“I always wanted my own woodland” Ferns and shade-loving perennials grace this soothing, leafy woodland glade in Cambridgeshire

Ferns and shade-loving perennials give this leafy garden its soothing atmosphere. Owner Colin Small explains how he planted his woodland glade

This lush and leafy woodland garden is full of ferns and shade-loving flowers. The soothing palette of greens makes it a tranquil plot that’s easy on the eye. “When we first moved here in 1992 it was all very different,” says owner Colin Small, who lives here with his wife Sheila. “There was a 30ft-high leylandii hedge that ran down the right-hand side and across the middle of the garden, starving the other plants of light. There was a weeping willow and various shrubs, but otherwise that was it. The grass was dead under the leylandii and the top of the garden was covered with bindweed, so we really did have to start from scratch.” Felling the leylandii was a priority. “It took me a weekend to cut down 40 of them using a chainsaw,” says Colin. “We hired a shredder for the foliage and chopped up the tree trunks into firewood. We planted a wild hedge for privacy instead.” SHADE LOVERS (clockwise from above left) Yellow ligularia and gold-stemmed bamboo, Phyllostachys aurea, with ferns; leylandii logs create border edging, with cyathea and dicksonia tree ferns behind; strappy foliage of Beschorneria yuccoides, Sambucus nigra and orange crocosmia; propagating ferns takes patience; Colin’s fernery; ferns tolerate a bit of dry shade

The previous owner was something of an amateur car mechanic. “When we began digging over the top of the garden we found all sorts of buried car parts, such as engines and gear boxes,” says Colin. “We had to clear that as well as the bindweed, and ended up with a whole skip-full of rubbish. “To smother any returning bindweed I laid old carpet and covered it with the topsoil excavated from my new pond. Some of these raised beds are now edged with old tree trunks to enhance the woodland feel.” The soil here is heavy clay, so Colin layers on extra homemade leafmould every year to boost fertility, improve soil structure and hold in moisture.

“It took me a weekend to cut down 40 leylandii with my chainsaw”

WOODLAND PATH (clockwise from above) Colin’s jungle includes Kirengeshoma palmata and Polystichum setiferum ferns ‘Plumosum Group’ and ‘Green Lace’ with Polypodium cambricum ‘Richard Kayse’; catalpa arches over potted crocosmia, lilies and salvias; phytolacca (pokeweed)

Next Colin set about planting broadleaf trees. “I’d always wanted to grow my own woodland,” he explains. “I’ve planted all sorts of trees and 25 years on they’re nice and mature. I’ve got Robinia pseudoacacia, two different paulownias, the Indian bean tree Catalpa bignonioides, hazel, native dogwood Cornus sanguinea and a couple of acers that give a really good autumn show.” Underneath these are established colonies of starry white wood anemones that flower from March to April, and delicate bluebells blooming April and May. Oh, and there’s a vast number of ferns... “I don’t really know how my fern collection began,” says Colin. “Many years ago I grew salvias – probably as many as 100 different types. Then I went away one winter weekend and the greenhouse heater ran out of paraffin... There was a frost that night and it killed them all. “I stopped collecting plants for a while but as the garden became shadier I eventually began to grow one or two ferns, and then one or two more and the whole thing escalated. Now I’ve got about 300.” A member of the British Pteridological Society (for fellow fern-aholics), Colin can identify most fern genera from 20 paces. “I can recognise a few from a distance but what you really need with ferns is to get right up close to see the little differences,” he says. Today Colin focuses his attentions on the more unusual cultivars and has propagated many from spores. “I’m friendly with Angela Tandy at Fibrex Nurseries – she gives me unusual plants from time to time.” Some of Colin’s more unusual specimens include blechnums, B. wattsii (hard water fern), B. discolor (crown fern) and B. tabulare (Table Mountain blechnum). “They all have trunks and are mainly tender,” he says. “I’ve also got Todea barbara (king fern, native to Australia). We went to see an ancient one at Ascog Hall on the Isle of Bute that’s more than 1,000 years old. Its rhizome was so big it looked like a rock. Even ferns dating back to Victorian times can weigh as much as a tonne.”

“What you really need with ferns is to get right up close to see the little differences”

Colin grows his own tree ferns such as cyatheas and Dicksonia antarctica. He’s built a special 5m (16ft)-tall fernery behind the house in which to overwinter these larger, more tender potted ferns. “It’s also useful for propagation when I run out of space in the greenhouse,” he says. “Growing ferns from spores is a slow process though. I’m only just potting up plugs that I sowed four years ago.” Colin’s leafy, north-facing garden is perfect for growing other shade-lovers too. As companion plants for his ferns he has unusual woodlanders such as beesia (a leafy member of the buttercup family), delicate vancouveria and Podophyllum peltatum, which has flowers resembling a small white hellebore. “I have hostas too,” he says. “I use slug pellets in early spring and my wife Sheila goes on regular sorties up the garden with her secateurs to deal with the enormous Spanish slugs. The frogs used to eat them, but then the great crested newts ate all the frogspawn.” The front garden is Sheila’s domain. “It’s really sunny and she grows lavender, gauras and heucheras,” says Colin. “She’s also grown a giant beschorneria – a bit like a yucca, with enormous great flower spikes in red or yellow. The biggest one was 12ft tall and flopped right over the driveway so we couldn’t park the car for a week!”