Our Garden of the Week can cope with extremes!
Meet a couple from County Durham who have battled the elements on an exposed, south-facing site to create a colourful piece of paradise
With its splendid views over the surrounding picturesque countryside, The Fold looks like a delightful gardeners’ paradise. And it is, but it belies the fact that it sits at an altitude of 210m (700ft) on an exposed, south-facing site.
“No-one with any sense would have attempted to create a garden here. It’s windswept and the soil’s thin and bare as the area had been extensively mined,” says owner, Alison Young. “Added to that, when we moved here, it was just a field!”
Now it boasts a wide range of spring-flowering ericaceous and summer-flowering shrubs, superb herbaceous borders, alpine and island beds, ponds, numerous mature trees and even a small roof garden. It contains a wide range of plants, mostly perennials, with the emphasis on colour, harmony and texture to create all-year round interest. And most of these need to be as tough as the proverbial old boots to survive the conditions.
When Alison started developing the garden, she made plans to landscape the site using the natural slopes and developed two main areas. “I called one ‘the upper Alps’ and the other ‘the lower Alps’, which were mainly for growing alpines,” she said. The rest of the garden was to be in an arboretum style.
To get the areas cleared for development and planting, she used Roundup, which she calls ‘the lazy gardener’s friend’ and this is now used for keeping paths and the car park weed free.
A formal lawn was laid in front of the house, which Godfrey is in charge of mowing. “A major part of my grand plan was four ‘blobs’, which were excavated by a JCB and created by importing 20 tons of topsoil.”
Alison then took advice from a local nursery as to what would grow in the garden’s climate. “I did look at what other gardens in the area were growing, but there was nothing. This has changed over the years, as the area is
less ‘bandit territory’ than it was then!” On that advice, she planted Scots pines, plus flowering cherry trees, silver birches, beech, various cotoneasters and acers to form the backbone of the ‘blobs’. Other shrubs and trees went in to fill the spaces, along with lots of ground cover.
Alison reminisces about her formative gardening years: “When I first became interested in gardening, I read all the books I could lay my hands on. My favourite source of inspiration was Margery Fish. She described her style as cottage gardening, and I took that up. I love to see plants all crammed in, with their colours mingling and no bare soil in sight. I welcome all self-seeders. One plant she loved, and one I’ve grown ever since, is Limnanthes douglasii, the poached egg flower.”
But gardens never remain static, and gardeners’ plans often have to change. Ten years ago, Godfrey and Alison bought an unconverted, adjoining barn, and downsized the garden by half, selling their original barn conversion with the formal half of garden. This prompted the removal of the Scots pine, replacing them with more attractive specimens. “We’ve also reduced the number of beech trees. And, sadly, the time has come for the silver birches, which have been a delight, but they’ve outgrown the space and we’re taking them out in autumn.”
But changes allow for new, exciting features. Pride of place in this downsized garden goes to a pond at the bottom, with a boggy area around it. Alison says:
“This has become my favourite part. It’s fed in wet times by a natural spring and the bog features a range of candelabra primulas, which are a real joy.”
The old garden had a feature called ‘contemplation’ – hostas planted in a circle with a stone cairn in the middle. Alison replicated it in the new area, but based around a stumpery, constructed from all the removed Scots pines and apple, plum and birch trees forming the circle. A willow arch, made by Alison, forms the entrance to this circle feature.
Other changes include a split-level central bed, which was originally planted half alpine
and half herbaceous – but this in itself has recently changed so that it’s all alpine now. And other herbaceous areas have been converted into gravel and grasses to create even more variety.
“I’ve tried to make the garden a cohesive whole, with joined-together areas, but with others that have a distinct personality,” she says. “There’s a woodland walk, herbaceous borders, island beds – with both shadeloving plants and sun lovers – plus lots of dwarf conifers.”
The summer heralds a wealth of colour throughout the garden. Various geraniums, delphiniums and campanulas, anthemis, knautia, astrantia and Alison’s favourite candelabra primulas are in full bloom. Climbing and rambling roses, including ‘Rambling Rector’, ‘Heritage’ and ‘Wedding Day’, provide colour and scent at different heights. “The shrubby potentillas make a lovely show right through the season, and the white deutzias in what I ambitiously call ‘The White Border’ are in full flower,” says Alison.
Over the years, the climate the garden experiences has become kinder, which has encouraged Alison to experiment further, but she has learned her lesson – or so she thinks! “We had a lovely holiday on Tresco in the Isles of Scilly and came back with loads of seeds and cuttings. Sadly, the only thing that has survived is lampranthus, and even this is in pots and lives in the greenhouse over winter!”