6 BEAUTIFUL BRITISH GARDENS AT THEIR SUMMER BEST
THE
english
GARDEN JULY 2022
For everyone who loves beautiful gardens
Romantic
ROSES
Gorgeous gardens filled with perfect blooms
Pretty summer planting ideas
How to choose and display
GARDEN ART
TIME FOR CHELSEA What’s on at this year’s show
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CONTRIBUTORS
Natasha Goodfellow Natasha is the author of A London Flora. She writes for magazines and curates events such as Beautiful & Useful on 17-18 September 2022. She visits David Austin Jnr’s garden on p12.
Chris Beardshaw Chris is a designer, plantsman, author and broadcaster. He has been creating gardens and landscapes for over 25 years; his latest, at Pitmedden in Scotland, is open now. He visits Wollerton Old Hall on page 28.
Welcome I
came across a quote from Gertrude Jekyll a few days ago: “What is one to say about June – the time of perfect young summer, the fulfilment of the promise of earlier months, and with as yet no sign to remind one that its fresh young beauty will ever fade?” I thought: Ms Jekyll has really hit the nail on the head there! Isn’t that exactly what we all love about June? And roses, of course, their tight buds now unfurling at pace to fill our gardens with opulent flowers and sumptuous scent. I sometimes wish we could freeze time and hold our gardens at this stage forever, but then we wouldn’t be able to look forward to our roses blooming, and half the point would be lost. Still, the June gardens in this issue have been captured at that glorious moment, and there are roses galore in the private garden of David Austin Jnr in Shropshire, at timeless Wollerton Old Hall in Shropshire, in florist Milli Proust’s pretty Sussex cottage garden, and plenty more besides. In the absence of the ability to pause time, the only thing to do is to make the most of every moment spent in your garden in early summer. Take in its ‘fresh young beauty’ and revel in the roses while they are at their very best. Enjoy the issue.
IMAGES NEIL HEPWORTH; JAYNE LLOYD; JAMES GLOSSOP
CLARE FOGGETT, EDITOR
Ann Treneman Ann is an awardwinning writer and columnist for The Times, who writes on a wide variety of topics including gardening, which has been a life-long interest. She pays a visit to Church Cottage on page 44.
ON THE COVER Church Cottage in Derbyshire squeezes roses, a box parterre, and an industrious vegetable garden into a long, narrow plot. Photographed by Joe Wainwright.
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JULY 2022 THE ENGLISH GARDEN 5
July 2022
CONTENTS
28
53
28
44 12 36 22
Gardens 12 David Austin Jnr’s Garden It’s no surprise that the son of the famed late rosarian fills his Shropshire garden with an abundance of roses. But he uses them in unexpected ways that go far beyond the traditional. 22 Milli Proust’s Garden If you go down to the woods today, you’ll find a delightful cutting garden, surrounded by trees on the edge of a Sussex nature reserve. 28 Wollerton Old Hall John and Lesley Jenkins have completely reworked the Shropshire garden of Lesley’s idyllic childhood to create an enchanting space of mature accomplishment. 36 Rockcliffe Emma and Simon Keswick started work on their Cotswold garden over 40 years ago, and are now reaping the ample rewards of its lavishly mature planting.
69
44 Church Cottage In the heart of a Derbyshire village, a garden path leads the visitor past a miniature parterre, quirky topiary, classic cottage planting, an orderly vegetable plot and masses of roses. 53 Wormistoune There is a fairy-tale quality to this 17th-century house near Fife, with its towers and gables and fabled ‘wyrm’. The gardens extend the theme with romantic roses and a serpent motif to fit the legend.
Design
12 6 THE ENGLISH GARDEN JULY 2022
75
61 Chelsea Preview A look at the people, plants and gardens that will make this year’s RHS Chelsea Flower Show one to remember. 69 Sculpture Three curators of outdoor sculpture share their expertise on choosing garden art and displaying it to its best advantage in the space you have.
36
ll
UNIQUE OPPORTUNITY FOR LEARNING FROM BRITISH GARDENERS ONE YEAR GOOD GARDENING DIPLOMA September 2022 – beginning July 2023
Covers the best in planting design while training in the more serious aspects of horticultural techniques. Practical sessions held at Arundel Castle under the guidance of head gardener Martin Duncan and at Sandhill Farm House, Rogate. Lectures by many leading gardening personalities and regular visits to exclusive private gardens. Students also learn to draw up planting plans. (1 day a week (Tues), 10.30am–3.15pm, over three terms)
THE ESSENTIAL GARDEN DESIGN DIPLOMA January – March 2022
Based at the Chelsea Physic Garden and led by Rosemary Alexander and architect Catriona Rowbotham, the course is an overview of Garden Design, covering all the elements needed to rethink an average garden. Taking students step by step through site surveying, using the grid, horizontal and vertical features, garden layouts and planting plans, costing and specification, plus drawing tuition and homework on design and plant portfolios. Tutors are well respected in the industry and will guide students on how to succeed in this diverse profession. (2 days a week (Wed & Thur) 10.30am-3.15pm, plus 2 days homework)
GARDENING FOR BEGINNERS
Wednesday & Thursday 20,21,27,28 April 2022
Plants
IMAGES JOE WAINWRIGHT; RICHARD BLOOM; SIMON GUDGEON; CLIVE NICHOLS; ANNAÏCK GUITENNY
75 Plant Focus Their colourful, flat flowerheads are the perfect landing pads for the pollinators that adore them, making achillea a sensible choice for those keen to attract garden wildlife, as National Collection holder John Cullen explains to Louise Curley.
One of our most popular courses, led by master horticulturalist Ben Pope, which aims to take each student through all the practical elements of caring for a garden from soil, tools, maintenance, seed sowing and propagating, weed control and pests and diseases. The first 3 days will be spent at the Chelsea Physic Garden and the final day will be spent gaining practical experience in Rosemary Alexander’s much praised garden near Petersfield and the garden nearby, where Ben is in charge. Participants will be given a chance to prune, plant, sow seeds and regular maintenance tasks will be discussed. A light lunch and refreshments will be provided daily.
GARDEN DESIGN & CARING FOR YOUR GARDEN
Distance Learning Courses study anytime, anywhere in the world
A stepping stone to a new career. These two correspondence courses are a step by step guide to either designing your own garden or learning how to plant and maintain an existing garden: drawing up plans, hard landscaping, site analysis, planting, month by month tasks etc. Taught through a comprehensive course book, with projects submitted to us. 1-3 years to complete and individual assessment.
80 Plant Swatch Try something new in your garden this summer with the classic daisy flowers of leucanthemum, which suit both formal borders and naturalistic schemes.
Regulars 8 On Location One of the sunniest spots in England, South Devon’s turquoise waters, quaint fishing villages and enticingly rugged coastline make it a gorgeous destination for discerning holidaymakers. 10 Out & About News, events, jobs to do – and the gardens around the country offering extravagant summer peony displays. 82 Last Word The move towards more sustainable gardening reflects our wider concerns about the sustainability of the planet in general, explains Katherine Swift.
Garden of Medicinal Plants – Chelsea Physic Garden
Photo: R Alexander
Not sure which Diploma course is for you? Come along to an information session to see our location and find out more.
www.englishgardeningschool.co.uk Email: info@englishgardeningschool.co.uk Tel: +44 (0) 207 352 4347 Long established as the leader in all design and gardening tuition and based at the unique and historic Chelsea Physic Garden
JULY 2022 THE ENGLISH GARDEN 7
ON LOCATION
SOUTH DEVON
A Place in the Sun A mild microclimate and turquoise sea lend South Devon a Mediterranean feel
A direct train from London Paddington to Newton Abbot takes two hours and 30 minutes. The drive is around 200 miles.
T
he ‘English Riviera’ is the term applied to the sunniest parts of coastal South Devon, and its application reflects its reputation as a gorgeous destination for discerning holidaymakers. Spanning 22 miles between the towns of Torquay and Brixham, it takes in secluded coves and sandy beaches, fishing villages with cobbled streets, and dramatic red sandstone cliffs and off-shore stacks.
8 THE ENGLISH GARDEN JULY 2022
South Devon’s relative distance from major cities, combined with its isolated spots, for centuries enabled smugglers who relied on tunnels, caves and complicit pub landlords, to transport their loot. These days it’s ‘grockles’, the local term for holidaymakers, that you are most likely to see on the beaches here, especially around fashionable Salcombe. This characterful region also inspired two of the great English mystery writers. Dame Agatha
Great Escapes Stay amid a Repton landscape, visit the home of Agatha Christie and enjoy an organic feast at Riverford A PLACE TO STAY To the west
of Dartmoor, Hotel Endsleigh is the former hunting lodge of the first Duke of Bedford. It is set in 100 acres of grounds designed by Humphry Repton. Explore grottoes, woods and follies before retiring to a comfortable suite. There are just 19 rooms in this boutique hotel, and each is decorated in an individual, stylish way. hotelendsleigh.com
IMAGES SHUTTERSTOCK; ANDREW BUTLER/NATIONAL TRUST
Yachts anchored in a bay of the River Yealm, near Newton Ferrers, one of many such inlets on the Devon coast.
Christie was born and spent most of her life in the seaside town of Torquay, while Sir Arthur Conan Doyle set his fourth Sherlock Holmes novel, The Hound of the Baskervilles, on exposed Dartmoor. Gardeners will do well to stop at Dartington Hall (dartington.org), near quirky Totnes. The other side of the river from pretty Dartmouth, with its sailboats moored in the estuary, Coleton Fishacre (nationaltrust.org.uk) is an RHS-accredited garden. Now in the care of the National Trust, it belonged to the D’Oyly Carte family, whose company staged Gilbert and Sullivan operas, and is home to tender plants from New Zealand and the Mediterranean. Closer to Plymouth, visit exquisite Mothecombe Gardens (flete.co.uk), where exuberant planting fills the Lutyens-designed walled garden. ■
A GARDEN TO VISIT Greenway House was Agatha Christie’s family holiday home from 1938. The atmospheric Georgian house is fascinating, while the garden, with views of the River Dart, contains glasshouses, a fernery and a walled garden worked by local schoolchildren as part of a project initiated by Christie. Don’t miss the small pet cemetery in which her dogs are buried. nationaltrust.org.uk
A MEAL TO ENJOY Near
Buckfastleigh, Riverford is a pioneering organic farm that now distributes vegetables nationwide. Explore the on-site kitchen garden, then enjoy the award-winning vegetable-focused restaurant, which serves dishes like grilled tomatoes, and fennel and blood orange salad alongside pork belly. fieldkitchen.riverford.co.uk JULY 2022 THE ENGLISH GARDEN 9
JULY
Out & About
Phoebe Jayes recommends some of the UK’s best gardens for peonies and rounds up outdoor jobs to do in summer – as well as the latest news
Summer jobs Keep sowing small batches of salad leaves, radishes and lettuce for a continuous crop. Make sure coldframes and greenhouses are kept well ventilated, especially on very warm and sunny days. Move tomatoes into their final planting position, and pinch out any side shoots to direct the plants’ energy into producing lots of fruit.
Peony PARTY Enjoy the ravishingly extravagant blooms of peonies as gardens around the country admit visitors to see their early-summer displays Spetchley Park Gardens
Hidcote Manor Gardens
Highdown Gardens
This historic garden (above) in Worcestershire is home to rare plants, shrubs and trees from across the globe. From spring, over 160 herbaceous and tree peonies bloom. Tel: +44 (0)1905 345106; spetchleygardens.co.uk
Stroll around thematic outdoor rooms at this garden in the Cotswolds and enjoy a flamboyant collection of tree peonies in the Pillar Garden and herbaceous and tree varieties elsewhere. Tel: +44 (0)1386 438333; nationaltrust.org.uk
Herbaceous peonies stud this chalk garden in the South Downs. It also has a superb collection of tree peonies in its lower garden, including P. delavayi and P. suffruticosa. Tel: +44 (0)1903 501054; highdowngardens.co.uk
Cambridge University Botanic Gardens Discover more than 8,000 plant species growing in different areas. Peonies cluster in various sections of this garden, including glamorous white Paeonia suffruticosa ‘Rock’s Variety’ on the Lynch Walk. Tel: +44 (0)1223 336265; botanic.cam.ac.uk 10 THE ENGLISH GARDEN JULY 2022
Hodnet Hall A chain of ornamental pools run through this Shropshire garden (left) with tree peonies growing near the water and in woodland areas. Herbaceous and intersectional Itoh hybrid peonies cluster in the walled gardens and pleasure gardens. Tel: +44 (0)1630 685786; hodnethallgardens.org
Divide congested clumps of bearded iris, after they have finished flowering for summer. Water containers, especially if the weather is warm and dry, using collected rainwater if possible. Sow biennials that will flower next spring and summer, such as foxgloves, sweet williams, honesty and sweet rocket (hesperis).
