Envy (a terrible vice, I know) pervades as I pour over the garden images, taken for Vogue, of Stella McCarteny’s Wiltshire UK home.  The ones that I have put here are a partial selection, but you really ought to take moment over at the magazine‘s site to see them all.   And while you are at it, you should read the whole article about the garden, the home, and the discovery and creation of it all by Stella and her husband Alasdhair Willis. Hamish Bowles wrote the piece and I have to say, he does an tremendous job in the writing….to make garden writing throughly palatable to the average Vogue reader…..this, is a skill I one day strive for.

I found this exceprt fascinating:

As in her fashion designs, Stella does not care for red or yellow and is drawn instead to the dusty pastels she loves—in fact, she even gave Tyler fabric swatches when they were planning the plantings. “You don’t always get what you want,” she says, laughing. “We had tulips that were supposed to be white, and they opened yellow. I couldn’t look at them. I was literally like the Queen from Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland: ‘Paint them white!’ ”

and this too:

“I grew up in the country, and I like being isolated,” says Stella. “So when I see a building on the horizon, I want to plant a tree in front of it. That’s my natural instinct.”

I love hearing the quirky and individual desires of garden makers!

And as if there wasn’t enough to lust after, there is an Engagement Garden (which was conceived by Alasdhair as a gift to his bride-to-be) and an Anniversary garden that celebrated their 6th anniversary. Isn’t that the loveliest idea? Not that there is any chance that I could truly allow my husband to plan and execute a garden without my input (I am perhaps way too opinionated in this area of our lives) but I find the idea charming at least in concept.  Don’t you?

images from vogue.