Surrounding this area of the garden are more tightly clipped yew hedges, all cut by eye and taking over two months to trim.
The spring borders
The two spring borders running along the western edge of the Quarterdeck are remnants of a larger series of beds that Kipling had planted around the edge of the Formal Garden. They provide the garden with a welcome splash of colour from February with red pulmonaria, hellebores and Scilla siberica. Primroses follow alongside the unusual green and black flower of the Widow Iris, Hermodactylus tuberosus.
Early summer-flowering shrubs such as Salix hastata ‘Wehrhahnii’, Daphne x burkwoodii and Exochorda x macrantha ‘The Bride’ take over, whilst interest continues with herbaceous perennials flowering between the shrubs in mid-to-late summer.