The English Garden June 2023 - Sample Issue

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CONTRIBUTORS

A photographer, psychotherapist and writer, Annie’s passions are climate resilience, wellbeing, and helping people reconnect with nature. Her photos of Home Farmhouse are on p36.

Formerly The English Garden’s online editor, Phoebe is now applying her knowledge as a professional gardener working in gardens of all sizes around London. She visits Windy Ridge on p57.

I’ve been thinking lately that ‘Do as I say, not as I do’ should probably be my epitaph. One of the ‘rules’ of gardening we so frequently espouse in this magazine is always to plant in groups of three or five, for those impactful swathes of colour you see in gardens that have been properly planted by a designer. Look outside my back door right now and you’ll find a cluster of new perennials in pots waiting to go in the ground. Three or five of the same thing? No: every single plant is di erent, one of each. All things that have caught my eye and been impulsively grabbed, without a second thought as to where they’ll go, what they’ll go with and how they’ll fit into the grand scheme of things. I really should be more disciplined and heed the advice we dispense, but the lure of some plants is just too strong. One impulse buy you’ll never regret, however, is a new rose. Coming into flower in June, these shrubs and climbers will bear their beautiful, fragrant blooms for decades, and in my book, they go with everything. The gardens inside this issue – Su olk’s Helmingham Hall and Kiftsgate in Gloucestershire among them – are full of temptingly gorgeous roses should you be waiting for an excuse to treat yourself to one – or three, or five! Discipline and restraint, like diets, can always begin tomorrow.

Jacky is a Cotswoldbased writer, stylist, photographer and gardener of flowerfilled, drought-tolerant perennial borders. She’s currently working on her new gravel garden, a topic she explores on page 127.

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CLARE FOGGETT, EDITOR

Phoebe Jayes

Annie GreenArmytage

Jacky Hobbs

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CONTENTS

subscription PAGE 24

Gardens

26 Helmingham Hall Revolutionary planting changes made by Xa Tollemache at this Su olk estate are now being respectfully adapted by her daughter-in-law, Sophie.

36 Home Farmhouse Rachel Hannyngton enjoys a two-way conversation with her beloved Norfolk garden, which is a place of connection and spirit.

47 Kirkside of Lochty By nurturing the design, softening boundaries and adding winter interest to this already accomplished Angus garden, Fi and Ed Troughton have slowly but surely made it their own.

57 Windy Ridge This Shropshire garden has withstood the rigours of its lofty site, growing up with the young couple who bought it 38 years ago into a beautifully mature space.

66 Kiftsgate Court Few things are as fine as the roses of this famous Cotswold garden reaching an enchanting summer crescendo.

77 The Summerhouse A sense of luxuriant excess permeates the rose-filled Cotswold garden of florist to the royals, Paul Thomas.

165 King Charles’s Gardens Bunny Guinness introduces three of the monarch’s gardens.

Plants

105 Top 10 Plants Try these colourful, fastgrowing flowers suggested by Robyn Booth, head gardener at Packwood House.

111 Plant Focus Rekindle your romance with old roses, whose charms are often neglected in favour of newer, repeat-flowering types.

Miscellanea

93 Outdoor Dining Expert advice on making the most of your garden for entertaining.

119 Eggleston Hall At this walled garden and nursery in County Durham, a wealth of plants are propagated on site, all hardy enough to withstand the exposed Teesdale location.

127 Gravel Gardens A sustainable solution to hotter, drier summers is a climate-resilient, biodiverse gravel garden, with droughttolerant plants from home and abroad.

137 Techniques Weave a classic cone to support climbing plants, with the guidance of Sussex Willow’s Dominic Parrette.

Regulars

This Month

Our guide to plants, people, gardens and events, tasks and shopping in June

Nepeta x faassenii ‘Purrsian Blue’

Round about now catmints start to flower in earnest, their abundant mauve-blue flowers augmenting mounds of silver-grey leaves. ‘Six Hills Giant’ and ‘Walker’s Low’ are border classics, but there are lots of other reliable cultivars. Last year, a trial of nepeta for the RHS Award of Garden Merit

(AGM) concluded at Wisley, with many winning this coveted badge of honour. One was ‘Purrsian Blue’: “ideal for containers, very floriferous and a good performer through the season throwing continuous new flowers”, the trial judges noted. For more AGM winners, visit rhs.org.uk/trials

People to Meet

Introducing the gardeners and public figures we most admire in British horticulture

we arrived: everything there now is what we put in. We started with potatoes then added broad beans. It was five years before I could support my family, so it’s been a labour of love. The plot is nine acres, plus some extra land down the road. We grow roses and apple trees flanked by blackcurrant bushes, and we have four 80m long vegetable beds.

