A garden full of surprises
From terracotta warriors to handbag planters and a beach hut with seashore, novelties abound in this Nottinghamshire garden
It took Joan Dean a long time to be bitten by the gardening bug. For two decades after she and husband Jim moved into their house in Tollerton village 43 years ago, the garden remained “just a massive piece of grass with a couple of old lilac trees”. Then, when Joan gave up work, she started developing the garden, bit by bit. “I made a border, and thought that looked
nice. Then I did another one and thought about what might go with that. Now I’ve got to the point where I’m having to take things out,” she laughs. Joan has packed her borders with herbaceous plants. “I never come away empty handed from the garden centre, but then I have to find a spot for them. However, the more plants you have, the less room there is for weeds!” she says.
As the plants started to grow and flower, Joan decided to design a series of differently themed mini-rooms to give her garden more interest. She created a stumpery in a shady spot with ferns, hostas and woodland plants and added a tiny cherry sapling that she’s watched grow into a magnificent tree.
“I don’t usually worry too much about matching plants to location. I just pop them in and see how they grow, but I did seek
out shade-loving plants for this area,” Joan says. Other trees that now give height and interest include a tulip tree ( Liriodendron tulipifera), which went in 15 years ago, but she’s still waiting for it to flower, and two acers. “The leaves turn such a beautiful bright red in autumn.”
Joan enjoys surprising visitors with unusual elements and design ideas. At the back of the garden is an archway with a mirror in it. “People always think it leads on somewhere else until they get close up and find themselves looking at their own reflection!”
She has also created a woodland area into which she carefully positioned a large statue of a chimpanzee. “Visitors don’t always spot him at first and then I hear them cry: ‘Ooh, look
at that!’. My grandchildren ran away when they saw it for the first time!” Her grandchildren also inspired another unusual feature – a bright blue beach hut. “It was originally a playhouse for my granddaughters, who often came to stay. Now they’re in their teens, I decided to convert it into a beach hut, complete with sandy beach,” she says.
Behind a blue-painted lattice screen is a wildlife pond that welcomes many frogs each year. It’s a secluded area and a wonderful suntrap.
The oriental area evolved when Joan was developing a raised part of the garden. “First, I created an artificial river from stones and pebbles and planted up the banks, then I moved the wooden bridge that originally spanned the pond and painted it bright red.” Bamboo plants, a statue of a warrior and red lanterns complete the scene, shaded by eucalyptus trees.
A large, central pergola is clothed with clematis and honeysuckle and smells divine – especially at night time – but this area needed some intervention last year. “The climbers were absolutely rampant, reaching up to the sky, so I cut them right back.”
Surrounding the conservatory and kitchen garden are a multitude of hydrangeas that