Edward Bulmer: How I turned my stately home into a garden paradise

When the paint guru moved into his Herefordshire house, there was no running water and the garden had run wild. Here’s how he transformed it

When I visited Edward Bulmer’s garden recently, I was completely bowled over. I arrived a couple of days after the wedding of his daughter and the remains of a marquee was there, but everywhere I looked there were stunning views and vistas, with clever touches interspersed to captivate. Approaching his house along a Herefordshire lane (an old Roman road). 
I saw an enticing glimpse of the perfect Queen Anne house through a claire-voie. This choreographed view was a gap in the high boundary hedge making the superb house frontage visible through some railings bordered by two brick piers. The gardening equivalent of an amuse-bouche. 
I knew the inside would be stunning, Edward Bulmer (from the eponymous cider family) is a top interior designer and has developed a range of pioneering natural paints. Before setting up his interior design business he worked for Gervais Jackson Stops, a gifted architectural historian and top interior designer David Mlinarak amongst others. Prior to this he had done a degree in History of Art. 
What I had not realised was that Edward takes his knowledge on colours, garden history and design outside the house walls to such great effect in the garden. I took many useful lessons away with me. Edward has developed the structural areas in the garden, and his wife Emma furnishes the spaces with her skilful and clever planting. 
Edward got his first large commission at Althorp, having heard from his wife (who had read Hello in the hairdressers) that Earl Spencer was having a problem putting his own stamp on his family home following his stepmothers’ alterations. Although Edward had not met the Earl, he dropped him a line, and so got his first big commission. 
Edward and Emma bought the Court of Noke in 1994. But he had first noticed this impressive red brick house as a child and had even taken a picture of it. When the couple moved in, in 1994, there was no running water in the kitchen, and just one radiator upstairs, but outside there was all the water you could want.
Edward discovered accidentally that the meandering water in front of the house was in fact the remnants of an historic water garden and managed to get a grant from the local council to restore it. This included the help of archaeologists. The formal “T” shape of water which is made up of a generous, stone wall-sided, rectangle that sits in front of the house, and a series of linear, canal like, stew ponds (which previously would have provided fish for the table) that run along one side. Edward has punctuated these with blue painted bridges.
The water gardens dictated the approach to the front of the house. The pancake-flat water surface reflects the fine house from many viewpoints and bounces light into the garden. Viewing it from inside the house you instantly know if it is raining too. Edward picked up on the formality of the canal and added high, sculpted hornbeam to frame it, breaking it with a theatre of semi-circular yew hedging with scalloped tops and formal doorways and arches carved into the dark green foliage. Huge, oversized urns found in India, sit in two of the alcoves. They were lidless so Edward had some tops made. This clever detail has transformed them. 
There are some cobbles at the base of the water in one area so this section was likely built as a carriage wash. Discovering the ancient water garden was a fluke, but then restoring it and embellishing it with the sculptures made of horseshoes by The Forge, the blue bridges and large blue bench at the end has elevated the whole property immeasurably.
We all like a covered area to use when the weather is less favourable. This simple tent structure from Village Circus sits near the house in the small walled garden from April to November with an inviting cluster of outdoor sofas, tubs of flowers, lanterns and bunting. It adds a fun, lived-in air. The old red brick walls that enclose the garden here have deep, well-furnished borders at their base full of roses, herbaceous plants and peonies. The simplicity of the layout is relaxing but highly functional and beautiful. 
This is key to Edward’s approach, indoors and outside. He aims to create balance and harmony, so will use local, traditional materials and relate the garden to the wider landscape. The Rose Garden is next to the Orangery, where they spend a lot of time. They have just made a metal tunnel, ready for planting with climbing roses, there are obelisks made of horseshoes by Joshua Turner and the garden is full of roses including Constance Spry, and Cardinal Richelieu, and Edward’s favourite Shropshire Lass, a climber or large shrub rose “with its blousy, hedgerowy look”. There are Alstroemerias, which are perfect for late autumn colour too.  
The kitchen garden is usually the provider for the house, though the veg were ousted by flowers for Edward’s daughter’s wedding this year. Clever touches here include fruit cages made with a double pitched roof – quite a work of art – and wooden posts on the corners of beds, about 800mm high, topped with painted finials to guide the hosepipe.
Emma grew lilies for the wedding which had to flower to perfection for the 21st September. The bulbs were planted in June, the norm being to allow around 100 days from planting to flowering. It was a bit of a nightmare with the weird summer weather, but Emma stayed in regular contact with the hugely helpful John Amand from Jacques Amand International, the bulb supplier, who gave endless advice on moving the pots in and out of the glasshouse to hit the day. It was quite a performance, but the lilies finally starred on the great day – after nightly visits and many prayers.
Emma added tall martagon lilies to the borders which are long flowering, easy and will tolerate shade and sun. She filled the small walled vegetable garden with dahlias for cutting which were fantastic and will go on giving their all up until the first frosts. 
Most of us leave dahlias in the borders now over winter, adding a duvet of mulch in case of cold weather. The biggest problem can be slugs in spring, but I find a small sprinkling of organic ferric phosphate slug pellets soon addresses that. The advantage is the clumps get stronger every year. 
The wedding tables were decorated with a fiesta range of colours, oranges and reds, while festoons were made of sweet briar roses hung with chillies, home grown – needless to say. The Bulmers made plant containers of trellis, which were planted with lilies and other colourful and fragrant plants. 
There are several paint colours used in the garden. Edward has used one of my favourite colours, his bright, grassy “Invisible Green”, on a wheelbarrow bench.
Elsewhere is “Noke Green”, a bluey hue that Edward has developed and used on many of his external doors. For his railings he uses the same colour, but darkened down with a fair bit of black. Green paints can be difficult to use in a garden, but these definitely work magnificently.
Edward Bulmer Natural Paint’s new flagship store is open at 194, Ebury St, London SW1W 8UP www.edwardbulmerpaint.co.uk.
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