A dream built in glass, for herbs, flowers and 'lots of fancy tomatoes'

Lucky the garden owner who has just the spot for an off-the-peg, ready-to-grow greenhouse. For the rest of us on bumpy, uneven and sloping ground or with inconvenient dimensions, the whole escapade becomes that much more tricky. Especially if the greenhouse is not going to be parked somewhere out of sight, but is to be a focal point. Who doesn’t dream of a greenhouse-cum-conservatory-cum-out-of-the-wind spot to enjoy a little winter sun?

Petra and Luke Hoyer Millar live in Oxfordshire, where they have designed and cherished a spectacular garden behind their 1500s manor house. They’d always wanted a greenhouse to overwinter their collection of agapanthus and when planning the garden had marked out a particular corner where it would sit. They then designed the garden and herb garden around it. ‘I also wanted to grow lots of fancy tomatoes,’ says Mrs Hoyer Millar, who is the brains behind The Dirt News, an online horticultural news site. ‘The problem is that none of the walls is straight and they meet at an awkward corner, which meant that the greenhouse would have to be bespoke.’

From the outset, they knew they wanted a clean and contemporary style that would at the same time look right with the house. ‘We didn’t want the finials or decorative details of the Victorian-style glasshouse.’ Restricted in terms of height on account of the walls, the Hoyer Millars also wanted to ensure visibility from the neighbouring garden was kept to a minimum.

Initial online searches for an architectural greenhouse had left them dismayed. ‘Then I found a picture of a glasshouse with this curved shape and knew it was exactly right,’ explains Mrs Hoyer Miller. ‘It has a very simple structure that basically encloses the two walls and looks modern, yet fits in with the house.’ Eventually, they found a specialist in wooden glasshouses who could accommodate the site, but this was during covid and sales of off-the-shelf models were rocketing. Such a complex bespoke build was less appealing to the company and the Hoyer Millers were forced to look elsewhere.

‘Using steel allowed for the curved shape we had in mind and, given how much time and money was going to go into this greenhouse, it made sense to construct it from steel, which would need less maintenance,’ says Mrs Hoyer Millar. The curved shape not only looks good, it maximises the growing space. ‘I also wanted the glass to come as near to the ground as possible and didn’t want to see the low walls the glass usually sits on — although we did consider having cold frames on the outside to hide the walls.’

In the end, they contacted a Belgian company, DBG Classics, which seemed to offer everything they needed, although it wasn’t clear at that point whether they would be able to ship the greenhouse to England. It was far from a straightforward commission: the property is Grade II* listed, requiring architect involvement and listed-building consent. The height of the glasshouse was dictated by the height of the existing stone walls, which did not line up with one another. To make matters worse, the walls ran at different angles, so there was an awkward corner (of more than 90 degrees), requiring an extra end section. ‘The Belgians weren’t at all fazed by any of it. They designed a cunning, tapered end section to align to the wall.’

In Europe, DBG installs the greenhouses for its clients, but as the company does not have a contractor in the UK, the greenhouse was to be delivered in kit form. To maximise the height of the greenhouse and not impair views from neighbouring property, the Hoyer Millars opted to sink it, with stone steps that take you down into it.

Meanwhile, a local builder was instructed to build up the two stone walls to the same level, adding an extra couple of feet and repointing. Photographs of the finished walls, together with the approved plans, were dispatched to Belgium. That was it. No further briefing was required. Twelve weeks later, four massive steel frames — including the extra section to accommodate the awkward corner — plus the steel door, the glass, the mastic and the bolts were delivered on a huge lorry. ‘It arrived beautifully — no broken glass. Then it was good luck and over to us.’

The same builders had prepared the ground, laying foundations, drainage and U-shaped beds in matching Marlstone around the perimeter of the glasshouse. Groundworks complete, they were now ready to erect the steel frame. This took one day, during which it was bolted into place and to the walls. The frames were painted and the glass was subsequently put in place. Lead flashing to keep out rain runs along the top of the structure and down the side, where it meets the other wall at the corner.

The result is a cool, contemporary glasshouse that has added the finishing touch to the herb garden. In winter, it provides the focal point and, in high summer, when taller herbs such as fennel, angelica, phlomis and foxgloves are in flower, it looks beautiful rising from behind their waving stems. The agapanthus spent a happy winter under glass and, last year, Mrs Hoyer Millar had more heritage tomatoes than she knew what to do with. A flowering crab apple, Malus toringo ‘Scarlett’, which opens from dusky-pink buds and produces small red fruits later in the year, has been planted nearby to give some shade, as the greenhouse is south facing and does get hot.

‘We didn’t want to put up shading in the greenhouse,’ says Mrs Hoyer Millar, who has also planted a pretty white rose, ‘Sally Holmes’, on the side wall — making the new greenhouse as beautiful outside as it is useful and enjoyable within.

This feature originally appeared in the February 25, 2026 issue of Country Life. Click here for more information on how to subscribe.