Two become one
An extended plot in Norwich now enjoys tranquil woodland
With its seven stately oak trees Alan inness had admired the garden next door to his Norwich bungalow for years. “But i never ever thought that i’d get the opportunity to own it,” he confides. his partner, keen gardener Sue Collins, was equally smitten. “it was a bit wild,” she laughs. “i used to peep through the gap in the conifers and think, “wow!” So in 2009, when their neighbour offered them the part adjoining their own plot, the
“I felt I didn’t want to give up
couple obviously jumped at the chance. Unfortunately its purchase would be bitter-sweet.
“As we were going through with the transaction, Sue was diagnosed with stage 4 cancer and given 12 months to live,” says Alan matter-of-factly. Apart from the utterly devastating effect that this had on their lives, he also started to have second thoughts about the garden purchase, until Sue urged him to continue. “i felt i didn’t want to give up,” she remembers.
“i still wanted to garden because gardening lifts my mood. Being outside and doing something with nature feels inspirational.” in the event, after an extremely traumatic period of surgery and chemotherapy, the hospital dropped another bombshell. Sue had been misdiagnosed, and didn’t have cancer at all.
As she gradually pieced her life back together, the garden underpinned and
in some ways mirrored her process of renewal and restoration. The conifers were banished in a succession of huge bonfires, and borders were dug out, uncovering an enormous amount of household rubbish and building materials. Then the grass was reseeded around the oaks, which turned out to be multi-stemmed - three sets of two stems and a single - from the time when the area was coppiced woodland.
Most of the now L-shaped plot was relatively shady, so Sue created a backbone of planting centred around robust shrubs – mahonia, euonymous and viburnums – and droughttolerant ferns such as dryopteris. The couple have enhanced this by adding a jungle feel with bamboos, Fatsia
japonica and even a tetrapanax in the sheltered woodland atmosphere.
Today, the garden is unified into one integrated whole, with a restricted planting palette that changes with the conditions but has an over arching sense of peace and tranquility.
The continuity is strengthened by two summerhouses that serve as dual focal points at the far end of each section. The first is self-built, where Alan can listen to football and play his 70s vinyl collection. The other is a more serene spot at the top of the new garden for Sue to relax and enjoy the seclusion. “The lovely thing about being up there is you’ve got no view of the bungalow,” she says. “It really is like sitting in the woods.”