Inspired by the gardens of English estates, a Kansas City professor and his wife began building a design filled with the innovations that led to a look all their own.

By Deb Wiley. Photographs by Matthew Benson.

An English Estate

(Originally Published July/August 2004)

Doug Niedt dreamed what life would be like if he were the lord of an English country estate. He'd live in a large house, surrounded by borders teeming with flowers. A staff of gardeners would tend the lush grounds, all enveloped by clipped green hedges. "I love that lifestyle," says Doug, who's never visited England except in books. "Gardens are a very important part of it."

So 15 years ago, the professor of classical guitar at the University of Missouri-Kansas City bought the Kansas City equivalent: 3 1D2 acres about 20 miles south of downtown, with a two-story French Norman-style house that included a semicircular driveway, a swimming pool and a black wrought iron fence—but no flowers.

No extra gardeners, either, except later, when he married Catherine, a garden lover and a supervisor of performing arts at Blue Valley Recreation, a local recreation commission.

Over time, the Niedts created the English garden look they wanted, transforming the grounds using a formal design, but a softer appearance.

To start, Doug capitalized on a 180-degree vista of the Blue River Valley and the downtown skyline to the north. "The first thing that occurred to me were dual perennial beds with an English look," Doug says. "It all evolved from there."

"It" now includes eight distinct garden areas, beginning with two symmetrical 60x24-foot beds in the gently sloping backyard, separated by a 30-foot swath of green lawn. Each bed contains eight pyramidal yews, which anchor the corners and stud the interiors of the beds.

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