This ambitious project transformed a former cider barn into a restaurant, necessitating a design that harmonised planting for guests to enjoy with edible crops for the kitchen. 

Nestled in the village of Chettiscombe, near the Devon town of Tiverton, The Lost Kitchen is a wood-fired restaurant housed in a traditional Linhay and former cider barn built in the 1800s.

The brief required a seasonally impactful planting scheme that would delight and engage the customers, while encouraging as much biodiversity as possible to the formally barren farm yard. 

Planting

Drifts of perennials were planted around the terrace paths, wildflowers sown into the challenging bank and specimen trees were introduced — Magnolia loebneri ​‘Merrill’, Malus ​‘Evereste’ and Mespilus germanica.

A selection of heritage apple varieties were planted as espaliers along the terrace border, a specimen Szechuan pepper shrub (Zanthoxylum simulans) and selection of culinary herbs were planted in every available corner. Pots and reclaimed water tanks were filled with pelargonium sidiodes, nepeta racemosa and albuca shawii, which softened the still agricultural edges.

The project was a resounding success and continues to to thrill guests as The Lost Kitchen goes from strength to strength.