Huys de Dohm

The Garden

Due to personal reasons the garden is closed as of 2010. A limited number of group visits by appointment only. 

The gardens at Huys de Dohm, which were laid out by Ineke Greve, clearly reveal the influence of English garden designers such as Gertrude Jekyll (1843 - 1932) and Vita Sackville-West (1892 – 1962). Pruned hedges, espalier trees and lawns form the architectonic structure of the 14 different themed gardens, which were created by degrees between 1980 and 2004. The gardens consist of various “rooms” the designs of which incorporate topiary and single-coloured borders as well as decorative rural elements such as a flower meadow and a vegetable garden. The inner courtyard was the first part to be created. It features yew sculptures and a square of lime trees between the house, stables and coach house.

As in the case of Vita Sackville-West’s garden, Huys de Dohm has a white garden which radiates a special atmosphere in the evening by moonlight. The white garden, which dates back to the time when the garden was first created, was redesigned in October 2003. Its colour scheme was, however, retained. The cottage garden has a double border in “purple and pink” and was adapted in 2004. Today, it is called the “long border”. Its redesign “in classical style” suits the small castle, which dates from 1647. In addition, there is a silent garden, a rose garden and a spring avenue planted with bulbs.

The gardens were extended after 1985 to include a blue-yellow pond garden, a seed and picking garden, a wildflower meadow with an undulating hedge, a woodland garden with a stream leading to a frog pond and attractive groundcovers, a working garden with a greenhouse and a garden planted with groundcovers and peony bushes. Despite the numerous fragments, each garden area forms a harmonious composition in which the combinations of flowering and foliage plants in the monochrome borders and the ‘flame garden’ reveal a high level of creativity. The wildflower meadow with its often tiny botanical species, the laborious care of which is frequently underestimated by non-specialists, also testifies to a solid knowledge of gardening and to refined taste. The undulating beech hedge retains the view of the bell tower while screening the meadow, thus ensuring that it does not disturb the harmony of the rest of the composition when flowering is over.

The Huys de Dohm gardens are classic examples of the ‘new gardening’ which has been practised in the Netherlands since the 1980s. Frequently those involved are self-taught women or couples who began gardening in their own villa gardens or on the former estates of disused historical farms.

Over the years they have developed a high degree of artistic expressiveness and have become role models for other garden owners. ‘New gardening’ originates in the English cottage style of the early twentieth century. A change in thinking took place in the Netherlands after the seventies, during which purpose-oriented, easy-to-keep gardens or ecological gardens where nature was given as much free rein as possible had been promoted. Now the active design of nature was no longer taboo and gardens which required intensive work were no longer frowned upon. After the restoration and renovation of the buildings had taken place, the outside areas became the focus of attention.

At the beginning of the 1980s, the range of plants on offer for interested gardeners was much less extensive than is the case today. Unusual herbaceous plants and scented roses could often only be obtained in England. Many pioneers of ‘new gardening’ found inspiration there. In line with the example of English gardens, private gardens in the Netherlands also began to be opened more and more frequently to the public.

It is striking how the cottage style has been developed in a particular way in the Netherlands. In England, this is often denoted as ‘Dutch gardening’.