5 Hill Top

About 5 Hill Top

We bought 5 Hill Top in 1993 as a garden building plot and moved in during 1996. The house, plus patio & lawn to the rear are on the only level area of land: an old tennis court. Hill Top had been an old Victorian school. The large rockery forms a backdrop to this; the rocks & huge boulders all came from the site, so have only travelled a few yards! Beyond is Ilkley Moor. The mixed woodland below (nicknamed ‘Dingley Dell’) was neglected and overgrown, although the area had at some stage been ‘landscaped’ and the banks of the stream built up. The original pathways edged in rocks were tidied up and gravelled. The lower (red) bridge was already there, and the new bridge upstream added in 2008. Since 1996 the garden has evolved into what we have today, with different features added and additional areas gradually reclaimed and replanted. Never easy in our boulder-strewn garden! For example, the timber walkway and planting boxes were an ideal solution to create interest in a rather bare area of the wood. The Acer sangokaku in the larger box is now a star of the garden.
Two smaller planting boxes have since been added on the far side of the stream.
Ferns are happy here, mosses too, together with other shade-loving plants, including a variety of ground cover plants, and shrubs. The pretty summerhouse with superb views north towards Wharfedale was added in 2001, where a huge Rhododendron ponticum used to be, and the area around seeded with a grass/wildflower mix.
The wide woodland paths are kept topped up with gravel, and some other small areas of lawn near the house have been replaced with gravel and landscaped, mainly for ease of mowing!