Pots of
MORE NGS
PROFUSION
gardens to visit
The National Garden Scheme (NGS), through which private gardens open their gates to raise money for nursing and health charities, is expanding its territory this year. “We’re delighted that our gardens in England and Wales are opening in their usual numbers in 2022, and that, additionally, gardens are opening for the first time in Northern Ireland and The Channel Islands,” said chief executive George Plumptre. “This is our first sortie into new geographical territories and I’m sure we will see expansion in both in the coming years.” Discover the new gardens at ngs.org.uk
REPORT ON
Britain’s hedgehogs
Summer is the time to plant up spectacular container displays. Among the highlights of plant breeder Proven Winners’ 2022 introductions is Calibrachoa ‘Superbells Double Twilight’. More refined and dainty than a petunia, these reliable bedding plants produce a profusion of double flowers in a pretty shade of silvery lavender with a darker purple centre, from summer to autumn. Plant three to a pot to ensure a generous mound of blooms, or team it with other toning bedding plants that are ideal for containers, such as verbena and heliotrope. provenwinners.com
A new-for-2022 report by wildlife charities People’s Trust for Endangered Species (PTES) and The British Hedgehog Preservation Society (BHPS) has revealed that Britain’s hedgehog populations have declined in rural areas by 30-75 per cent nationally since 2000, with the largest declines in the eastern half of England. Urban hedgehog populations, however, appear to have stabilised and may be starting to recover from a previous decline. To see the full report, visit hedgehogstreet.org
IMAGES SHUTTERSTOCK; CLIVE HAYNES; BHPS
NEW RHS partner gardens Dunvegan Castle & Gardens (right) on the Isle of Skye has been accepted into the Royal Horticultural Society’s Partner Gardens, allowing RHS members free access to the gardens during the open season. The gardens have been extensively re-landscaped since 1978 by Hugh MacLeod and his dedicated team. (dunvegancastle.com). Other new partner gardens for 2022 include The Newt in Somerset, The Bressingham Gardens in Norfolk, Hillsborough Castle in Northern Ireland and Leonardslee in West Sussex. In Cumbria, Larch Cottage Nurseries has won the Partner Garden of the Year competition. Visit rhs.org.uk JULY 2022 THE ENGLISH GARDEN 11
12 THE ENGLISH GARDEN JULY 2022
Like Father, LIKE SON It’s no surprise that David Austin Jnr, son of the famed late rosarian, fills his Shropshire garden with roses. But he uses them in ways that go far beyond the traditional WORDS NATASHA GOODFELLOW PHOTOGRAPHS RICHARD BLOOM
David Austin Jnr has filled his garden with roses, including ‘Princess Anne’ as a standard and a ‘Lady of Shalott’ hedge. JULY 2022 THE ENGLISH GARDEN 13
Above ‘Princess Anne’ standards emerge from beds of perennials, while a carpet of different thymes provides an unusual underplanting. Right Rosa ‘Harlow Carr’, one of hundreds of popular English roses from David Austin’s decades of breeding.
T
he David Austin name is synonymous with roses. In the 1950s, beguiled by the romance of the old garden roses – gallicas, damasks, albas and centifolias – David C. H. Austin (1926-2018) began crossing these pink, red and white blooms with the modern hybrid teas that were so popular at the time. His aim was to attain the perfect ‘English rose’: a plant with the beauty, grace and scent of the old varieties and the colours and repeat-flowering habit of the newcomers. During his career he introduced around 200 new cultivars, from Rosa ‘Constance Spry’ in 1961 (not a repeat flowerer) and, in 1983, his first full successes, pink ‘Mary Rose’ and golden-petalled ‘Graham Thomas’, to lemon-yellow shrub ‘Tottering-byGently’, one of three to make a debut in 2018.
14 THE ENGLISH GARDEN JULY 2022
Above Rosa ‘Lady of Shalott’, a beautiful variety with orange flowers, used by David in his semi-circular hedge. Below Standard roses underplanted with Alchemilla mollis line the path to the former rectory’s front door.
It is no surprise then to learn that his eldest son, namesake and managing director of the business since 1990 shares his passion. “I genuinely feel a rose offers more diversity than any other type of plant,” says David Austin Jnr. “Few other plants can compete with roses. Peonies do, certainly in terms of their shape and form, but they’re disappointingly short flowering. I love snowdrops too, especially since they come at a time when nothing else is in flower. And irises are fantastic but they’re relatively one-dimensional. With a rose you can go from the smallest miniature to a standard to a rambler – the range of what they provide in terms of garden design is immense.” David had, of course, used roses in his previous gardens, but none afforded the scope of this 2.5 acre plot surrounding a Grade II-listed former rectory in Shropshire to which David and his partner, Penny, moved 11 years ago. “The garden had suffered 25 years of neglect when we took it on,” says David, “but among the tangle of rhododendrons and self-seeded sycamores, there were some fantastic specimens such as a rare handkerchief tree [Davidia involucrata] and a huge beech, indicating that somebody before me had been a great gardener. It was just the project I wanted: I could see the potential.” The first step was to clear the site to see what they had to work with – a mammoth task that took the best part of a year, and which is still keeping the couple in firewood a decade on. What was revealed was a picture-perfect setting, looking out over fields towards Brown Clee Hill with the adjacent village church and its 12th-century tower abutting the garden’s southern edge. “It’s almost as if we’d placed it there as a garden feature,” says David, laughing. As David chopped and cleared, he planned the garden’s layout. “I took a big sheet of graph paper and drew out what I wanted,” he says, describing his vision for “a lot of flowers and different areas of interest in the front garden” and for a calmer, more relaxed space to the rear, where three streams babble through the grounds. Needless to say, roses very much form the backbone of the design. Instead of using the more typical yew or box to divide the space, David has used roses – the beautiful apricot ‘Lady of Shalott’ forming a perfect semi-circular hedge in front of the house and, elsewhere, the wilder-looking ‘Kew Gardens’ making an effective boundary between
rose o ers ore di ersit t a a ot er t e o la t e ot er la ts a o ete it roses
JULY 2022 THE ENGLISH GARDEN 15
David’s ducks and chickens keep the slugs under control, keeping a bed packed with hostas free of these pests.
16 THE ENGLISH GARDEN JULY 2022
Above left Rosa ‘Kew
Gardens’ forms a low, informal hedge, covered in white flowers. Above right Rosa ‘The Country Parson’. Left ‘Morning Mist’ is a large shrub rose. Below Clusters of small pink and white flowers on Rosa ‘Ballerina’.
a small orchard and a wildflower meadow. Rose standards including ‘Princess Anne’ and ‘Young Lycidas’ (“a really old-fashioned looking flower with an amazing fragrance,” notes David) add height and drama to the borders and make a refreshing change from the usual topiary. There are roses used as underplanting (a froth of ‘Ballerina’ at the base of a birch tree), roses in mixed beds and, yes, a formal rose garden, of which more later. There are roses trained on walls and roses trained over arches (‘The Albrighton Rambler’ and ‘Malvern Hills’ – “an incredible rose for a large archway,” according to David) though not, interestingly, on obelisks – the only obelisk is home to a clematis. “That does seem a little remiss,” says David with a smile. Even in the verdant, relatively unadorned back garden there are roses – old rose ‘Rambling Rector’, introduced in 1899, and species roses including R. ecae, with its yellow flowers reminiscent of buttercups, and Rosa sericea subsp. omeiensis f. pteracantha, which flowers in early to mid May. That David includes older roses might seem surprising, especially when you consider that his company now trials around 6,000 new varieties every year, but he is keen to have – and to offer his customers – the very best, even if that means stocking a cultivar not bred in house. “We don’t and can’t cover every base,” he says. “There are roses that are better than anything we can do, or which offer something we haven’t yet bred.” Rosa glauca – beloved by garden designers for its grey foliage and red stems – is a case in point, as is the moss rose, ‘William Lobb’, whose moss has a scent as alluring as the rose itself. The drawback for David, however, as for his father, is that these old roses flower only once. “It’s a shame when you consider that a rose
ere are roses used as u der la ti roses i i ed beds a d es a or al rose arde
JULY 2022 THE ENGLISH GARDEN 17
can flower twice or more, giving you so much more pleasure from your plant.” This attitude – of wanting as much pleasure from the garden as possible – informs not just David’s choice of roses, but his planting style as well, and it’s interesting to note that he is currently redesigning the rose garden (which had been planted with only roses, as is traditional) to include a wider palette of plants. “Commercially, I know I should be encouraging everyone to plant a rose garden,” he says, “but for sheer pleasure and to extend the flowering season even more, I think roses mixed with herbaceous perennials are just wonderful.” 18 THE ENGLISH GARDEN JULY 2022
In some places he combines the two quite deliberately. Along the main pathway, roses have been planted individually in bays with specific underplanting for each one to form a series of ‘portraits’ as you walk along – white ‘Desdemona’ with the sultry Astrantia ‘Hadspen Blood’ is a particular favourite. Elsewhere, the colours of a standard of ‘Princess Anne’ are echoed in the cushions of Erigeron karvinskianus and Persicaria affinis ‘Superba’ skirting its base. It’s not all about combinations though. The garden is designed to have as long a season of interest as possible, beginning with snowdrops,
Top left Rosa ‘Malvern
Hills’ softens an arch.
Top right Astrantia
‘Hadspen Blood’ is an excellent rose partner. Above right The view of the front garden from above reveals its geometric layout. Above left Standard rose ‘Princess Anne’.
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Top left A tranquil pond
with waterlilies in a quiet corner of the garden. Top right Along the garden’s boundary, hummocks of yew are interspersed with roses. Left ‘Olivia Rose Austin’, here growing as a shrub and as a standard, was named after David Austin Jnr’s daughter.
20 THE ENGLISH GARDEN JULY 2022
crocuses, hellebores and daffodils. A large bed of hostas, “something I’ve always wanted to do,” says David, provides striking foliage for much of the year, with a flock of ducks and chickens keeping slugs in check. Two large symmetrical carpets of thyme are evergreen, aromatic and in flower from June until October, while grasses such as Calamagrostis x acutiflora ‘Karl Foerster’ and heleniums mixed with roses ‘Roald Dahl’ and ‘Tottering-by-Gently’ add colour and movement well into autumn. No garden can be in bloom all year round, but this one, with its two glorious crescendos of roses in late May and early June, and in September/October, and a strong supporting cast for the rest of the year, manages it better than most. As David says: “Roses are all about their context and how you use them. They can hold their own as prima donnas, but when they’re complemented by other plants it makes them just that bit more special.” ■
Sure of a Big SURPRISE
If you go down to the woods today, you’ll find florist Milli Proust’s delightful cutting garden, surrounded by trees on the edge of a Sussex nature reserve WORDS CLARE COULSON PHOTOGRAPHS MIMI CONNOLLY
22 THE ENGLISH GARDEN JULY 2022
The beautiful garden around Milli Proust’s West Sussex cottage is inspired by and informs her work as a florist.
JULY 2022 THE ENGLISH GARDEN 23
Clockwise from above
Euphorbia oblongata and white rose ‘Desdemona’ in a packed bed; ‘Coral Reef’ poppies in the foreground, rose ‘Felicia’ behind; Milli with her whippet, Jimmy; hostas and pittosporum provide a leafy foil for classic cottage flowers.
