The Gardens of Baslow Hall

In 1988, when Max and Susan Fischer, first set eyes on Baslow Hall, they set about creating something very special. Not only did they restore and develop the hall itself, create an award-winning restaurant and hotel, but they also began creating the gardens you see today. Apart from the largest of the mature trees, the gardens were largely empty when they arrived. The chestnuts, cedars and pines that line the drive, the two large walnut trees on the edge of the kitchen garden and the old yews that surround the woodland glade are really the only plants that were here. Everything else was lovingly added over time. From small saplings from Sheffield market, gifts from friends and family, to choice plant selections from nurseries far and wide.

There was an old lean-to glasshouse, sadly beyond restoration, that contained the vine that now grows up the Gardener’s Hut. The outline of the kitchen garden beds was there, but they have since been reshaped and revived to produce more fresh produce for the kitchen. The Lily Pond was added mid-twentieth century and has had a variety of plants and fish over the years. Now, it has been restored to a reflective Water Lily Pond, and will no doubt continue to be home to some of the garden’s frogs, toads, and newts. The Garden Rooms, along with their own courtyard garden, were added in 2000, and are home to a lovely example of a Gleditsia triacanthos ‘Sunburst’, Cornus controversa ‘Variegata’ and a range of other beautiful plants. The hall itself was almost entirely covered in ivy when the family moved here. Nowadays, the Boston Ivy is clipped and trimmed to provide a more contained, yet no less stunning, autumn display.

With any garden there is a constant ebb and flow of successes and challenges. Over the years the gardens at Baslow Hall had become a little imbalanced and needed some sensitive wrangling. In 2020, the gardens started to take a different shape. With the appointment of a new Head Gardener, and a new energy in the kitchen with our Head Chef, a gentle but important transformation began.

The challenge was to re-energise the gardens and their connection to the kitchen. To better understand their place in the landscape. To realise more of their hidden potential. Plants that ordinarily would have been ‘tidied’ away become foraged ingredients on the menu. Soil health became a priority. Composted green waste from Sheffield city gardens, and used as a mulch, helped to reduce the need for watering in the borders. The composting system was overhauled, rainwater capture was increased. A no-dig system in the kitchen garden was introduced, and more of the produce supplied to the kitchen was grown and harvested on site, reducing food miles and carbon footprint.

Along with improved sustainability came the revealing of some hidden gems; a lost view of the hall, a secret corner providing the perfect location for a summer house or some beautiful sculpture, a careful edit to give a tree or shrub the space to shine. New planting was chosen to increase the diversity of pollinators, and the plants that needed a bit more light and space, were transplanted to more prime locations. A new Lavender hedge here, a new rockery there, and the colour and life returned to the garden.

A garden is never finished. The constant shift in the life of a garden is one of its joys. But the gardens at Fischer’s Baslow Hall speak a little clearer now, and they invite guests to stay a little longer.