Plant heaven on the coast
This subtropical, seaside, cottage garden has been densely planted by an imaginative couple with a passion for the unusual
Channel View is a mature, seaside garden, which combines the unusual and imaginative feel of a traditional cottage garden with subtropical, Mediterranean and Antipodean plants.
Here, you’ll see dense planting, discover secret rooms and be surprised by intriguing views, vistas and sightlines. There are shady, cool viewpoints adorned with various ferns and hostas, three sunny patios that catch the sun at different times of day, insect-friendly flowers, serendipitous features, unusually designed structures, arches supporting roses, clematis and other climbers, and brick paths that radiate from a wildlife pond.
Numerous pots, mainly ornamental terracotta ones, placed on walls at different heights, allow for a changing view and give greater prominence to some of the owners’ favourites. There’s even room for three curved lawns. As well as all this, you’ll probably bump into at least a plant or two that will leave you scratching your head trying to work out what it is!
All this is organised within a pretty small plot. “The front garden is 25 yards wide, narrowing down to 12 yards at the back. It’s 45 yards deep, so is really a normal suburban size. One of the frequent comments made by visitors is that it’s amazing what we’ve fitted into our garden, and everybody comments on the different ‘rooms’,” says Jennie.
The dense planting sustains a wide range of interests for Jennie
and Trevor, discourages weed growth, encourages wildlife and indulges their passion for unusual plants. This dense planting, with varying heights, grew to be a key feature of the garden. Several large trees are kept in proportion with hard pruning, allowing imaginative underplanting with a wide variety of species.
Jennie admits: “We’re plant lovers, and the garden is very densely planted to try and fit in everything we adore! Each year, we add, remove or shape plants, or redesign areas as part of
what’s an ongoing project.”
This love of the exotic and the unusual germinated while Jennie grew up in the Fiji islands, New Zealand and Australia. “We also lived in Jamaica early in our marriage, so we’ve always loved tropical and Antipodean plants, and the lush nature of gardens in these countries,” Jennie adds.
“One of our favourites is an albizia tree we grew ourselves. It opens up like an umbrella over the garden in the summer and is beautiful with its explosive pink blooms.”
The front garden sports several grey-leaved Mediterranean plants, to cope best with the salty, southwesterlies that blow all year.
Euryops pectinatus, with its vivid yellow flowers, and dahlia ‘Sunshine’, which performs brilliantly every year, planted with argyranthemum ‘Jamaica Primrose’ is one of Jennie’s
favourite planting combinations.
Although, she admits she really has too many to list!
Their garden is definitely a joint venture and a shared love, although each has their favourite areas of responsibility. Jennie does most of the weeding, planting, seed sowing and taking cuttings. She loves tending the garden, coming up with new ideas, adding many of the quirky touches – like a display of lobster pots – looking for new plants, growing and selling them and, most importantly of all, sharing it with others. “I spend countless happy hours planning and caring for the garden,” she says.
Trevor, on the other hand, is in charge of maintaining the lawns and hedges, and the larger pruning jobs, and has built many of the garden’s structures, including those for supporting climbing plants. He also originally landscaped the plot, making the paths from recycled bricks taken from the house’s old chimneys and interspersed with various decorative tiles, pebbles and flints, and low brick walls to contain the beds.
He adores rockery plants and has made a collection of small alpine gardens in pots that are displayed on the walls. “His other ‘job’ is to be constantly on the lookout for new roses and clematis to plant. The garden boasts more than 100 roses and 30 clematis,” Jennie says.
But it’s not all constant work. Jennie and Trevor make sure they use their garden to relax in. “We both love to sit in the garden, enjoying our varied seating areas and vantage points, with a cuppa or glass of wine, whenever we can. It’s definitely
an outdoor room. It’s a very real part of our living space. We even use it to host local tea events.”
During the summer, the garden comes to life with numerous roses flowering their heads off. These scramble over and through surrounding plants, competing with clematis for light and air.
More colour comes from gorgeous massed plantings of salvias, geraniums including G. palmatum (the Canary Island geranium) and G. maderense (Madeira cranesbill), argyranthemums (marguerites), sweet peas, passion flower, foxgloves, dahlias, calendulas, Anisodontea capensis (African mallow), lilies and abutilon.
These are perfectly set off by foils provided by many interesting, unusual and downright fabulous trees and shrubs, especially Azara microphylla, Crinodendron hookerianum, teucriums, Westringia fruticosa, Acca sellowiana, Eriobotrya japonica, Trachycarpus fortunei palms, cordylines, phormiums, several different eucalyptus species and pittosporums, plus Melianthus major.
But it’s not all about flowers and ornamentals. “In summer, the greenhouse is usually full of tomatoes, peppers, aubergines and cucumbers,” Jennie says. “And more tomatoes, beans, strawberries and salad crops are grown in the food garden and elsewhere in pots.”