“I like to dream big!”
Garden expert and author Naomi Slade shares how she turned a barren backyard into a tiny field of dreams
MOVING HOUSE ALWAYS comes with compromises and, for us, it was the garden. When we arrived mid-2017, our blank canvas was a small, shaded space, covered in fake grass and dominated by an enormous climbing rose. There were a couple of small fruit trees, a beefy Spiraea japonica, and that was all.
Luckily, I live and breathe gardening and while this was inconvenient it was far from insurmountable. First the hateful fake grass had to go; it gets unpleasantly hot in the sun, weirdly squishy in the rain and nothing, bar a few perverse weeds, can live on it. Beneath, the soil was in a sorry state. Lifeless, heavy clay, hardcore and patches of concrete, with nary a worm to be seen. But I like to dream big.
I wanted my new garden to have everything – flowers and fruit, a cutting patch and a lawn. As a garden writer, it’s my lab, workspace and inspiration, too, so I set out to pack in as much as possible. I carved planting pockets out of concrete, added lots of organic matter to the unwelcoming soil, planted out everything I’d brought with me and sowed lots of sweet peas, Ammi majus and other fast-growing annuals, so there were flowers even in the first season. It is both functional and habitable and I love the fact that I’ve now got an orchard, a terrace and a Victorian-style greenhouse, albeit in miniature.
As the garden grows, I’ve built in more structure, making sure that everything looks good and works hard. The lid of my cubic compost bin is handy for potting up and the greenhouse expanded the growing possibilities enormously, while also providing height – the garden is lower than the house and slopes downhill! I use containers a lot, moving them around to provide interest as needed, but increasingly the plants are in the ground and the flowers buzz with bees and butterflies.
It’s not an easy spot and it’s still a work in progress. But the challenge is exciting and I’m enjoying seeing what is possible – and proving that you can create a good garden almost anywhere! l Naomi’s books, including Hydrangeas and A Plant Lover’s Guide to Snowdrops, can be ordered at www.naomislade.com/shop