“Winter is always full of drama”
Even in the depths of winter this country garden has flowers to pick and neat hedges for structure. Owner Jane Lovett shows us around
Even in the depths of winter this country garden has flowers to pick and neat hedges for structure
The Glendale Valley can be a cold and unforgiving place in winter, when hard frosts settle on the ground, or a snow-laden wind sweeps in. Yet this atmospheric garden has an elemental drama that’s beautiful even when stripped bare of foliage and flowers. “Winter has always been an evocative season,” says owner Jane Lovett, a cookery writer who moved here with her husband John 30 years ago. “It’s even more dramatic now the shrubs and hedges we planted have matured, providing structure through the coldest months.” The couple took over the house from John’s parents. “It had been a notable garden in its day but many of the borders had grassed over as it gradually declined,” says Jane. “I didn’t know anything about gardening, but I knew we had to somehow divide it up into smaller spaces.”
Jane and John planted yew hedges and created an archway through the giant thuja hedge that ran away from the house. “I wanted to do something about the view, which was beautiful but expansive,” says Jane. “There’s a field between us and the VALLEY VIEWS (clockwise from left) An archway in the beech hedge frames an ivy-clad bust, with Helleborus argutifolius; a cheeky red squirrel raids a bird feeder on an ancient holly tree; evergreens include white margined Euphorbia
characias ‘Silver Swan’ and Lonicera purpusii; a sundial, clipped topiary and wrought-iron gates add formal drama
River Till and, from the house, you can see right across the whole valley, but I felt we needed a focal point closer to the house.” To improve the layout, Jane widened the terrace along the south-facing Georgian facade using large paving slabs, created walls and filled planting pockets with billowing plants that help to hold the eye before it escapes toward the distant hills. “Against the walls I planted winterflowering jasmine and echoed the stone balls on the terrace by clipping box into perfect topiary spheres.”
The garden now flows around the house and on one side, hidden behind a tall thuja hedge, lies a productive vegetable garden.
“Even in winter the garden provides fresh produce for the kitchen,” says Jane. “Because I’m a cookery writer and demonstrator, for me growing food all year round is important. We have cavolo nero, red kale, beets, spinach and parsley, and I edge the beds with colourful Swiss chard ‘Bright Lights’, which has got to be the hardest working plant in the whole garden! We pick it from autumn until spring and then plant more to start all over again the following year.”
The nearby greenhouse is also in constant use. “I’ve known temperatures here to dip as low as -25C (-13F), so we take hundreds of insurance cuttings, especially of the salvias, which I love,” says Jane. “‘Nachtvlinder’ is my favourite; it’s a rich, deep purple and while this and the other mature salvias in the garden have survived most of the recent winters, we take cuttings just in case.”
There’s always something to be picked, even when there’s frost on the ground
Jane gardens in all weathers and has made it a rule never to buy flowers for the house, but always to find something in the garden. “In summer there’s an abundance of delphiniums and Verbena bonariensis, while lilac-flowered clematis ‘Emilia Plater’ and apricot-pink rose ‘Cupid’ scramble over our tripods made from steel reinforcing rods,” says Jane. “Later in the year, dahlias and heleniums make a vivid splash – there’s always something to be picked, even when there’s frost on the ground. I didn’t set out to make this a winter garden – I just planted what I loved and that’s what’s happened.” In particular, Jane likes to combine sprigs of sweet-scented winter-f lowering honeysuckle and Viburnum bodnantense ‘Dawn’ with the marbled leaves of Arum italicum ‘Marmoratum’, the bright foliage of Euonymus fortunei and Ilex aquifolium ‘Silver Queen’, which has white margins
to its spiky leaves. Other winter favourites include Euphorbia wulfenii, which makes a handsome statement even in the depths of winter. “It billows out from the walls of the house, along with the Corsican hellebore, Helleborus argutifolius, with its handsome leaves and chartreusegreen January flowers. I also love the big, red spikes of dogwood and the scent of sarcococca.”
Jane is constantly reassessing what works, and recent changes have involved creating a yew garden at one end of an unused grass tennis court, and creating four beds where the plants alternate between pale and vibrant colours. “There’s now a spring garden too,” she says. “We made it by removing a giant holly shrub that cast dense shade so little else would grow. Now this part of the garden comes to life as winter loses its grip, brightening up the days with a succession of bulbs and my favourite yellow aquilegias.”
But for Jane, winter is just as beautiful, even if it’s freezing. “It doesn’t matter how miserable the weather,” she says. “Gardening in winter is just a matter of wearing the right clothes!”✿
l The Get-Ahead Cook by Jane Lovett (£20, Apicius Press) is available in all good bookshops.