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I
t’s hard to imagine a more bucolic slice of rural England than Milli Proust’s home in the hamlet of Bedham in West Sussex. The mid-17th-century timbered cottage, with leaded windows and a catslide roof, is surrounded by a nature reserve on the Low Weald known as The Mens, an ancient woodland rich with oaks, beech, hazel and field maples. “We are set in a dip so we have trees on every side,” Milli explains. “In April it sounds like you’re in a jungle – the birdsong echoes all around us. It’s incredible.” When her boyfriend, Ted, bought the cottage six years ago, the one-acre garden already had some good bones, including an old hedgerow with spiraea, blackthorn, ivy, honeysuckle and rose that wraps around the boundary, not to mention mature yew hedging and existing borders that had been used as a dahlia cutting patch. There were lots of self-seeders – white foxgloves, linaria, euphorbia – a handful of beautiful roses (‘Felicia’ and the pink rambler ‘Paul Transon’) and stunning blue ‘Persian Slipper’ lupins. Milli relocated the dahlias that were dominating the beds and created perennial borders with the lupins as the stars of the show. Back then she was still commuting into London to work as an archivist (although she had originally trained as an actor), so she planted a ‘night garden’ that could be enjoyed at dusk. A succession of luminous narcissus and hellebores are followed by pale wallflowers, tulips, foxgloves, roses ‘Gentle Hermione’ and ‘Desdemona’, campanulas, jasmine and phlox, with some additional structure from yew balls. “I read that Vita Sackville-West had created her White Garden at Sissinghurst because she and Harold walked to dinner through that part of the garden and she wanted the plants to light the way,” she explains. “It was so romantic, and I planted the garden with that in mind – to shimmer in the low light of the moon – so I could enjoy it even if I didn’t get to spend much time in it during daylight hours.” Milli’s work as a floral designer and the need to create enough flowers to supply it, is what drives this garden. An old vegetable patch at the rear of the cottage has been quadrupled in size and renovated to provide a cut-flower patch with coppiced wood fencing and arches. In 2020 she created additional long beds, delineated by low wooden fences, for 52 peonies underplanted with a succession of bulbs, followed by Alchemilla mollis and scented geraniums. Ted’s newly planted orchards, which provide fruit for cider-making, present a further opportunity to underplant spring bulbs, wildflowers, achillea, astilbes and leucojums. They recently managed to squeeze another 10,000 bulbs in here. The transition to full-time floristry was organic. Milli started by supplying arrangements for weddings, working for friends and friends of friends, building her reputation through word of mouth.
Above left Deepest
purple-blue spires of ‘Persian Slipper’ lupins. Above right One of Milli’s flower arrangements sits on the windowsill of the 17th-century timbered cottage she shares with her boyfriend, Ted.
Eventually she found herself with a flourishing business, doing flowers for weddings and events and running workshops. Then Covid struck and all events were cancelled, but the market for bouquets of British-grown flowers suddenly boomed. “Like so many local growers, I sold every stem. In 2020 my working days from April to September were 14 hours long without a break. I was trying to harvest, condition, create flowers, ship them out and keep selling them all on my own,” says Milli. “It was relentless and beautiful and I was lucky to be able to carry on and make it work despite everything.” Somehow, in the maelstrom of that most unprecedented year, she managed to create incredible arrangements each week for ‘Windowsill Wednesday’ where seasonal displays or installations would be styled within the leaded windows of her cottage to the delight of her Instagram followers. Instagram has been a wonderful source of advice too – as it is for most selftaught new gardeners. “People share knowledge and I can ask questions and not feel too stupid. I spend as much spare time as I can cramming, absorbing and doing, so it’s been a very steep learning curve. My grandmother is very horticulturally minded and my dad got into gardening at the same time as me, so it’s been nice to have family support and chat.” Her work as a florist has been the defining force for the garden. “It’s utterly symbiotic,” she explains. “I get excited about picking what to grow, because
“In 2020 my working days were 14 hours long. It was relentless and beautiful and I was lucky to be able to carry on”
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PASTEL Perfection Beautiful, soft-hued blooms, chosen as much for their beauty in the garden as for cutting
ROSA ‘FELICIA’
LINARIA PURPUREA
LAVATERA ‘LILAC LADY’
Bred in 1928, this repeat-flowering shrub rose has stood the test of time. Fruitily scented flowers on bushy 1.5m shrubs.
Elegant, slender spikes of flowers rise from this perennial in summer. Try ‘Canon Went’ for pale pink flowers.
An unusual vintage-mauve version of the more familiar pink lavatera. A 1.5m shrub for sun, with grey-green leaves.
NEPETA ‘SIX HILLS GIANT’
ROSA ‘DARCEY BUSSELL’
The go-to catmint for a dreamy wash of lavender-blue flowers all summer, above mounds of grey-green leaves.
This crimson-pink David Austin rose repeat flowers, making it an ideal choice for anyone growing roses for cutting.
LEUCANTHEMUM ‘PHYLLIS SMITH’
ASTRANTIA MAJOR ‘STAR OF LOVE’
NIGELLA DAMASCENA
PAPAVER ‘CORAL REEF’
The white version of love-in-a-mist is easily grown from an autumn or spring sowing and will seed itself around.
A lovely, early-flowering oriental poppy with large, coral-pink, silk-petalled blooms. Give it a spot in full sun.
This perennial’s pincushion flowers are great for floristry, picked fresh or dried.
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A shaggy variety of shasta daisy to bring a hint of wildness to borders.
I’m excited about the colours, forms, textures and shapes for designs I have in mind. And then, when it comes to designing, I want to honour and echo the way the plant grows in the garden. I want my arrangements to reflect the way the garden grows.” Nothing is safe from Milli’s snips – the whole garden is fair game when it comes to her design work. “I’m always stuffing things in the permanent borders that I can use in my designs. I never seem to have enough flowers. If there’s one spectacular rose in the permanent borders, I’ll have no qualms about snipping it for a bridal bouquet.” Prized roses are often in greatest danger. They are a favourite for growing but also for arranging, and Milli often receives new varieties for her birthday, which falls in the middle of June. Favourites for cutting include ‘Desdemona’ (“She’s romantic and open and looks delicate but holds her petals”), yellow ‘Lichfield Angel’ and ‘Valencia’, which blows open to reveal a wonderful buff-gold, gorgeous paletoffee hybrid tea ‘Vidal Sassoon’ and the warmer terracotta ‘Hot Chocolate’. This summer she’s added ‘Summer Song’ and ‘Golden Celebration’ to the mix. The garden is worked incredibly intensively but, according to Milli, “it’s very generous and productive”. To keep it productive, a heavy mulch of
“If there’s one spectacular rose in the permanent borders I’ll have no qualms about snipping it for a bridal bouquet” largely home-made compost is applied each winter to mitigate how much is demanded of the soil: “I’ve really worked at making the best compost that I can. We went on a Charles Dowding no-dig course, which was one of the best things I ever did.” And everything is grown as sustainably as possible. In 2019, two huge rain tanks were buried underground to catch rainwater, which is then used to irrigate the cut flowers over the summer months – any overspill joins the wild stream at the bottom of the garden. For one afternoon each week Milli has help from two gardeners, who assist with weeding and cutting hedges to keep the garden in order, as well as bigger jobs such as mulching or creating new growing areas. “It’s especially helpful to have the extra hands when seedlings are desperate to get into the ground – I always end up running out of time and they help me from hitting burnout.” Despite her intense schedule Milli has also managed to create her own collection of cut-flower seeds, available from her website. She even found
Top Looking down on
the garden from the sloping, wooded hills that cradle it. Above left Milli keeps honeybees but also encourages all kinds of wildlife, like this opportunistic spider. Above right Lupin ‘Gallery Red’, given to Milli by her father.
time to create the packaging – each packet is decorated with one of her watercolour illustrations. Just over two years ago she was wondering whether her business, which had relied so heavily on live events, could survive the pandemic, but it was her 92-year-old grandmother who gave her the coolheadedness to carry on: “She said: ‘You can figure it out – just get the flowers out there.’” ■ Milli Proust Flowers, milliproust.com JULY 2022 THE ENGLISH GARDEN 27
Paradise REVISED
At Shropshire’s Wollerton Old Hall, John and Lesley Jenkins have completely reworked the garden of Lesley’s idyllic childhood to create an enchanting space of mature accomplishment WORDS CHRIS BEARDSHAW PHOTOGRAPHS JOE WAINWRIGHT
David Austin roses, Salvia microphylla and stachys throng around the base of stately, deep blue delphiniums.
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The symmetry of the Lower Rill Garden is softened by rose pink Iris ensata, box balls and hydrangeas.
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o enter the gardens of Wollerton Old Hall is to receive the definitive tutorial in the art, style and essence of the English garden, and yet Wollerton has emerged without overt ceremony or publicity and is unmolested by designer ego. Consequently, this garden reveals a charming humility; a personable, relatable and generous character that quietly expresses a performance of sublime brilliance. The route to becoming a jewel among the nation’s finest gardens was, however, far from well defined. Just a short distance from Market Drayton in north Shropshire, Wollerton Old Hall is a private garden and home to Lesley and John Jenkins. They bought the property in 1983, but this was by no means Lesley’s first encounter with the 16th-century hall. “My father was a flying instructor in the Royal Air Force, stationed at RAF Ternhill in Shropshire. Looking for somewhere to rent, my parents came to Wollerton Old Hall,” she explains. “The house itself was the Grade II listed remaining wing of a large Elizabethan hall that had medieval origins. It hadn’t
Above Hot colours in
the Lanhydrock Garden, including Ligularia ‘Desdemona’, salvias, achillea and roses. Below Alstroemeria ‘Orange Glory’.
been lived in for well over ten years, but we adored it, shambolic though it was.” “When she peeled back the grass, my mother discovered the remnants of an Elizabethan knot garden. This was a garden of delight, especially for us children. We each had our own den, picnics abounded, and our imaginations were firing on all cylinders. My mother was artistic and loved plants. She dug a border for perennials and my father occasionally cut the lawns.” Later, Lesley and her family moved on and the garden’s destiny lay in new hands. But as for so many of us, an innate, deep-rooted connection to a place of childhood idyll can become engraved in the memory, continuing to exert a strong draw, and in Lesley’s case this didn’t diminish, even after an absence of two decades. “Married now to John, with two young sons, I was teaching in Shrewsbury and, delayed on my usual route by tractors, I took a detour past my old home and saw it was up for sale. We bought it in a leap of faith and moved back in,” she continues. But as any gardener will testify, few gardens persist when JULY 2022 THE ENGLISH GARDEN 31
they have been left vulnerable to the passage of time. “Where the romantic garden of my childhood memories had been, cows grazed; where once roses had rambled, they had gone; and the Elizabethan knot garden had vanished,” Lesley recalls. “So, we set about making our garden. There was no masterplan, just beds to house our collection of plants and a space for the children to play.” Morphing from dilapidated orchard and bullock pasture into arguably the finest garden of its type in the past 50 years was perhaps never the intention. Yet this is a garden of serendipity, where site, environment, opportunity and architecture have all colluded with its creators’ extraordinary talent, passion and single-mindedness. So, despite an inauspicious start, perhaps its destiny was inevitable. In the true tradition of Jekyll and Lutyens, the garden was born of a personal partnership between two visions and pools of talent for whom specialism, interest and concept was unusually complementary. Lesley and John collectively breathed life into
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Below The view to the
pergola from the Sundial Garden takes in its carefully choreographed borders, filled with country garden classics.
their garden, the contributions of each being quite different; from ethereal artistry to pragmatic perfection, the blending of their skillsets has manifested in a work of great confidence, elegance and captivating personality. “Formality, I decided, suited the area nearer to the house, which would then give way to merge with the countryside, nature and wildlife,” Lesley recalls. “Nothing was put down on paper, it was all in my head. The Lime Allée was achieved with two children holding baler twine, while John and I marked it out with sticks.” This principle of formality displays itself in an axial geometry that offers views and vistas, penetrating deep into the meticulously choreographed spatial sequencing. But more than just long views, these delightful perspectives are designed so that each reveals an abundance of foreground detail that frames the long views, at the end of which is located an enticing focal point that motivates and tempts further exploration.
This image Slender
pyramids of deep green in the Yew Walk. Right Lilium regale and honeysuckle immerse the entrance to the Font Garden in fragrance. Below The elegantly simple Font Garden with its froth of daisies.
