Garden Diaries: Memory and Nostalgia Meet European Influences in Charlotte Moss's Timeless Virginia Garden

There is something about the sound and movement of water that can transform the way we experience a garden.

For interior designer, author and philanthropist, Charlotte Moss, that realisation inspired the defining feature of her Virginia landscape: a rill drawing on memories of gardens across Europe, which naturally emerged and took hold to shape this elegant space.

Framed by tall copper beech trees and grasses that sway in the breeze, it forms the centrepiece of a garden designed for gathering and entertaining. A place shaped by Charlotte's love of architectural detail, where every element has a story behind it.

When I first came to this property in Virginia, there was only a small fenced-in garden containing primarily peonies and some other flowers and herbs. The rest of the property was dominated by trees, and I knew the landscape needed altering.

We needed to remove old trees and plant new ones, including magnolias, sycamores, large boxwoods and apple trees.

We added a small, all-green parterre garden off the flower room. I had always envisioned a water feature and expanded hardscape, with terraces for entertaining, for sitting and listening.

Inspired by European Gardens

The visual memories from my travels are inescapable. Given an opportunity to craft something new or re-envision something, those memories return and end up surfacing. It's not a forced gesture; those memories just become a part of you.

The espaliered apple and pear trees against the house directly influenced by a garden I visited in France years ago. I love their shape and the way they add definition to a wall – and the fact that they fruit is a bonus.

My iris garden is in an old brick garden from the original house that I maintained. There are brick pathways between wide borders where the irises are grown. At each corner are Italian limestone columns connected with chain and other bronze supports, where climbing roses now trail over the chains, creating a 'rose fence'.

I first saw this at Eyrignac, in the Dordogne region of France, and thought it was brilliant. Because it's not really a fence that says, 'don't come here'; it calls you to it.

Rousham Gardens in Oxfordshire, UK, and other rills in Europe, were the clear inspirations for the water feature here.

The upper rill connects to the main pool, which then connects to the lower rill, ending in a round basin with a tall obelisk. I wanted the rill to be embraced by tall copper beech and framed by grasses that moved in the breeze, so we would have both movement and sound.

The first time I became more aware of sound, or the sound of water in a garden, was when my husband pointed it out to me at the Keukenhof gardens in the Netherlands, when we went to see the tulips at their peak. He noticed that we didn't have that in our garden in East Hampton, which, of course, I quickly remedied!

It has become such an integral part of the sight and sound of our garden there, so between that and seeing the rill at Rousham, I realised it would be the primary feature in Charlottesville.

The copper beech trees, Fagus sylvatica 'Purpurea', were chosen to contrast with the ginkgos, magnolias and other beech trees in the landscape. I wanted them to align with the rill and give me height in the lower part of the garden.

And it's the way they draw your eyes to them. They are like the guardians of the rill, the way they stand tall. I also have two several-hundred-year-old beech trees, one of which I can climb into.

A Space to Entertain

I'm in the garden every time I'm here. There's never a time when I'm not in the garden.

It plays such an important role when we're hosting. What it provides is freedom of movement, fresh air, the romance of cocktails at sundown and the sound of water.

We have a big stone sofa flanking the central pool where people sit, and we use the terrace for tables to dine or have drinks.

I approach garden design in much the same way as interior design. They both should be welcoming, just like rooms in a house. There should be corners in gardens where you find yourself sitting or are simply drawn to.

In a house, the rooms are defined for you, but in a garden, when you are making a new one, you have to create those spaces yourself.

Whether it's a large bench under a tree or a pergola at the end of a walkway, I want places in a garden where I can sit by myself, with someone else or entertain.

As for my favourite gardening tools, I love my clippers. I have a pair of Niwaki Japanese clippers, and another pair from G Lorenzi that are bamboo and steel.

They feel good, they get the job done and they're both attractive in their own way. One is very stylish and the other much more functional. Niwaki's are clean, simple and ergonomic, and the steel and bamboo just look so darn good.

Hands down, my most meaningful garden memory is of my maternal grandmother, who had irises in her garden.

I remember thinking what amazing flowers they were, and how ephemeral they were because once you cut one, it doesn't last very long. So, you are compelled to be present, to be there, to see them, talk to them.

The memory that stays with me is my grandmother putting one in a vase and my thinking it was stingy because she only did one. It wasn't until later that I understood that all it takes is one iris, just one.

The garden is also connected to my flower room at home. The windows along the side of the flower room look right into the green parterre garden beside the house.

But the garden room isn't only for flowers. It's where plants live when they're being rotated, orchids coming back into bloom, plants to be repotted, and it houses all of my baskets and vases.

When creating this garden, I found someone who could help me execute the vision I wanted and I stuck to it. You have to know what you don't know and hire the people who can help you get there.

In this case, John Howard, a landscape designer from Atlanta, embraced the project and executed it brilliantly.

Gardening has taught me patience. I've learned that I have the patience to wait for certain things to come into bloom or to grow.

Now, having said that, I have no patience for growing things from seed!

Charlotte's new book Charlotte Moss: At Home in Virginia, published by Rizolli, is available to order now from Amazon.

Garden Diaries is our series where we share inspiring stories of designing and cultivating a stunning garden space. We explore how creatives, designers and tastemakers have grown a deeply personal space, inviting creativity, learning and happiness in their gardens, and how they live in these spaces.

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