GET THE LOOK
Amazing garden sectioned into different styles
KEEN gardeners Alan and Lynn Nokes weren’t short of growing ambitions when they took on a quarter of an acre wilderness just over 20 years ago. The couple were able to see beyond the coarse grass and assorted trees growing on the long, gently sloping site behind their 1930’s bungalow in Worcestershire and, with a view of the Lickey Hills to inspire them, proceeded to set about making it a garden to be proud of.
Since then their plot has evolved to become a series of ‘rooms’, each with a character all of its own to make the most of its particular environment. Closest to the house is a sunny patio. Alan has adapted an existing concrete pond and turned it into a distinctive figure-ofeight-shaped water feature crossed by a bridge and linked to a stream. The circular shapes here are mirrored in a Mediterranean-style area reached by a formal set of steps to make the sloping land easier to negotiate.
A lawn flanked by two colourful herbaceous borders form the third
“There’s been a lot of team work involved”
garden room leading to a productive vegetable plot. “It’s the real reason why we decided to buy the house,” says Lynn. Alan continues: “I had an allotment plot but had got to the point where I was fedup with having to get into the car and drive a couple of miles in order to do anything. I had the design ideas and ability to put the hard structure in place, although I learnt as I went along. Lynn had the planting ideas, so there’s been a lot of team work involved in getting us to where we are now.”
Each garden room looks very different, although throughout the plot there are various repeated features that combine to bring a sense of unity. These include the use of bricks for the pond surrounds, the steps and the decorative pathway within the vegetable patch, all of which complement the building materials used for the Nokes’ home.
Exotic and unusual-looking plants can also be found dotted around the garden, whether it’s the chusan palm (Trachycarpus fortuneii) next to the steps, the monkey puzzle tree (Araucaria araucana) growing at the end of one of the herbaceous borders or the Chinese rice-paper plant, (Tetrapanax papyrifer) near the pond. And there’s no shortage of colour throughout the garden, from the flowers in the herbaceous borders to the multi-hued raised beds, which Alan says helps with his rotation plans.
All in all Alan and Lynn’s garden of many rooms is a labour of love and the place they want to be whenever they get the opportunity. “It’s become our life, almost,” says Alan, adding that they open for the NGS as part of Marlbrook Gardens and for Parkinson’s UK.
Never a couple to rest on their laurels Lynn concludes: “Even now it’s still evolving as we try new ideas.”