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Collectively, these ingredients create beautifully photogenic scenes, but, more cleverly, this visual dissection via axes and perpendicular sub-axes depicts a generosity of scale that deceives the eye into overestimating the size of the plot. The result is the impression of a traditionally grand garden, and it is expertly distilled to intoxicating levels at Wollerton. In terms of what they planted first, Lesley explains that Shropshire is a “cold county, so we planted hedges of beech, hornbeam, holly and, most importantly, yew. Gradually these formed garden rooms, with the Lime Allée becoming the spine of the garden.” These garden rooms are perhaps a visitor’s overriding first impression and they certainly extol the virtues of why you would 34 THE ENGLISH GARDEN JULY 2022
Top The timbered
Elizabethan hall looks out over a network of cleverly interlocking garden rooms. Above right Eryngium x zabelii ‘Jos Eijking’. Above left Purple Clematis ‘Étoile Violette’ scrambles through pink Rosa ‘Raubritter’.
create a garden using them. Their geometric, formal, architectural structures are integrated here as a single cohesive unit over which are draped the veils of delicacy created by interlaced and woven threads of plants, each specific to the room. Such an approach permits the garden to be experienced like scenes in a play, with the dramatic structure performed by a diverse cast of horticultural players. Beyond the architectural formality, each room emanates personality, bounding with bold, hot colours in the Lanhydrock Garden, chilled with ice tones in the Well Garden and resplendent with clematis and roses in the Yew Walk (to name a few). Such is the intensity of the floral performance in each room that it would be all too easy to overwhelm the visitor. However, the subtle and combined forces of muted backdrop and strategically placed green spaces offer a calming horticultural sorbet. It is the confidence with which the verdant, architectural simplicity of the Lime Allée, Upper Rill Garden and Old Garden strike through the rich design that reveals the hand of self-assured and artistically astute creators who understand the value of this tranquillity and how it curiously amplifies the vibrancy of the neighbouring room. In addition to geometry, space and enviable floral palettes, the garden enjoys a rarely witnessed interplay with light. From within, the use of stately specimen plants offers the opportunity for stained-glassstyle backlighting, with selected plants demanding attention as their hues radiate when spotlit. The structural hedges are variously painted with the deepest shadows and these, along with topiary forms, project intense, animated silhouettes. To appreciate just how impactful the light and shade is, sneak in a visit early in the season, or even in mid-winter and it becomes clear that the theatre set persists long after the floral players have turned to their winter retreats. In truth it should come as no surprise that the garden portrays such a generous helping of theatrical spirit, since Lesley confesses to being a ‘frustrated theatre designer’. “I always look forward to the next act,” she insists. What is perhaps surprising is the apparent ease with which Lesley’s experience of childhood adventure, wonder and discovery at Wollerton, permeates and is evident today. Compelling, sophisticated and dramatic experiences proliferate in each scene, encouraging a personal connection to flourish. It is this ability to maintain a human,
Above Perfect box balls and yew hedges in the Upper Rill Garden. Left The centrepiece of the Sundial Garden. Below Achillea ‘Pretty Belinda’, Penstemon ‘Hidcote Pink’, lychnis, Salvia ‘Penny’s Smile’ and veronicastrum.
humble and relatable garden that inspires visitors to return so frequently. No two moments in the garden are ever the same; as observers we become enticed and hypnotised by experiential moments in a paradise often sought but rarely achieved in the history of gardens. After more than two decades of visiting Wollerton, I still vividly recall my first encounter, filming for the BBC from noon to midnight to capture the everchanging light, sound and fragrance. Such poignant memories prove that the romantic seeds sown in Lesley’s childhood have blossomed into what is an exquisitely crafted series of the most enchanting encounters and a boundless enrichment for the emotions, all washed with lavish colours, interwoven in a tapestry of ever-changing floral delights. “The garden is an ongoing adventure for us both – it will never be finished – change is exciting, sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t,” Lesley says. “Memories can fade but it is important to retain those memories of pure delight.” ■ Wollerton Old Hall, Wollerton, Market Drayton, Shropshire TF9 3NA. Opens from April to September, with an open day in aid of the National Garden Scheme on Wednesday 7 September. wollertonoldhallgarden.com; ngs.org.uk JULY 2022 THE ENGLISH GARDEN 35
Forward PLANNING
If you want to enjoy a lavishly planted mature garden, get going on it while you’re young. Emma and Simon Keswick did just that at Rockcliffe in the Cotswolds, and now they’re reaping the ample rewards as they luxuriate in their dream garden WORDS JAMES ALEXANDER-SINCLAIR PHOTOGRAPHS CLIVE NICHOLS
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Hardy geraniums, astrantia, catmint, thalictrum and roses make a co-ordinated display in this generous mixed border.
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Colourful borders lead the way to Rockcliffe’s impressive focal point, the Dovecote, reached via steps flanked by yew topiary birds.
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T
by the generous branches of Cornus controversa here is an ancient saying about (and I ‘Variegata’, and from there we wander off into a paraphrase massively here) gardeners world of blissful gardens. There are deep herbaceous planting trees in whose shade they borders marked by four Irish yews obtained via a will never sit. This is generally small ad in the Evesham Journal: the Keswicks had considered forward thinking, wise to go and dig them out of the vendor’s garden. Also and selfless and, as such, should be applauded. a pink garden, a pool garden, knobbly pleached But my counter theory is even wiser. Make sure limes, a croquet lawn and even a playground for the that you plant a load of trees, shrubs, hedges and grandchildren. Patches of wildness nudge against topiary when you are young so that 40 years on you carefully trimmed hedges of the evergreen stalwart can look up to their branches and wander through yew (Taxus baccata) as well as beech and hornbeam, gardens you have watched grow and flourish. Such while chess pawns clipped from yew mark the path is the happy situation at Rockcliffe: a garden in the junctions. On the shady margins of the garden is the Cotswolds started in the 1980s by Emma and Simon Martagon Walk where, for 20 years, Emma has been Keswick and gardened by them ever since. scattering the seeds of turk’s cap lilies. Last year she When they arrived there was not much beyond a collected 400 grams of seed, so it just keeps getting house and some surrounding fields: one side of the better. This is a beautiful lily, native to the alpine house is set hard against the boundary and a steep meadows of Switzerland, and entrancing en masse. hill, so Emma marked out the garden by marching The kitchen garden is tucked into a small ravine eastwards, pacing out the main view from the house. and surrounded by high stone walls. One of the She knows her onions (having done courses at mixed blessings of living in the Cotswolds is the Merrist Wood and The English Gardening School) abundance of gorgeous soft yellow stone: it looks and walked out to where the proportions seemed amazing in field and house walls, but it’s not so right. She then decided to add another 20 metres much fun when you’re trying to dig a border! The of field so that there was space for “a really good soil is free-draining but needs a lot of barrowed garden”. The couple then built a ha-ha to keep out muck to give it the oomph to produce vegetables the sheep and set about planting a series of gardens and cut flowers for the house. The kitchen garden within gardens to make up the many-layered, beds used to be box edged until the surprising setting that we see today. Below A weathered, inevitable blight arrived; now they are Inspiration at Rockcliffe comes from a lichen-encrusted tree all enclosed in mesh cages edged with multitude of places – as Emma herself seat is the embodiment fretwork boards and carved finials. maintains: “The ideas have to come of Rockcliffe’s mature, At first glance this seems a puzzling from somewhere!” settled atmosphere. construction: are they A wide lawn leads producing industrial from the house towards quantities of soft fruit? the ha-ha and a fine Or are the Cotswold sculpture by Nigel Hall. courgettes particularly It is flanked by massive aggressive? Look up the beech obelisks cleverly hill and the answer is planted in lines that obvious: doves. Beautiful are not quite parallel birds but not exactly in order to give the perfect companions impression that the to vegetables. vista is even longer. “It The stone Dovecote is an idea that I saw in is approached from the the Palazzo Corsini in kitchen garden via a Florence where they path edged with plump achieve the same effect borders and backed by with statues,” Emma espalier-trained medlars recalls. The stone terrace (Mespilus germanica, is broken by hummocks which have the prettiest of yew interplanted with blossom of any fruit tree a rattle of herbaceous although, entre nous, plants to bring in colour the fruit can be a little and texture. This wraps annoying: lots of work around the house to for a few jars of jelly). a handsome orangery Through the trellised and a rectangular white door there is a pond that is canopied JULY 2022 THE ENGLISH GARDEN 39
steeply sloped orchard with wide grass steps alongside which a series of topiary birds perch, having slowly gained shape and heft over a number of years. The topiarised yews lead the eye to a focal point that was crying out for a statement and so, after much research, a delightful building was constructed. This is Emma’s millennium project so it has had time now to mellow beautifully. “It is an amalgamation of various places: the dovecote at Rousham, the weathervanes from Eton College Chapel, windows from the Gothic Cottage at Stourhead and stonework from the Old Toll House in Stow-on-the-Wold,” she explains. In summer, both Dovecote and topiary float on a romantic billow of ox-eye daisies. The doves, meanwhile, flutter about looking decorative and innocent, while coldly eyeing up the brassicas. The newest part of the garden is the developing Sorbarium. This is not a term with which I am familiar, perhaps because it was invented at Rockcliffe and constitutes a collection of rowans 40 THE ENGLISH GARDEN JULY 2022
Top Perfect stripes and
beech pyramids lead the eye from the terrace to a sculpture by Nigel Hall. Above Moisture-loving Iris sibirica ‘Silver Edge’. Right Yew hummocks add a weighty element to blowsy planting next to the terrace.
(Latin name Sorbus) assembled in honour of Simon Keswick’s Scottish roots. The rowan is steeped in folklore. People planted them by their houses as symbolic protection and, even today, Scottish gardeners are very reluctant to damage a rowan tree. Here, Emma has created a box-edged grass path that meanders and swerves through swathes of wildflowers studded with Sorbus specimens. The trees will have their hour of glory come autumn, when the leaves change and the berries develop, but in the meantime there are stands of Rosa ‘Cerise Bouquet’. This rose is neither coy nor retiring: it is unashamedly bright, blowsy and full of puff. With arching sprays of flowers as pink as a go-go dancer’s petticoats, it is a tough old thing that copes well with rubbish soil and a bit of shade. Judging from the evidence, therefore, a Sorbarium is an arboretum with a lot of attitude. This is a big garden that has been made slowly and with love over the past four decades and, as a 42 THE ENGLISH GARDEN JULY 2022
Top Looking back to the
house from the opposite slope, the building seems to float above a daisyfilled sea of a meadow. Above For similar poppies, try Papaver somniferum ‘Dark Plum’. Left Spires of foxgloves march up the border.
Above Bespoke oak cloches protect crops in the kitchen garden with a Victorian-style greenhouse from Alitex and espaliered fruit.
result, it has an atmosphere of comfortable familiarity that, even as a first-time visitor, you can feel. It is not an easy place to garden as the soil is Cotswold brash (Emma is particularly keen that I view the orderly and well-kept compost heaps that feed the hungry earth). The winds can bite and the frost at this altitude (550 feet above sea level) hangs about well into spring. It is gardened beautifully (currently there are three gardeners) as can be seen everywhere from the artfully pruned roses to the razor-edged hedges. That said, Emma’s stated intention all those years ago was to give herself enough space to create a “really good garden” and that is precisely what she has done. Really, really good. ■ Rockcliffe, Upper Slaughter, Cheltenham, Gloucestershire GL54 2JW. The garden opens for the National Garden Scheme on 7 and 29 June. rockcliffegarden.co.uk; ngs.org.uk
Top Rosa ‘Cerise
Bouquet’ emerges from a haze of ox-eye daisies in the Sorbarium. Above Lilium regale on the terrace by the house. Right Rhubarb in the vegetable garden, which is surrounded by high, Cotswold stone walls. JULY 2022 THE ENGLISH GARDEN 43
Lynette Coyne and Richard Tresidder have transformed the long, narrow plot around their Derbyshire cottage.
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Up the Garden Path
The wonky garden path at Church Cottage, in the heart of the Derbyshire village of Parwich, leads the visitor on a journey past a box parterre in miniature, quirky topiary, classic cottage planting, an orderly vegetable plot and masses of roses WORDS ANN TRENEMAN PHOTOGRAPHS JOE WAINWRIGHT JULY 2022 THE ENGLISH GARDEN 45
A
t first glance, Church Cottage in the Derbyshire village of Parwich looks almost too good to be true. It really could be a film set: the old stone cottage, with its quintessentially English garden, would make the perfect backdrop for an Agatha Christie tale. Added drama comes from the fact that the garden adjoins the churchyard, separated only by a low stone wall. Lynette Coyne and Richard Tresidder realised immediately on buying the cottage, which is situated on a long thin plot wedged between the churchyard and a country lane, that this was not just their garden. It was very much seen as part of this Peak District village. “We realised how open the aspect was. People would talk to us, over the walls, from the churchyard and in the lane,” says Lynette. “That was the lovely thing about the village.” It is intriguing to discover that, while the garden is now picture perfect, with its wisteria and roses, vegetable patch and riotous flower borders, this has been achieved only through ingenious design and planting. The way to transform this skinny, weedfilled plot, 65m long and 9m at its widest, was not immediately obvious but Lynette and Richard saw potential, not problems, and have worked hard to create a unique and quirky garden that blends in beautifully with its surroundings. “I want it to feel timeless,” says Lynette. “I wanted to keep what attracted me when I first came here. The wonky path. The little stone planting areas. The big stone trough. Those are the things that said to me: ‘This is a lovely cottage garden, potentially.’ I wanted the postman to feel like: ‘I don’t mind going all the way up that path to put the post in a box.’” The path is indeed a little wonky, starting at the low cottage gate and continuing alongside walls adorned with roses and underplanted with bulbs. 46 THE ENGLISH GARDEN JULY 2022
Above Passers-by often stop to chat over the garden’s low stone walls. Right Set on an angle, the diamond-shaped box parterre makes the plot feel wider than it is. Below, from left St Peter’s Church; Richard’s neat vegetable garden; Lynette Coyne with her topiary chicken on a nest; a pleached beech hedge adds privacy.
