The best gardens roll out a welcome mat, inviting the visitor into their embrace, and are comfortable to be in. The garden at Sandhill Farm House, home of Rosemary Alexander for the past 25 years, does just that. As principal and founder of The English Gardening School, you might anticipate her private garden would be full of carefully planned and artfully executed designer tricks. It isn’t. The garden has evolved, its spaces, though heavily “tweaked”, are pretty much identical to those she fell for when first viewing the property. They’re spaces within which, in her words, she could “make lots of types of gardens”.
A native Scot, Rosemary initially hankered after a garden that reminded her of home. Sandhill’s sandy alkaline soil doesn’t, however, suit such plants as kalmia and…