Garden to visit East Lambrook’s ditch garden is full of picturesque planting ideas. Its Head Gardener explains how to get the look
Head Gardener Mark Stainer explains how to create the perfect setting for gorgeous galanthus
February can be the coldest month of the year, but that doesn’t stop the gardens at East Lambrook Manor bursting into life. Created by Margery Fish, one of the 20th century’s most renowned gardeners and plant collectors, the garden became known for her relaxed planting style, an approach that has continued under the stewardship of current owners Mike and Gail Werkmeister.
At this time of year the ditch garden (pictured) is a joy, as it sparkles with Margery’s impressive snowdrop collection that emerges among foliage and flower buds that hint at what’s to come. Here Head Gardener Mark Stainer offers tips on how to create something similar in your own garden.
How did East Lambrook garden come about?
Margery and her husband Walter moved to East Lambrook in 1937. At the time the area surrounding the house was part of an old chicken farm. Margery’s aim was to create a typical English cottage garden in keeping with the old manor house, using plants as the main feature in a loose, almost wild, planting style.
How would you describe its layout?
It’s just under two acres including the nursery. Margery very cleverly used the natural contours of the garden to create a series of ‘rooms’ where she embraced the different growing conditions, such as the shade garden under the apple trees; a terraced area, which looks its best throughout summer and into autumn; a south-facing slope, which she used for her collection of silver and grey plants; and the ditch.
What are the key elements of the ditch garden?
It was originally a man-made drainage ditch between two orchards. When the Fishes moved in, it contained running water, so they came up with the idea of creating a wild garden here. ➤
How does the area progress through the year? First we pollard the dominant willows, which look like lollipops running the length of the ditch – every two years we cut them right back to their 6ft-high stumps. This distinctive feature ties the garden in with the surrounding Somerset Levels, where willows grow in the drainage ditches.
The area really comes into its own in February, when you can see the whole structure of the ditch and appreciate how much work the Fishes put into creating that area, with planting pockets created by using lumps of local hamstone.
There are masses of snowdrops, as well as emerging brunnera foliage; fabulous witch hazel flowers; hanging yellow catkins of Stachyurus praecox; and the milky-white flowers of groundcovering Vinca difformis, in February and March.
How does the interest continue? Later in spring, Margery’s favourite bog plants start to appear, such as lysichiton (skunk cabbage); Darmera peltata, which has magnificent foliage; and lots of ferns. As the snowdrops begin to fade, masses of hellebores, another of Margery’s favourites, start to peak, and Scilla bithynica forms a carpet of blue.
Perennials such as geraniums and
As the snowdrops begin to fade, masses of hellebores start to peak
astrantias appear next, so much so that by summer the ditch itself is obscured by a sea of growth. You wouldn’t even know there was a ditch! In midsummer the geraniums and astrantias are cut down to give a second flush of growth and more flowers, for a bit of a revival later on.
Why are snowdrops so important to East Lambrook? Margery loved them – she was an early galanthophile. We’ve got around 150 cultivars and some were discovered here. In 1987 Galanthus nivalis ‘Margery Fish’ was found in the ditch garden and G. plicatus ‘Walter Fish’ was spotted nearby (by former owner Andrew Norton) so it seemed appropriate to name it after Margery’s husband. During our February snowdrop festival visitors can come to enjoy them in the garden and in a raised display bed in the nursery, where you can see the rarer cultivars. Current owner Mike continues to add to the spring display, planting snowdrops, fritillaries and winter aconites under the mulberry tree by the entrance and drifts of snowdrops in the grass verges outside the gates. ✿