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“I wanted to stand in my garden and look beyond and have it appear bigger than it was”
Above The wonky stone paths and walls are what first drew Lynette and Richard to the cottage. This image A small square of lawn is bounded by colourful borders with a mix of perennials and roses.
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A stunning lollipop box ball commands attention and, carrying on, there is a further surprise: a small, diamond-shaped box garden that lies under a cloudpruned cotoneaster tree, the air perfumed by Rosa ‘Gertrude Jekyll’ and a voluptuous wisteria. Here the mood feels playful, not least because of the central chicken-ona-nest topiary. But, just beyond it, the atmosphere turns restful with a small square lawn surrounded by colourful borders on three sides and a pleached beech hedge offering some privacy from the lane. The path carries on, passing through an arch festooned with roses, including white ‘Claire Austin’ and pale pink ‘The Generous Gardener’, and into the vegetable patch where Richard rules supreme. Now the atmosphere becomes one of industry, the cabbages neatly lined up as if waiting for Peter Rabbit to create a little mayhem. Finally, the path winds through beds of ferns and woodland plants before terminating at a bench: the perfect place for contemplative rest. The rags-to-roses story of this plot is made all the more inspiring by the fact that neither Richard nor Lynette were experienced gardeners before they arrived. They had bought the cottage in 1986 but did not embark on the garden in any serious way until 2006, after they had finished building a garden room and studio for Lynette, a retired interior architect: “I decided to make a list of all the things that I would like to achieve in the garden. I set out to draw a plan down to the last half metre. On my list I included private spaces. I also felt that the garden was too linear – I knew I needed to visually expand it.” She did this by “pinching” views both from the churchyard and the hills beyond, with yew hedges planted to blend in with the churchyard. Richard explains how successive vicars had been given gifts of roses, so now the likes of ‘Rambling Rector’ and ‘Wedding Day’ may be planted in the churchyard but add to their garden too. The neighbouring yews embrace the garden as well. “The connection between our garden and the churchyard was always uppermost in my mind,” says Lynette. “I wanted to stand in my garden and look beyond and have it appear bigger than it was.” The box parterre is next to the garden room and Lynette thought its relatively low-maintenance structure would be “pleasing” to see all year. Its four pentagonal beds are placed on the diagonal
An arch through to the vegetable plot is covered with Clematis ‘Étoile Violette’ and pink rose ‘The Generous Gardener’.
JULY 2022 THE ENGLISH GARDEN 49
garden leading to the boisterous herbaceous borders. Richard, a retired journalist, notes that the perennials are turbocharged by the rich soil and need to be divided every year. He is a lover of sweet peas (particularly white-andpink ‘Deborah Devonshire’, named for the late doyenne of Chatsworth), which are a fragrant link between the flower borders and the vegetable patch, which a few years ago gained an espaliered apple tree border that provides structure while maintaining an all-important feeling of openness. Asked what plant they can’t do without, Richard replies: “Rose ‘Gertrude Jekyll’. Repeat flowering. Wonderful fragrance. She adds an air of joy.” Lynette does not have a top plant (though salvias are a current passion), but her favourite section is the box garden. As she notes, that could change as she explores shady planting for the end of the garden: “I hope that, in due course, the woodland might become my favourite.” ■
Above Sweetly scented philadelphus bursts over the yew hedge that backs a border of salvia, crimson astrantia and vibrant alstroemeria. Left Rosa ‘Ballerina’ in one of the parterre beds.
to make the plot look wider, and the lines of the box take your eye up and out into the wider landscape beyond. The beds are filled with tulips and alliums in the spring; Salvia nemorosa ‘Caradonna’ and Rosa ‘Ballerina’ later on. The central topiary chicken has become a nesting place for a wren, providing much “bird in a bird” viewing entertainment. The different sections are linked by evergreen, seasonal planting, with the colours of the box 50 THE ENGLISH GARDEN JULY 2022
Church Cottage usually opens for Parwich Open Garden Day in June. See parwich.org
How to make a topiary chicken on a nest Lynette had the idea of creating a chicken on a nest because she wanted the box garden to have more of a whimsical, “cottagey” feel. She found a two-stem yew tree in the reject section of a local nursery, planted it in the centre of the parterre and “fed it like Billy-o”. The stems were forced apart by pieces of wood that she kept widening. Clever pruning soon produced a proud chicken and, in 2020, ten years after its inception, the chicken gained a rather rambunctious topknot. The wren that nested in it last year seemed to approve!
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The central herbaceous border is Wormistoune’s most spectacular feature, running the length of the garden.
Once Upon
A TIME
There is a distinct fairy-tale quality to 17th-century Wormistoune House near Fife, with its towers and gables and fabled ‘wyrm’. The gardens extend this theme with romantic roses, willow thrones and a recurring serpent motif to fit the legend WORDS JULIA WATSON PHOTOGRAPHS RAY COX JULY 2022 THE ENGLISH GARDEN 53
S
tanding tall on the east coast of Fife, near the picturesque fishing villages of the East Neuk, Wormistoune House has panoramic views of sea and sky. Much altered over the centuries, this historic Scottish tower house has been meticulously restored by owners James and Gemma McCallum, Baron and Lady Wormistoune, to the way it would have looked in its 17th-century heyday. Wormistoune’s towers and crow-stepped gables have a fairy-tale quality that is reflected in the garden the McCallums have created around it, sheltered by high walls from the worst of the North Sea gales. The one-acre walled garden is divided into classic ‘rooms’ by yew hedges, and the McCallums are grateful to Wormistoune’s previous owner, Bella Gardiner-Hill, who not only began the restoration of the house but rebuilt the garden walls using stone from the demolished Edwardian wings. She laid out the garden, too, though it looked very different when James and Gemma bought the house more than 25 years ago. “It was quite beautiful, actually,” says Gemma. “It was a bit like a magical secret garden, full of wild poppies.” Romantic though the garden was, the McCallums felt it could do with more structure. “We extended and widened the herbaceous border that goes down the middle of the garden, and put in extra hedging,” Gemma explains. They also created a box parterre in the form of two interlocking thistles. Suited to the period of the house and designed to be seen from its windows, the sinuous green curves, dotted with
Wormistoune’s ‘wyrm’, or serpent, is said to have been killed here by a valiant local in days of yore alliums in spring, make a pleasing contrast to the ochre-washed walls. James and Gemma brought up their three children at Wormistoune, and as a family they relished the myth of Wormistoune’s ‘wyrm’, or serpent, said to have been killed here by a valiant local in days of yore. The monstrous wyrm has become something of a motif in both house and garden, and it can now be seen in topiary form carved into the hedge bordering the parterre. Nearby, lurking in the dappled shade of four old Griselinia littoralis trees – unusual on this scale, since they are more commonly used in hedging – there is another representation of the fabled beast as part of a wall fountain, with an intriguing pebble tail that curls across a path into the adjoining Bella’s 54 THE ENGLISH GARDEN JULY 2022
Right The lawn in Bella’s Garden is encircled with perennials in a pink, blue and mauve palette. Bottom right Geranium psilostemon, Geranium x magnificum and peony ‘Sarah Bernhardt’. Bottom left Euphorbia, salvias and phlomis sunbathe in front of a wall clad with an apple and ‘Victoria’ plum. Below Vibrant magenta Geranium psilostemon.
Garden. “When the children were growing up, the griselinia garden was where the worm slept at night,” says Gemma, “and that’s why his tail creeps out under the trees.” Bella’s Garden, which is named in honour of Wormistoune’s previous owner, is traditional in style, featuring an open, circular lawn and a gentle colour palette of pinks, blues, mauves and silvers, sparked into life with touches of scarlet. There are roses here such as ‘Mortimer Sackler’, ‘Adélaïde d’Orléans’ and ‘Gertrude Jekyll’, and border stalwarts like salvia, persicaria and sanguisorba. Beyond Bella’s Garden, and in complete contrast, is an area that adds to the fairy-tale quality of Wormistoune, where two living willow thrones preside over a wildflower meadow among old orchard trees. Carpeted in spring with cowslips, primroses and snake’s head fritillaries, it is taken JULY 2022 THE ENGLISH GARDEN 55
The ‘female’ pavilion, seen from the wildflower meadow with its willow thrones and purpleleaved hazel on the right.
56 THE ENGLISH GARDEN JULY 2022
The central herbaceous border is a floral tour de force, at its peak in the height of summer Top Above the
courtyard’s thistle parterre, a serpent juts its head from the turret of the tower house. Middle The spiky flowers of Eryngium bourgatii. Bottom Soft pink flower spikes of Salvia pratensis.
over in summer by marsh orchids, ox-eye daisies and nodding martagon lilies. Undoubtedly, though, it is the central herbaceous border that is Wormistoune’s most spectacular feature. Running the entire length of the walled garden and culminating in the moon gate leading out to the rest of the estate, this floral tour de force is at its peak in the height of summer, with injections of strong colour from magenta Geranium psilostemon, lime green Alchemilla mollis, blue Geranium x magnificum and yellow Lysimachia punctata, and sculptural impact in the form of echinops and eryngium. In restoring Wormistoune, the McCallums have worked for many years with Edinburgh conservation architects Simpson & Brown, and it was they who built the two ogee-roofed pavilions that grace the two far corners of the garden and are part of the accommodation for guests. The design was inspired by similar 17th-century buildings in nearby Cupar, and there are subtle differences in the stonework and mouldings that mark them out as ‘male’ and JULY 2022 THE ENGLISH GARDEN 57
‘female’ – all part of the McCallums’ sense of the garden as a kind of mini-Eden. “They each have a reflecting pond in front of them, and the idea is that on a sunny day the reflections meet in the middle at the moon gate,” says Gemma. A late summer border leads away from the female pavilion along the north wall of the garden and is home to the hot colours of sun-lovers including eremurus, kniphofia, helenium and hemerocallis, and grasses like molinia, deschampsia, calamagrostis and stipa. To the south, in keeping with the paradise theme, in which a garden provides everything you need for both pleasure and subsistence, there is an extensive kitchen garden for vegetables, soft fruit and herbs. The adjoining converted coach house, run as part of a wedding and holiday business, has beds in the shape of a patriotic saltire in its courtyard, appropriately planted with flowers in white and blue. In caring for the walled garden and wider estate, which extends to some 11 acres, the McCallums have the help of head gardener Joshua Barclay, assisted by Duncan Hogg and part-timer Karen Wilkieson. Further out in the grounds there is a small loch, or lochan, for wildlife – which is also good for the odd dip when it is warm enough – and an unusual double 58 THE ENGLISH GARDEN JULY 2022
Top The neat vegetable
garden with brassicas under netting and herbs in box-edged beds. Above Mexican fleabane, Erigeron karvinskianus, grows in paving cracks around the pavilions. Left Head gardener Joshua Barclay and Nepeta ‘Walker’s Low’.
Right Looking from the wildflower meadow and orchard towards the house, over cow parsley and ox-eye daisies. Below Sidalcea ‘Elsie Heugh’ in the herbaceous border.
