Gardening - Oct.qxp_Layout 1 21/09/2022 12:40 Page 1
GARDENING
A garden for all seasons
Judith Lywood has lived in her house in Bath for 20 years. Over this time, the garden that she first created from a builder’s yard has been a source of constant pleasure. Judith writes here about the garden and about some of the plants that make themselves felt in October
W
hether it’s the smell of the soil or newly mown grass, a walled garden with lavender and climbing roses, the old fashioned hay with its wafts of clover and odour of burning leaves in autumn’s bonfire, all these memories are with me forever. One never loses them. I am an 88 year old and I have designed gardens of all shapes and sizes for the last 50 years. I now live in a Georgian townhouse at the top of a hill overlooking Bath, on a quiet side road. My present garden I created from scratch over 20 years ago, with a fair degree of structure, to maximise the interest in the beds. The emphasis is on colour in the garden, which includes shrubs, climbers, perennials, topiary, pots and an area for children and pets to enjoy. When I started creating gardens, I had no real knowledge, often working from the barest of bones and with limited funds. During that time, through my own trial and error, I have learnt what I need to create a garden, one that gives and keeps on giving throughout the seasons – you can do this too. My garden is divided into eight areas of key interest, starting through the gate with bed one and the Woodland Garden, then bed two full of cottage garden planting, then there are pots on a patio area that is planted seasonally, followed by the ‘Pot Theatre’, the Fernery, the Narrow Walled Garden, the Gravel Garden and The Wall Bed. The most recent addition is the Gravel Garden. This was introduced in recognition of how the changing climate is causing long, dry, extreme summers and the need to conserve water. Ever since I travelled to Beth Chatto’s Gravel Garden in Colchester, Essex, 20 years ago,
which requires absolutely no watering, I have been inspired to do the same on a much smaller scale. We chose drought-tolerant flowering plants for the Gravel Garden, such as Mediterranean herbs, Dianthus, Diascia, Eryssimum, Geranium, Valerian, Erigeron (Fleabane) and Eryngium. This addition has produced a completely different feeling in the corner of the garden, which is sunk below the house and you are are constantly looking up, which gives different views, including one of Bath in the distance. This part of the garden requires little to no watering, self seeding is encouraged, and scent and colour attract more pollinators. ABOVE: A colourful view of the garden from Judith’s bedroom window
A striking combination of Clematis 'Bill Mackenzie’, Verbena bonariensis, Salvia ‘Royal Bumble’, Alstroemeria ‘Sirius’ and Salvia sagittata x ‘Blue butterflies’
86 TheBATHMagazine
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ocTober 2022
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iSSUe 236
BELOW: Late summer colour in the form of Dahlias, Phlox and Hydrangea