale theme are pink tulips, variety unknown as they pre-date Mike’s arrival.
He’s planning to find something similar and plant more to extend the display.
He has also added a different colour theme to one border with fiery orange, yellow and red with tree peonies and Euphorbia palustris, which has acid-yellow flowers followed by coral stems in the autumn.
‘It’s not necessarily everybody’s favourite colour palette but it’s a really striking impression as you come in from the car park,’ he says.
The herb garden is informative as well as productive. Plants are divided into areas with annuals in one bed so that when they have finished it’s a complete blank canvas rather than having gaps in other beds.
One section has traditional, perennial herbs, including rosemary, sage and thyme, another has often unknown old-fashioned herbs, such lovage, marsh mallow, English mace and Good King Henry, which is used in the same way as spinach.
There’s also a collection of unusual things, including strawberry, chocolate and banana-scented mints.
Mike’s favourite part of the garden is one of the most informal, a stream area, originally designed by Julie Toll, and planted with candelabra primulas, wood anemones, primroses and snake’s head fritillaries. Amelanchier and ribes provide early flowers and there’s a peaceful atmosphere.
Running a hotel garden has its own particular challenges, such as not disturbing guests with lawnmowers, but Mike says there are advantages.
‘The upside is there are people looking at the gardens all the time. We’re constantly getting feedback and that’s really nice. I really enjoy just seeing people walking around and enjoying what we’ve been doing.’.
The Lords of the Manor Hotel garden opens for the National Garden Scheme.
‘ I really enjoy just seeing people walking around and enjoying what we’ve been doing’