‘doocot’, or dovecote, which has two cells in its lower storey. In the 16th century, Wormistoune was home to the Spens family, constables of nearby Crail, and, spookily, these would probably once have held criminals awaiting trial. One of the main tasks on the estate at the moment is rejuvenating the woodland that surrounds the house. “We’ve lost a lot of lime trees, which is really sad,” says Gemma, “and we also had Dutch elm disease, so we had to get rid of the elm trees as well. We have been planting again and trying to create a more varied woodland.” There are other changes in the pipeline. Gemma and Joshua Barclay are planning a revamp of Bella’s Garden that will transform it into more of a rose garden, focusing on heritage and scented tea roses in muted peachy tones, and the coach house saltire may be replanted, perhaps solely with lavender and alliums. As Gemma explains, over the years tastes change, and she and James have visited and been inspired by so many different gardens: “But the basic structure of the garden here I think we got right quite early on, which was good, and we’ve also got a fantastic team.” ■ Wormistoune House, Crail, by Anstruther, Fife KY10 3XH. Operates a handful of private tours and open garden days each year – for details, email gardens@wormistoune.com. For weddings or stays at Wormistoune, see wormistoune.com
BEHIND THE Scenes Head gardener Joshua Barclay shares clever tips for effective and colourful herbaceous borders Our main border has hidden support, with 10cm2 nylon netting held up by notched wooden posts, 4ft tall at the back and 1.5ft at the front. The posts go in every 4-6 feet along the border. The plants grow through the netting so things like lysimachia and peony don’t flop over. Frothy plants such as Alchemilla mollis and nepeta grow up at the front to hide the netting. In addition to the netting, we give delphiniums the extra support of bamboo canes. In November we take off the netting and go in with a sickle blade and cut back all of it, covering the bed with composted bark mulch to a depth of two inches (it could be more, but
our soil level is quite high at the moment). This feeds the soil, which is a neutral clay, protects plants from the frost and is a weed suppressant. We may put pieces of cardboard on first where there are persistent weeds like horsetail. It’s the minimalist planting that gives the herbaceous border here such strength: we repeatedly use a limited number of plants, such as echinops, sidalcea, astrantia and geranium all the way along. Wormistoune’s herbaceous border is at its peak in high summer, but we grow yellow tulips here in spring, which look good with the fresh green growth. The netting goes on just after the heads are formed so we don’t damage them as they flower. JULY 2022 THE ENGLISH GARDEN 59
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CHELSEA PREVIEW
Turning a New Leaf The RHS Chelsea Flower Show regains its usual May slot for 2022, but much is changing, with new designers and a focus on sustainability and natural planting in the show gardens
In his design for the RNLI, Chris Beardshaw has designed a calm and confident garden reflecting the venerable charity’s life-saving work. JULY 2022 THE ENGLISH GARDEN 61
CHELSEA PREVIEW
T
hree years after its last May outing, the RHS Chelsea Flower Show is back in full swing in its usual slot. This year’s event ushers in a new mood with a crop of fresh talent, new show categories and wild plants and naturalistic planting design taking centre stage. One name missing from Chelsea this year is that of sponsor M&G Investments, now replaced by The Newt in Somerset, the
working estate with an associated hotel and garden. You’ll see their blue-and-white logo depicting a newt everywhere this May. As ever, the Great Pavilion will be filled with immaculate plant displays and, for the first time, it will also host one of the garden categories: the new-for-2022 ‘All About Plants’, which celebrates the positive powers of plants to impact lives and livelihoods. Outside, the Sanctuary Gardens category offers inspiration for those with compact
outdoor spaces. And, of course, there will be bountiful shopping opportunities across the showground. Every visitor will have their own favourite element, but everyone will agree that it’s the show gardens on Main Avenue that are the star attractions. There will be 12 of them this year, with entries from newcomers alongside more established names. Andy Sturgeon, who designed a garden for M&G Investments in
‘The Mind Garden’ has been designed by Andy Sturgeon as a place for people to connect, be themselves and open up, illustrated by the use of a series of textured, sculptural walls.
Key Plants: THE MIND GARDEN
Fritillaria persica Deeply dramatic spires of wine-coloured flowers.
62 THE ENGLISH GARDEN JULY 2022
Thalictrum ‘Elin’ An airy cloud of off-white and mauve to 2.5m tall.
by Andy Sturgeon
Valeriana officinalis A tall perennial native, attractive to pollinators.
Betula pendula This classic garden birch has a neat growth habit.
2019, this year brings The Mind Garden to Chelsea, sponsored by the charities Mind and Project Giving Back. The therapeutic benefits of gardening on mental health are becoming increasingly well known, and this garden intends to communicate different aspects of the subject, with rough-textured clay-rendered walls enclosing calm seating areas alongside colourful meadow planting. “I’ve created a number of gardens over the years that feature curved walls, and this is an evolution of those ideas,” Andy explains.
Another Chelsea veteran, Chris Beardshaw, is collaborating with the Royal National Lifeboat Institution on the RNLI Garden. His design will highlight that charity’s work, from its Georgian origins to the present day. Statement trees will be used, such as Ulmus parvifolia and Pinus sylvestris, reflecting the materials historically used to build lifeboats, while his pastel planting palette will consist of blues, whites and pinks. In 2019, Joe Perkins worked with Facebook to create a garden in the ‘Space to Grow’ category
DESIGNER S N A P S H OT
Chris Beardshaw
Above Cityscapes’ Darryl Moore and Adolfo Harrison have designed the ‘St Mungo’s Putting Down Roots Garden’ as a pocket park intended to foster inclusivity as people garden to recover from homelessness.
Brief For the RNLI Garden, the intention is a calm and confident garden that inspires inquisitiveness, looks back to look forward, and echoes the charity’s sense of permanence while offering a space in which to reflect on its diverse work. Inspiration The garden is intended to be a celebration of both the history and modernity of this multi-faceted institution, which has been saving lives at sea for almost 200 years. Key Plants The garden features a collection of statement trees reflecting materials traditionally used for lifeboat building, including three Dutch elm diseaseresistant Ulmus parvifolia and two, 6m Pinus sylvestris.
Above Lulu Urquhart and Adam Hunt’s first show garden, ‘A Rewilding Britain Landscape’, looks at how
the re-introduction of beavers is re-engineering landscapes to bring about greater natural biodiversity.
JULY 2022 THE ENGLISH GARDEN 63
CHELSEA PREVIEW
Key Plants: MORRIS & CO.
Ruth Wilmott’s garden, ‘Morris & Co.’, brings the designs of William Morris to life in a contemporary way.
by Ruth Willmott
Salix alba ‘Tristis’ White willow brings a sense of light and motion.
Stachys byzantina A drought-tolerant plant with felted silver leaves.
Crataegus monogyna Hawthorn is a vital source of support for pollinators.
Above Sarah Eberle’s ‘MEDITE SMARTPLY Building the Future’ garden includes Podophyllum ‘Spotty
Dotty’ and Picea omorika and is inspired by “vertical rock strata on the edge of a Cornish beach”.
of smaller gardens. He returns this year with Facebook (now rebranded as Meta) and The Meta Garden: Growing the Future. Inspired by British woodlands and designed to highlight the relationship between soil, fungi and plants, it features a pavilion structure representing mycorrhizal networks. “Originally the inspiration for the garden came from timber. This developed into a slight obsession with 64 THE ENGLISH GARDEN JULY 2022
forest ecosystems, in particular fungi, and the mycorrhizal networks that support the majority of terrestrial plant life,” Joe explains. Key plants will include Nectaroscordum siculum, Carex divulsa and red and white campion. Sarah Eberle created award-winning gardens for the 2019 and 2021 shows. This year, she designs for a manufacturer of sustainable wood panels. In the MEDITE
SMARTPLY Building the Future garden, which depicts the future of sustainable landscapes and buildings, planting features both naturalised and native specimens. “I love the construction phase of a Chelsea garden and seeing the idea come to life through the hard work and dedication of highly skilled landscapers,” she explains. Paul Hervey-Brookes is another familiar face at Chelsea, this year, collaborating
DESIGNER S N A P S H OT
Juliet Sargeant
Above ‘The New Blue Peter Garden – Discover Soil’ by Juliet Sargeant. “My favourite part is the ‘Crawlee Space’ where children can crawl under a planting tray, wallow in mud and meet creepy crawlies,” she says.
Above For ‘The Meta Garden – Growing the Future’, Joe Perkins used “plants that are native and adaptable
in the face of climate change, or non-native but able to replace native species that may not fare so well”.
with a wealth management company on the Brewin Dolphin Garden. His design considers the rehabilitation and development of brownfield sites, and the soil many gardeners on new housing developments inherit. His planting will include native pioneer species and endemic plants that can help restore polluted and depleted soils. Housing and the lack of it inspires St Mungo’s Putting down Roots Garden designed by Cityscapes’ Darryl Moore and Adolfo Harrison.
Their urban pocket park points to the positive effects gardening can have in rebuilding lives during recovery from homelessness. The garden reuses materials from the 2021 show and will be installed in London Bridge after the event. William Morris’s adage, ‘have nothing in your houses that you do not know to be useful or believe to be beautiful,’ has never been truer as we focus increasingly on personal consumption and sustainability. Ruth Willmott has collaborated
Brief For ‘The New Blue Peter Garden – Discover Soil’ I am creating a garden for the world’s longest running children’s programme, Blue Peter, which I watched every week growing up. I chose the theme of soil, which is the quiet environmental crisis that our children will need to solve if we don’t manage it. Inspiration I have been trying to get a ‘soil garden’ to Chelsea for years, ever since I saw my own extended family in Tanzania struggling to keep crops productive on their failing soil. Key Plants Verbascum ‘Clementine’, Lupinus ‘Cashmere Cream’, Iris ‘Kent Pride’, Coprosma repens ‘Pacific Night’.
JULY 2022 THE ENGLISH GARDEN 65
CHELSEA PREVIEW
DESIGNER S N A P S H OT
Richard Miers Brief My brief for ‘The Perennial Garden ‘With Love’’ was to create a calming contemporary space that showcases many of the horticultural skills of the people Perennial helps. It celebrates the idea that gardens are a gift of love. Inspiration The garden is inspired by and pays tribute to all those working in landscaping and horticulture. Key Plants Eight flattopped Hawthorn (Crataegus monogyna) take centre stage. They are flanked by four multi-stem Parrotia persica, with Cornus kousa ‘White Fountain’, a large multi-stem Ptelea trifoliata and three Taxus baccata.
66 THE ENGLISH GARDEN JULY 2022
Above Richard Miers’ ‘The Perennial Garden ‘With Love’’ is a timeless, elegant design. The pond area is his favourite design element, “but to be honest, it’s all of it, and the fact that it’s all coming to life,” he enthuses.
with interiors company and custodians of Morris’s design archive to create a garden of the same name, Morris & Co. “My ambition was to create a modern interpretation of Morris’s work, using vivacious colour and pattern to echo his designs, rather than simply replicating them,” Ruth explains. Hers will be a crowd-pleasing cottage garden inspired by two Morris designs: Trellis (1862) and Willow Boughs (1887). Her design is set to include cottage-garden favourites and plants that provide food and habitats for birds. Afterwards, the garden will help seed new community gardens in London’s Islington. Look out for Juliet Sargeant’s second Chelsea show garden, this one celebrating a flagship children’s TV show in the BBC’s centenary year. The New Blue Peter Garden – Discover Soil features blue and orange planting to reflect the show’s colours and considers how we use and treat gardens’ most precious resource: soil. After his D-Day reflections in 2019, John Everiss returns with The RAF Benevolent Fund Garden and a garden recalling the role played by Biggin Hill airport in the Battle of Britain. A statue of a young soldier searching the skies is at the heart of the design, with lovely planting slowly
engulfing steel latticework rising from the ground to represent the rusted remains of conflict. One of the show’s great functions is to provide a platform for talent among both established and emerging designers, and to give voice to worthwhile causes. Project Giving Back is a new charity founded by two private individuals to support gardens for good causes. This year the charity is funding 12 gardens across the show. In addition to some of the gardens by big-name designers already mentioned, Project Giving Back will support Lulu Urquhart and Adam Hunt, who are using native plants in their garden, A Rewilding Britain Landscape, in conjunction with charity Rewilding Britain. The garden shows how an area of South West England has been improved by the reintroduction of beavers, and features a lodge, a dam and a riparian meadow. Richard Miers, meanwhile, makes his Chelsea debut with the charity supporting gardeners in need, to create The Perennial Garden ‘With Love’. Elsewhere, brothers Howard and Hugh Miller are better known as kitchen designers, but this year they bring to Chelsea the Alder Hey Urban Foraging Station and a garden infused with the magic of discovery inherent to foraging. ■
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SCULPTURE
The Perfect Piece
WORDS CLARE FOGGETT IMAGE CLIVE NICHOLS
Three curators of outdoor sculpture share their expertise on choosing garden art and displaying it to its best advantage
C A marble sculpture by Anthony Turner called OK Bean, on display at Asthall Manor’s On Form exhibition.
hoosing and positioning sculpture can be daunting, with numerous materials to consider, so many talented sculptors to tempt you with their work, and then the question of how to make sure it looks its best in your garden. Before you take the plunge, three curators of outdoor sculpture exhibitions offer their expert advice and ideas on choosing and displaying sculpture in a garden setting. JULY 2022 THE ENGLISH GARDEN 69
SCULPTURE
CHOOSING MATERIALS There are lots of materials that work well in an outdoor setting, according to Rachel Bebb, garden designer and founder of The Garden Gallery. But she notes that stone is consistently popular with clients. “I think they like the idea that they’re getting a unique piece,” Rachel explains, “and there is such a broad range of beautiful English stones – Purbeck, Portland, Hopton Wood – that lend themselves to English gardens. Purbeck in particular is a beautiful stone for gardens that works well in our light.” “Having said that, bronze is a fantastic, classic material if you can stretch to it,” she adds. “Just bear in mind that bronze and stone will change over time. 70 THE ENGLISH GARDEN JULY 2022
Top left This stone
sculpture by David Wynne at Highgrove reveals the material’s intrinsic beauty. Top right A bronze figure by sculptor Anne Curry. Above right Neil Wilkins’ reflective glass dewdrops give a ‘camera obscura’ effect. Above left A ceramic piece by Peter Beard.
