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trees were already gone and stacked up for firewood.’ In
their place, Ronald planted more oaks, opening up views
and paring back the rest of the garden to create a new
simplified structure that sets geometric formality against
organic contours. Since Willem’s death, his son Menno
has been looking after the house and garden, with
Ronald’s continuing guidance. ‘Willem said to me before
he died, “Let’s agree that the garden will never be finished
and that you will always be the conductor of it.” ’
On plan, the shape of the garden is curious: long and
narrow, tapering to a point at one end – the result of an
extra slice of land being acquired from a farmer. The
house sits in the middle, so that the garden spreads out
from each side of the house with unbroken views left and
right along its long, narrow axis. Through one window,
hornbeam hedges lead to an avenue of yew cones and in
the distance nebulous mounds of clipped Rhododendron
ponticum; through the other, the view stretches down
across a rectangular pool. Although the long sight line is
unbroken, on either side of it hedges and paths intersect
at right angles, and this is where the symphonic analogy
comes into play. ‘If you walk along the main axis, you
come across different sections with different moods, little
flower gardens surrounded by hedges, avenues of oaks
that march across,’ says Ronald.
Near the house, snaking forms of clipped box create an
abstract landform from which gnarled oaks rise up dram-
atically, casting shadows on the cruciform pond below.
‘The movement of the box takes you by the arm and leads
you round to the other side of the house,’ says Ronald.
Like the ripples in the pond, the box forms are also rhyth-
mic, but softer than the marching avenues of trees. The
pool design is ingenious, its curved edges set off by a
pair of raised rectangular reflecting pools on the cross
section, with waterfalls to give movement and sound.
Designed to fool the eye, the raised pools seem at first
glance entirely rectangular, but at each end, the lines
intersect at just a few degrees short of a right angle.
‘Many designers in history have done this,’ says Ronald.
‘It’s a device used in the gardens of Château de Villandry
and in other classical gardens.’
On the other side of the house, the second pool
conforms to the classical rectangular shape, but it is
offset by a tapering avenue of pleached limes that play
with perspective, leading the eye towards the windmill
that lies just outside the garden boundary. Landscape,
water, light and shadow have all been harnessed here,
bringing natural crescendos and diminuendos to this
symphony in green

Ronald van der Hilst: 00-32-32 13 24 78;
ronaldvanderhilst.com

CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT An abstract ceramic sculpture,
Rhizome No. 1 by Ronald van der Hilst for Mobach Ceramics, adds
colour in the predominantly green landscape. Snaking box forms
near the house. The cruciform pool. An avenue of oaks leads down to
huge mounds of clipped rhododendrons. A second rectangular pool
reflects trees and sky. The windmill beyond the bottom hedge. Clipped
hornbeam pillars frame a view to the fields. Yew cones march down the
length of the garden. The raised reflecting pools and waterfalls (centre)

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