Jane Scotter

Working holistically and ethically allows Jane Scotter to grow crops of the highest quality from her biodynamic farm at Fern Verrow

Food was my family’s great passion. We would travel to Italy a lot, any surplus money would go on eating out and my mother was an excellent cook. I wasn’t very interested in school, so my parents sent me to France to stay with a family and I had a lovely time and eventually did a Le Cordon Bleu cooking course.

I cooked for a living for a while but then lost inspiration.

That was when I discovered Neal’s Yard Dairy and became a partner, travelling around the country sampling the best cheeses. I stayed for 17 years, but after visiting so many gorgeous countryside areas, I left London and bought the farm at Fern Verrow in 1996.

I was naive about what running a farm would be like, but I was determined to make it work. It was run down when

I love working with Skye Gyngell, the chef and culinary director behind Somerset House restaurant Spring – we supply all their vegetable produce. We have the same drive and outlook on the importance of organic food and biodynamic growing. It’s been a fantastic nine-year working relationship, and Skye creates stunning menus based on what we grow here. I’m always trying to find new and exciting things to try to make every dish unique. This year I’m planning on trying some Chinese greens, sweet potatoes and ginger. Biodynamics, for me, is about appreciating beauty in di erent ways. It’s about respect for the land and the soil and it makes you think about things di erently. The vocabulary can be di cult because we no longer have to build fires or track the position of the sun, but this holistic and ethical approach is why my crops are of such high quality.

When I look to the future, I know I want to continue growing beautiful produce. I’ve never understood what people meant by retirement. I want us to continue being the best we possibly can be. fernverrow.com

RECOMMENDED

Jane’s favourite gardens to visit

Sissinghurst Castle Garden Kent

You really can’t beat Vita Sackville-West’s Sissinghurst. It’s so extraordinarily beautiful and one of the very best gardens in the UK for showing o some of the finest horticultural skills. nationaltrust.org.uk

Gardens of Monticello Virginia, USA

This garden near Charlottesville was designed by Thomas Je erson for his plantation. He had a real feel for gardening and there’s a lot of vegetables still growing there. It’s all set out beautifully. monticello.org

Out & About

Unmissable events, news and the very best gardens to visit this month

Horticultural Archive Tours at Borde Hill

12-18 June 2023, West Sussex

Borde Hill marks 130 years of planting excellence with some special celebrations this year. Visitors can pre-book access to the Grade II listed mansion house at the heart of these exquisite gardens, which will open exclusively for a week of tours. The house hosts a significant horticultural archive, which unlocks the exciting history of the rare and unusual plants that were gathered here from 1893 onwards. House, Archive & Garden Tour: £16. bordehill.co.uk

Hever in Bloom

19-22 June 2023, Kent

In a week-long summer celebration of roses, Hever Castle will host walks, talks and workshops, amid 5,000 blooming roses. Hever Castle’s gardeners and garden writer Val Bourne will lead walking tours and talks, which will comprehensively explore how to grow roses organically, with advice o ered on maintenance and the best breeders to buy from, as well as top tips on underplanting, feeding and pruning. The TV show Landscape Artist of the Year will also be on site, and visitors can watch artworks come to life in stunning surroundings. Gardens only, adult: £17.15. hevercastle.co.uk

London Open Gardens

10-11 June, London

Over 100 green spaces around the capital, which are not normally accessible to the public, will open in aid of London Parks & Gardens. Highlights include the 17thcentury Kitchen Garden at Chiswick House, the commanding views of the South Bank from Nomura International PLC’s roof garden, Lincoln’s Inn in Holborn, and the historic Montague Street Gardens in the heart of Bloomsbury. Weekend tickets give access to every open garden. Adult: £20. londongardenstrust.org

NGS Garden

Mindrum Garden

Northumberland

Mindrum has evolved into a series of gardens including a rose garden, limestone rock garden, fishponds with terraced area, a woodland walk with mature pines, and a wildflower garden by the river. Lawns surround the house and you can enjoy a profusion of scents, colours, textures and sounds in this magical space. Opens Sunday 18 June 2-5pm.

Admission: Adult £6; children free. Home-made teas available. ngs.org.uk