They’ll weather – in a good way.” Bronze pieces can be expensive, the majority of the cost coming from the material and its casting in the foundry, Rachel explains, the artist adding a percentage of the casting costs as their share. Bronze resin can be more affordable, but Rachel counsels to make sure it is good quality. “Some bronze resin is better quality than others; some can be plasticky and won’t stand the test of time.” Likewise, stone resin can bring the cost of a stone sculpture down, but it has to be good quality, heavy and solid, so it will last. Glass can work well in gardens, Rachel says. “It doesn’t change like bronze and stone do, and it’s easy to maintain. It might just need an occasional wash.” Glass can of course break, but, as Rachel points out, so can stone. “Glass is really good in winter, when it sparkles and catches the light on frosty mornings, and it looks good with water as well. You can have fun placing it where it will pick up reflections.” Ceramic sculptures can be a little more fragile, and you need to make sure they have been fired at a high temperature to ensure they are frost-proof. For sculpture in steel, remember that unlike stainless steel, mild steel will rust. “It needs to be treated,” says Rachel, “unless you want it to rust, of course.” One art form currently enjoying a resurgence is letter cutting, which enables clients to take home very personal pieces if a plaque or standing stone is inscribed with a meaningful quote, poem or an inscription. Find artists who practise letter carving at The Lettering Arts Trust; Rachel particularly admires Edinburgh-based Jackie Perkins. View available sculpture at gardengallery.uk.com
IMAGES GAP/HIGHGROVE/A BUTLER; GAP/ZARA NAPIER/RICHARD BLOOM; CLIVE NICHOLS
Top left Walter Bailey’s
FINDING AN ARTIST Victoria Leedham is co-curator and gallery manager at The Hannah Peschar Sculpture Garden in Surrey, which holds outdoor exhibitions of sculpture by both established and emerging artists. “Established artists know their material like the back of their hand, so their work never fails to disappoint,” she observes. Sculptors such as Paul Vanstone will be displaying his work in the gardens this year. “His skill is twofold,” says Victoria. “He has an incredible eye for sourcing his material, so his work is often in the most extraordinary stone. His work celebrates the stone: it’s nothing too fancy or too fiddly, often figurative silhouettes, but the way he carves the ribbons and the veins through the material, it’s like he has x-ray vision.”
Holding Together, made from Sussex redwood. Top right Paul Vanstone sources unusual stone from across the globe; this is Ribbon Profiles in carrara marble. Above right Hannah Bennett’s Bee Drinker. Above left The colourful forms of Helen TwiggeMolecey’s fungi-like glass installation.
“Nature herself is such an incredible artist, you know any artwork that’s drawing on and celebrating that is going to be wonderful,” she adds. Walter Bailey works with hardwood – primarily oak and sustainably sourced English redwood – creating incredible lattice effects. “He has an amazing collection of different sized chainsaws, which are like his paintbrushes,” she says. After carving, Walter often scorches the wood, which adds colour, depth and acts as a preservative, although Victoria also points out the importance of raising wooden pieces off the ground to guard against the wood rotting and disintegrating. “We use slate or pieces of tile to create an air gap,” she explains. Helen Twigge-Molecey will be exhibiting at the Sculpture Garden for the first time this year, with an installation of glass fungi-like forms. “They’re quite abstract but you know instantly that they’re fungi. We’ve worked with Helen to install them through an area of woodland, nestled in groups between trees. What’s really exciting is that she’s included lighting, a really calm, gentle light going on and coming back off again, and it looks like the whole installation is breathing, so it’s quite surreal.” Another of the Sculpture Garden’s newer artists is Hannah Bennett, whose works double as seats. “They’re beautiful as pieces of sculpture with natural forms, and you can sit on them,” says Victoria, “which just goes to show that outdoor sculpture can also be practical as well.” Prebook tickets to visit the garden from ThursdaySunday at hannahpescharsculpture.com JULY 2022 THE ENGLISH GARDEN 71
SCULPTURE
POSITIONING SCULPTURE
Top left The ethereal form of Simon’s Athena merges with the garden. Top right Sea thrift sets off the shape and colour of Simon Gudgeon’s bronze Embrace. Above right Let water reflect the artwork, as with Simon’s Pelicans. Above Leaf Spirit emerges from the surrounding greenery.
Monique Gudgeon and her sculptor husband Simon hadn’t intended to create a sculpture park when they moved into their new home in Pallington, Dorset, back in 2007. But the willow-studded watery landscape of this former fishery sparked the idea for an ambitious project. Now Sculpture by the Lakes is home not just to a collection of around 30 of Simon’s sculptures, but also pieces by 30 other international sculptors. With its gardens, gallery, artisan shop and café, it makes a great day out, particularly if you’re seeking inspiration when it comes to garden art. True, the setting is on a grander scale than most people’s gardens, but there are plenty of lessons to take from the way sculpture is displayed here. One is the way the couple landscape the garden to suit a particular sculpture. “We have an abstract piece called Embrace with planting around it, and we designed the shape of the bed to reflect the shape of the sculpture,” says Simon. Two curved ‘wings’ rise from low swathes of magenta sea thrift that echo their shape. It’s a principle that would be easy to emulate on a smaller scale with other abstract work.
72 THE ENGLISH GARDEN JULY 2022
As is often the case with sculpture, it’s all about the backdrop, which changes outdoors at different times of day and in different seasons. Some of Simon’s pieces lend themselves to a ‘busy’ backdrop, such as Leaf Spirit, a bronze face composed of leaves. “I like it coming out of plants and bushes: I want it to merge with the landscape,” he says. Whatever the sculpture, don’t be afraid to move it around until you’ve found the perfect place. “Each piece of sculpture will work differently with its environment. When it’s in the right place, the sculpture enhances the landscape and the landscape enhances the sculpture,” says Simon. “If it doesn’t work, just try it somewhere else.” Simon also takes advantage of the opportunities afforded by water, often positioning pieces at the water’s edge or in the water itself so their shape and form is reflected. “It’s one of the things with water: with the reflection, you get twice the sculpture for your money.” All that said, “if you buy a piece you love, it will look right,” Simon affirms. “If you’ve got a personal connection with it, it will work.” Prebook tickets at sculpturebythelakes.co.uk; view Simon’s work at simongudgeon.com
DIRECTORY A PLACE IN THE GARDEN
CHILSTONE
Figurative sculptures and decorative objects. Tel: +44 (0)1403 864866; aplaceinthegarden.co.uk
Cast stone sculptures in both classical and contemporary styles. Tel: +44 (0)1892 740866; chilstone.com
ALISON CROWTHER
DAVID HARBER
Large pieces and benches in oak. alisoncrowther.com
Elegant outdoor pieces that never fail to make arresting focal points, including new work, Sentinel (below right). Tel: +44 (0)1235 859300; davidharber.co.uk
ANDREW KAY SCULPTURE
Sculptures in the forms of animals native to Britain, including steel herons. Tel: +44 (0)1524 271575; andrewkaysculpture.co.uk ANTHONY TURNER
Abstract stone sculptures, many inspired by the forms of fruit or seedpods such as beans. Tel: +44 (0)1647 252285; anthonyturner.net
EMMA STOTHARD
Lifelike animal forms sculpted from willow and wire bring intrigue to outdoor spaces. Tel: +44 (0)1947 605706; emmastothard.com GILES RAYNER
Large resin or bronze pieces, inspired by natural forms. Tel: +44 (0)1799 550368; annecurry-sculpture.co.uk
From his rural studio in the Cotswolds, Giles Rayner crafts water sculptures (below left) often inspired by plants. Tel: +44 (0)7989 320335; gilesrayner.com
BORDER SUNDIALS
HADDONSTONE
Elegant and timeless armillary spheres and sundials, handcrafted in Abergavenny, Wales. Tel: +44 (0)1873 840297; bordersundials.co.uk
A wide range of cast stone pieces includes reproductions of historic designs, statuary and ornaments. Tel: +44 (0)1604 770711; haddonstone.com
ANNE CURRY
HAMISH MACKIE
Large bronze pieces, often of wildlife such as roe or fallow deer and owls. Tel: +44 (0)1608 737859; hamishmackie.com JAMES PARKER SCULPTURE
Glass sculpture, plus pieces in slate and a limitededition series of bronze apples (above) and pears. Tel: +44 (0)7729 705257; jamesparkersculpture.co.uk JOE AND JENNY SMITH
Father and daughter sculptors working together in
stone and slate: urns, pears and globes a speciality. Tel: +44 (0)1556 690632; joe-smith.co.uk LUKE DICKINSON
Smooth and sleek abstract sculptures in Portland stone, ceramic glazes and marble from a trained stonemason. lukedickinson.co.uk NEIL WILKIN
A master of glass sculpture, Neil uses solid glass to create beautiful dewdrops that reflect their surroundings with the effect of a camera obscura. neilwilkin.com PETER BEARD
Simple shapes are glazed with layers of ceramics to create a strong textural effect. Tel: +44 (0)1926 428481; peterbeard.co.uk
IMAGES SIMON GUDGEON; EWEN WEATHERSPOON
ROBERT JAMES WORKSHOP
Whimsical characters from children’s stories made using bronze or bronze resin. Tel: +44 (0)7515 126119; robertjamesworkshop.com RUPERT TILL
Rupert Till’s distinctive animal and bird sculptures are crafted from malleable wire. Tel: +44 (0)7921 771284; ruperttill.com ■
JULY 2022 THE ENGLISH GARDEN 73
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February 2022
03/11/2021
09:26
PLANT FOCUS The large, bright flowerheads of Achillea ‘Sassy Summer Taffy’ have a substantial presence in the border.
