Coming up the steps from the small courtyard you enter the first of several grass areas.
None of these can be considered to be a lawn. They habour a number of flowers, Snowdrops, Narcissus, Ox-eye daisies, etc. and they are left uncut until late June to allow the flowers to seed.
The hedge by the side of the track contains several Sorbus cashmiriana, the snake-bark maple, A. grosseri hersii, A. capillepes and a purple-leaved variety of the Sycamore. At the end of the hedge is a gate onto the track with a balsamic poplar and a young Katsura tree, (Cercidifilum japonica), at the left.
The hedge also contains a yellow Burnett rose, a Jacobyte rose and Rosa x 'Frühlingsgold'.
The rowans in the grass by the hedge are S. americana and S. aucuparia asplenifolia.
The trees along the west boundary of this area contains a number of purple Elders including Sambuccus nigra 'Black Beauty' and another purple Sycamore.
There are a number of rowans, starting with a group of S. koehneana, then two S. 'Pink Pearl' and S. setschwanensis which are underplanted with Foxgloves and Alchemilla.
The central border has at the bottom Acer palmatum atrolineare and, on this side, moving up towards the house, Euonymus alata, the yellow-berried S. aucupatia fructo-lutea, S. psuedohupehensis, S. psuedovilmorinii CLD 1294 and S. muliensis. In between the trees are Iris crysographes, I. 'Sybil', Heucheras, Foxgloves, an area of Polygonum 'Red Dragon', Cimicifuga 'Hillside Black Beauty', Daphne retusa , D. tangutica and D. bholua. There are some Dogwoods including Cornus alba sibirica and C. 'Midwinter Fire', Phytocarpus 'Diabolo' and two examples of the decorative Rubus, R. koreanna, (or coreanna?), which is not as vigorous as R. cockburniana which used to be here.
Next to the S. muliensis is Euonymus phellomanus which has pink and red fruit and a rose, R. 'Ruby Wedding'.
The bank bordering the ponds is planted with Salix lanata, another S. boydii, a Cottoneaster, (C. franchettii) and more Spirea japonica and it is being developed as a scree bed. There is a Sorbus poteriifolia at the side of the steps to the bridge and the Rowans in the grass by this bank are S. sargentiana and a pair of S. gongashanica.
