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Luxury garden swing seats and other oddities
Edward & Emma Bulmer
On the eve of the Easter weekend, we crossed the round belly of the English Midlands, to Court of Noke in Herefordshire to meet Edward & Emma Bulmer at their home, also home to their natural paint business. It’s a fine day for the time of year and the house and gardens are full of activity; there's a festive feeling in the air as they await the arrival of their three daughters for the weekend.
The 18th century manor may appear imposing in pictures, but its impression is warm and welcoming, as we bump through a field of daffodils to arrive (the wrong way) at an attractive tetris of stables, from where the business operates. From here, the view of the house is delightful, standing genteel over an old brick wall, softened with blues of irises, campanula and lilacs.
The garden is criss-crossed with ornamental waterways as well as the river Arrow, which streams heartily through their land, discovered through a tight avenue of thick, blooming camellias. These fishponds, along with the rest of the gardens, have been restored and developed with the same care and sensitivity as the Bulmers apply to their interiors.
To the rear of the house, there is a semi-formal walled garden built around a lawn and forget-me-not speckled terrace. Out by the stables lies a kitchen garden, recently given over to dahlias for their daughter’s late-summer wedding last year. To the front of the house is a long shapely pond, that reflects the garnet leaves of a large copper beech. The garden is full of surprises: hellebores hiding in their hundreds down the shadier side of the house, sculptures lurking in topiary, bridges, chickens (that come when called!) and a wild orchard spanning a waterway.
When we meet them, Emma is fresh from a dip and busy in the office and Edward is showing some historians around the house and gardens, only confessing he has terrible back pain when he finally sinks into the rocker. The pair have not just an admirable purpose, but also a tremendous zeal for everything they do - infectious and inspirational to witness.
How long have you lived at Court of Noke? What is the history of the house (briefly!)?
We moved in the autumn of 1994 about 300 years after the house was built and have quietly restored it since then. Houses built in the early C18th often had formal gardens and it turned out that ours was no exception. It is built of newly fashionable brick with sash windows and had a contemporary water garden in the form of canal shaped fish ponds. We have restored these and remodelled the interiors in the last 30 years.
Did you always intend to settle in Herefordshire? What makes it a special part of the country to you?
Edward’s family have been here since the C18th and he grew up nearby and would pass Court of Noke on the way to visit a stretch of the River Arrow which the family used for fishing and picnicking - a very special, unspoilt part of a very special county.
What other parts of the country have you lived in? How do you find the transition between London and the country?
Emma comes from Cheshire and we wanted to raise a family in the country. We both gravitate to the countryside but find the buzz of the city energising, in small doses!
Did you define the layout of the garden at Court of Noke, or were there already footprints to follow? Can you describe any changes you’ve made?
The layout dates to about 1700 as far as we can tell.
We have used it as a springboard to our own version of historic formality intermingled with modern plantings and sculptural happenings (not enough yet!) We found an old tithe map of the place and it showed the form of the C18th fish ponds which had been lost to silt and scrub by the time we bought the house.
Was it important to you to be sensitive to the history of the house, when you were laying out the garden?
Yes, but we were really being sensitive to the history of the garden itself as we had the help of an archaeologist to unpick its development and he found historic documents which showed there had been ornamental buildings, bridges and sculpture.
We have ambitions to restore all of these and have dug out the ponds and reformed their edges.
Is there one of you that takes the lead with the gardens, or is it a team effort?
Edward does the layouts and has formed the topiary hedges while Emma does the planting of flowers and vegetables and likes the ride-on mower!
Emma, the kitchen garden is your domain. What do you enjoy growing / eating there? Is the aim to feed the household, or is it more for pleasure?
We grow what veg we can and recently have been planting lots of wedding flowers! Our eldest daughter married at home last September and so we planted dahlias and lilies for her.
So this year we have 300 dahlias which Emma is busy giving away to friends who are getting married this year!
Are you often drawn outside? Where do you tend to spend most time?
We are lucky to live on the river. Water brings such life and is constantly unfolding, renewing and delighting - regardless of what we humans are up to! When the girls are home in the warmer months we spend as much time as we can outdoors.
Having water through the garden is so lovely! Are you often tempted to swim?
Emma plunges every morning - she benefits from the rush of wellness it brings - I’m too much of a wuss to join her but love a cooling swim when it is warmer.
Is colour as important to you in the garden as it is inside? Do you plan planting schemes with colour in mind?
Yes we do, but green is our predominant colour - we have lots of leaves! You will find gentle blues, pale pinks and soft whites - much like on our colour chart!
We love the way you have used paint outdoors. Electric blue benches, rusty red railings and mossy green gates. What are your considerations when choosing paint outside?
For our exterior woodwork and ironwork we mix colours that resonate with those used in the past and that have a great underlying tonality.
Does your garden and the surrounding Herefordshire countryside inspire the colours you create? Do you have a favourite colour from nature?
Our pigments come from nature and by using them to create our colours you might say they are all inspired by nature. I love colours that you almost don’t notice because they suit the room so well and this can be achieved with the help of earth pigments to ‘season’ them.
Do you have a favourite time of year in the garden? It looks as though it would be wonderful year-round with much structural interest for winter, and a rose garden in summer…
You are right, by ensuring structure with hedges and topiary the garden looks great in all seasons - who can resist this time of year though when everything is awakening from its winter slumber? June brings a great flush of roses and the herbaceous borders come into their own.
Has nature always been important to you? What was the impetus for creating your range of wonderful ecological paints?
Because nature is important to all of us - it is literally our life support system. Too much of our business/consumption is polluting and poisoning it.
We have to change this urgently so we are doing our little bit by replacing modern acrylic and synthetic paints with modern plant based paints which look soft and beautiful and pollute much less.
Do you also manage to apply an ecological approach to your gardening? Is it something you have in mind?
Yes, where we can we are returning land to Nature and where we have formality we are doing a combination of mown paths and long grass rather than wide, close mown lawns.
What’s the secret to working together contentedly and productively?
Don’t know tbh, but we try to play to each others’ strengths and we know that we have each other’s backs.
We try to swiftly learn from our mistakes and sidestep ‘blame’ , remembering to listen and be kind!
What is the allure of the rocker / verandah for you? What role will it play in your summer?
It’s incredibly comfortable and yet you are taking exercise as you gently rock, toning your muscles as though doing Pilates!
How did your Easter weekend look at home with the family?
Emma brought in hazel boughs and hung them with little painted eggs and birds that come out each year at Easter. Of the eggs we ate some were laid by our chickens and some came from Daylesford our neighbour on the Pimlico Road.
What does a perfect summer’s day entail for you?
Having the girls and friends at home. Emma is a great cook and the girls mix a mean cocktail!
What are you most looking forward to this year, and beyond?
Seeing our girls grow in their lives and their careers and being there for them when they need us. Meanwhile of course increasing sales of natural paint as we all realise that we have agency in the effort to tackle global warming.
Edward & Emma's rocker is an Old Rocker in Faded Green with sofa in Sail White, and a Verandah in Faded Green.
Photography by Maximilian Kindersley.