Level Headed Their colourful, flat flowerheads are the perfect landing pads for the pollinators that adore them, making achillea a sensible choice for those keen to attract garden wildlife, as National Collection holder John Cullen explains to Louise Curley PHOTOGRAPHS ANNAÏCK GUITTENY JULY 2022 THE ENGLISH GARDEN 75
PLANT FOCUS
O
ne of the keys to creating interesting planting combinations is the use of contrasting flower shapes and structures. This is why the flat-topped flowers of achilleas have become such a go-to plant for designers, providing a foil to the spires and spheres of other summer-flowering perennials. Not that this is the only attraction of these plants. “I love them for their colour variation – whether it’s bold pops of colour or pastel tones from ivorywhite and shades of yellow and orange to a range of pinks and the deepest shades of red,” explains John Cullen, who is the custodian of a National Collection of Achillea millefolium at his nursery in Lincolnshire. “They have a long flowering season, 76 THE ENGLISH GARDEN JULY 2022
Above Golden Achillea
filipendulina ‘Parker’s Variety’ glows when grown in combination with delicate purple Verbena hastata.
with some starting to bloom in April – in some years we’ll still have achilleas in flower in December. They also score highly when it comes to attracting wildlife, which has always been a key feature of the plants we grow at the nursery,” adds John. The larvae of several moths feed on achilleas, starlings line their nests with the leaves, and the flowers are a great source of pollen and nectar for pollinators – especially butterflies and short-tongued bees. John took on the National Collection in 2017 after meeting a representative from Plant Heritage at a plant show. “They had earmarked about 20 or so different genera of plants that they wanted to protect, and while I was interested I didn’t want to move away from the nursery’s focus on plants for pollinators.” Serendipitously, beefriendly achilleas were one of the plants on Plant Heritage’s list. “This also coincided with us moving our nursery and lots of shade-loving plants from London to a site in Lincolnshire where there was no shade! Sun-loving achilleas seemed the perfect fit.” Achilleas are native to the northern hemisphere and they have a plethora of common names, which is always a sign that a plant has a long history. Yarrow is the most common, with some of the others including stench grass, old man’s pepper and soldier’s woundwort. This last name refers to the Ancient Greek mythological warrior Achilles, who is said to have treated his wounded soldiers with yarrow because it had known healing properties – a legend that led 18th-century Swedish botanist Carl Linnaeus to name the plant achillea. They’re a member of the daisy family, with flowerheads made up of individual blooms each with both disc and ray florets that are held on different length stems so that they form flat-topped flower clusters. In the UK the wildflower A. millefolium has white, occasionally pink, flowers and grows in meadows, hedgerows and on scrubby ground, and it’s from this and other wild species that plant breeders have managed to create such a wide array of colourful garden-worthy plants. They range in height from 20cm up to 2m and have upright, slender stems and airy, open flower clusters that give these herbaceous perennials an
Top Achillea ptarmica ‘Peter Cottontail’ has button-like flowers. Right The pink-red flowers of ‘Fanal’ fade to brick-red then yellow. This image ‘King Alfred’ is low-growing, so good for the front of borders.
JULY 2022 THE ENGLISH GARDEN 77
PLANT FOCUS architectural quality that means they work equally well in traditional cottage garden planting schemes and in modern prairie-style borders with ornamental grasses. The foliage is attractive too, delicate and feathery with a fern-like appearance in mid- or silvery-green. John plants achilleas with verbenas and salvias such as ‘Amistad’, which provide the purple element missing from the achillea colour range while enjoying the same growing conditions. A. ptarmica ‘The Pearl’, also known as sneezewort, was a favourite of Gertrude Jekyll’s and produces sprays of small, double, button-like, pure white flowers amid dark green foliage; ‘Perry’s White’ and ‘Peter Cottontail’ are similar, with all three creating a gypsophila-like froth. For single white flowers, try A. millefolium ‘White Beauty’, a selection of our native wildflower. The glowing golden flowerheads of the tallest achilleas, A. filipendulina ‘Parker’s Variety’, ‘Gold Plate’ and ‘Cloth of Gold’, reach up to 1.5m and more. For lemony-yellow blooms there are cultivars such as ‘Credo’ and ‘Taygetea’. Copper colours and apricot shades, meanwhile, are represented by the cultivars ‘Terracotta’; ‘Fanal’, which starts off red before fading to orangey-yellow; ‘Walther Funcke’; and the fiery shades of ‘Feuerland’. ‘Apricot Delight’ from the Tutti Frutti Series is a relatively recent introduction, bred to be compact with a bushy habit, growing to a height of 60cm with a spread of 50cm and has flowers in fruity tones of red, pink and orange, all on the same plant at any one time. Shades of pink include ‘Lansdorferglut’, ‘Cerise Queen’ and the fabulously named ‘Forncett Fletton’, which sounds like a character from an American soap opera and has fetching salmon-pink blooms. The flowers of ‘Lilac Beauty’ emerge a deep rosepink colour before fading to a pretty lavender. For jewel-like ruby shades there’s ‘New Vintage Red’, ‘Red Velvet’ and ‘Pomegranate’, which is John’s favourite. “It’s very floriferous with a fantastic rich colour and, unlike some achilleas, it doesn’t tend to bleach in strong sunshine.” This chameleonlike colour change that some achilleas exhibit can be an attractive trait, particularly when several colours appear on a plant at the same time, but John suggests it’s worth taking this into consideration if you have a strong colour theme running through your borders. For instance, ‘Paprika’ Top ‘Apricot Delight’, starts off with deep red from the recently introduced ‘Tutti Frutti’ flowers that change to series of compact plants. pale pink and finally Middle ‘Terracotta’ bears a creamy-yellow. copper-orange flowers. John also Bottom Vibrant Achillea millefolium ‘Cerise recommends the new Queen’ catches the eye. Seduction Series, which Far left Tall Achillea have been bred to be filipendulina ‘Gold Plate’ shorter, so they’re less can reach 1.5m. 78 THE ENGLISH GARDEN JULY 2022
likely to flop and are very floriferous. “For containers I’d suggest ‘Moondust’ which is a very pale yellow and about 20cm tall, and pink ‘Little Susie’, which grows to about 40cm. Use a John Innes No2 compost mixed 50:50 with grit for good drainage.” Others include canary-yellow ‘Little Moonshine’ and ‘Pink Grapefruit’, as well as ‘King Alfred’, which is very low-growing, making it a good choice for the edge of borders, rock gardens and pots. Achilleas also make long-lasting cut flowers and can be used in both fresh and dry flower arrangements. In either case, cut them when the flowers are showing colour but not fully open, as they’ll continue to emerge once picked. To dry the flowers, bunch several stems together and tie with twine then hang them upside down somewhere warm, dry and dark for two to three weeks. Find space for these easy-to-grow perennials and not only will they bring a splash of joyful colour to your garden, they’ll also create a space that buzzes and flutters with bees and butterflies. ■ Above left ‘Lilac Beauty’
fades from deep pink to palest lavender. Above right ‘Paprika’ starts off with deep-red flowers, which then age to a creamy yellow.
John Cullen Gardens, Eagle Lodge, Archers Lane, Algarkirk, Boston, Lincolnshire PE20 2AG. The nursery opens by appointment with the best time to view the achillea collection being midsummer. Tel: +44 (0)1205 460567; johncullengardens.com
GROWING ADVICE
Easy-care achilleas Achilleas are easy to grow if they’re given the right conditions, advises John Cullen Plant achilleas in a sunny, open space where they won’t be shaded out by taller plants at the back of a border, otherwise they’ll move towards the light and become floppy. They’re classified as drought tolerant, but that doesn’t mean you should plant them and leave them. Water them during their first year so they establish well, then you won’t need to fuss over them.
which have a tendency to sprawl outwards. They’re classed as short-lived perennials so divide every three years in late winter or early spring, discarding the woody centre and replanting the younger, outer growth to reinvigorate the plants.
They’ll struggle on heavy clay soil, so incorporate plenty of grit when planting.
Aphids can be a problem but ladybirds on our nursery keep them under control. Slugs will go for the young foliage as it emerges in spring, but once achilleas leaf up they’re less attractive to them.
Stake the taller varieties and place circular grid-type supports over the top of midheight, clump-forming varieties,
Deadhead by cutting the spent flower stem right back to the base of the plant to encourage it to send up new shoots.
JULY 2022 THE ENGLISH GARDEN 79
PLANT SWATCH
Fresh as a Daisy Try something new in your garden this summer with the classic daisy flowers of leucanthemum, which look good in both formal borders and naturalistic schemes
Leucanthemum x superbum ‘Banana Cream’
For fresh white daisies with maximum garden impact, look to cultivars of Leucanthemum x superbum, also known as shasta daisy. These tend to have larger flowers, sturdy stems and, in some, such as ‘Engelina’, finely divided petals that give the flowers a textural, shaggy look. At 50cm tall and with a goldenyellow centre, they also make an excellent cut flower. Other good varieties for fluffy flowers like this include ‘Aglaia’, or ‘LaCrosse’, with petals that are divided only at the tips. If a single-flowered daisy with pure white blooms is preferred, look out for ‘Snowcap’. These leucanthemums prefer a sunny spot in well-drained soil and will flower from July to September.
Ring the changes with this creamy yellow shasta daisy. The suitably named cultivar ‘Banana Cream’ produces large semi-double flowers from June to September. Their pale yellow tone fades as the flowers age, giving clumps a two-tone effect, and regularly deadheading the faded flowers will encourage the production of new ones. This year, Proven Winners has introduced the new, improved version ‘Banana Cream II’ (pictured above), which will freely produce masses of flowers throughout summer. The plant should reach around 50-60cm tall, and enjoys fertile soil in a sunny position – although in hotter climates it will benefit from a little shade in the afternoon.
80 THE ENGLISH GARDEN JULY 2022
Leucanthemum vulgare The ox-eye daisy is the leucanthemum to choose when you’re aiming for a naturalistic look. A common component of meadow mixes, it’s the daisy that so often creates a beautiful haze of white through rough grass in early summer. It’s quick to colonise empty areas; if building work has left bare soil in its wake, use it to temporarily cover the ground while you consider more permanent planting. The flowers are small and dainty and appear from May to July. They’re much loved by pollinators, including bees, and needn’t be limited to naturalising in grass. They add a delightfully informal touch when threaded through gaps in borders, bringing freshness with their pristine early-summer daisies.
IMAGES PROVEN WINNERS; SHUTTERSTOCK
Leucanthemum x superbum ‘Engelina’
LAST WORD
Sign of the Times
F
ashions change – in gardens, as in clothes. But it’s never just about fashion. Neither is fashion. Look at safety pins and punk in the time of Mrs Thatcher; or the yards of fabric in a New Look skirt after the end of WWII. Gardens, like fashion, reflect the spirit of the age, and over the past 50 years we have seen four shifts in garden style in response to our changing view of the world. In the 1970s when I started gardening, British gardeners were still stuck in the past, making what were essentially early 20th-century Arts & Crafts gardens with formal lines and cottage-garden planting. Our models were Sissinghurst and Hidcote by way of Rosemary Verey. Then we were jolted into the present by the likes of Christopher Bradley-Hole and his second-generation Modernist gardens – we Brits were very late to that particular feast – all sleek, precision-cut stone, gleaming water and stainless steel. Beautiful gardens, but they could have been anywhere – in a desert on the Gulf or in the middle of London – an International Style to match the concrete and glass skyscrapers of the modern city. New intensive maintenance and irrigation techniques meant that perennials could be planted anywhere and in any combination: a purely decorative and artificial approach that was challenged by Piet Oudolf. His hugely influential New Perennial style, adopted by British gardeners in the 1990s, promoted a more sustainable way of
82 THE ENGLISH GARDEN JULY 2022
“
We have community gardens, community orchards, community composting”
planting, in free-flowing naturalistic settings with signature plantings of grasses. Then came the financial crash and the Postmodern garden: a fusion of New Perennial planting with formal historical or post-industrial elements, as in the post-capitalist New York setting of Oudolf’s iconic High Line, a recolonising by nature of a disused, high-level railway line, a style represented in this country by the re-imagining of the 19th-century Italianate parterre at Trentham with New Perennial style planting by Tom Stuart-Smith. Now we are seeing the fourth major shift in style. It’s as if the WWII ‘Dig for Victory’ campaign has been re-imagined for the 21st century. Rather than digging up the lawn for potatoes, we let it grow into a wildflower meadow. Instead of building an Anderson shelter, we make bug hotels and put up bird boxes. These are sustainable gardens, but it is the planet’s sustainability we worry about now, not just sustainable planting. Gardens are co-operative, collaborative and local: we have community gardens, community orchards, community composting schemes. Guerilla gardeners seize unused ground and grow flowers up lampposts. City planners sow wildflowers on traffic islands. We decrease our carbon footprint by buying locally and seeking out local materials and suppliers. We cherish the textures of local stone and gravel. We recycle bricks and re-use timber – the aesthetic is rust and old weathered wood instead of stainless steel. We conserve water: rainwater butts are a feature; water in these gardens is more likely to trickle than to gush, to nourish rather than purely to ornament. Anxieties about food and its wholesomeness lead us to grow our own vegetables and experiment with organic growing. The need to reduce carbon emissions encourages us to eat less meat. We plant local varieties of apples because we like the feeling of distinctiveness they give. We choose old varieties of vegetables because they maintain genetic diversity. We don’t have a name for them yet, but no one could accuse these gardens of being all about fashion. ■
ILLUSTRATION JULIA RIGBY PORTRAIT RICHARD BLOOM
The move towards more sustainable gardening reflects our wider concerns about the sustainability of the planet in general, explains Katherine Swift
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