The Tank Garden

The Tank Garden at Munstead Wood designed by Edwin Lutyens
Photograph Public Domain

Sir Edwin Lutyens designed Gertrude Jekyll’s house in 1897 and it forms the start of a successful collaboration. He was also responsible for the design of the Tank Garden at the north side of her house.

A tribute to Edwin Lutyens

The Tank Garden in Viller is a tribute to the outstanding British architect Sir Edwin Lutyens. One of his major features is the use of Dutch Paving and in our project, we used this herringbone motive in front of all the main entrances. Furthermore, it is my aim to reuse available materials. For the Dutch Paving, we paved with old concrete brick stones and placed them upside down.

“From the Tank Garden, you have an excellent view of the countryside .”

The water container was part of a former and ugly water feature. Now it is surrounded by Longworth and Periwinkles and birds frequently pay a visit to have a bath or to drink water on hot summer days. The shady north side of the house is an ideal place to grow ferns and other shade loving plants.

Panoramic view

The plants and shrubs in this garden are protected by a 6 feet high cotoneaster hedge. In front of my design studio, we cut it down to 3 feet in order to have a nice view over the surrounding landscape. From my studio, I have a lovely view over the meadows along the river Niers. Daily huge white swans are making ‘touchdowns’ on the water and passing geese high in the sky start their travel to long haul destinations.

Geranium ‘Rozanne’

This part of the garden has a lush green planting. Interesting is the unknown low growing Prunus laurocerasus ‘Mount Vernon’ (1 feet) between the steps to the design studio which I found to my surprise in one of the local garden centres. Color is provided by the nowadays very popular cranesbill  ‘Rozanne’ and some lovely orange flowering daylilies. Late summer bloom is contributed by the tiny spikes of the lilyturf (Liriope muscari) and the sweet-smelling torches of the Black cohosh (Cimicifuga).