Garden of the Week
Every part of this exotic, lush green, Dorset paradise created by a pair of Royal Academy artists holds a surprise for visitors
Most people with small plots make the excuse that their garden’s tiny and they can’t do anything with it. Well, nothing could be further from the truth at Annalal’s Gallery, where owners Anna and Lal Sims have created an exotic, lush, green haven.
The garden covers a mere 44 sq m (480 sq ft), and yet there’s so much to see, many ideas to take away for your own small areas, so many plants and lots to fall in love with. Much of this is due to Anna and Lal being Royal Academy artists and it’s obvious when you first visit.
The entrance to the garden is through the Victorian, terraced cottage which, as its name suggests, is a gallery of Anna and Lal’s work. The couple believe the horticultural experience begins as soon as you step inside their home.
The garden is basically a cottage patio garden, but arranged on three levels, each one creating the sense of an outdoor garden room with a distinct look and ambience. Archways entwined with clematis and scented jasmine divide the three, and you walk into each one via steps that lead between them.
The original intention behind this idea was to make the whole garden look and feel bigger than it actually is, and it succeeds incredibly well.
The garden has evolved over the last few years, mainly after the partial rebuilding of the 150-year-old Victorian wall that surrounds it – one side of it fell down 14 years ago! That also led to plenty of clearing away of old Victorian paraphernalia found in the ground, including clay pipes and bottles.
The wall creates a warm, sheltered, although slightly shaded, special microclimate that moulds the plants that can be grown here. O Originally, the garden
only contained three plants – two pyracanthas and a hydrangea – but it has now evolved beyond recognition. The pyracantha is now trained to curve around the top of the wall.
“The idea was to create a sweet-smelling garden of interest and depth,” Anna says. “We don’t think of ourselves as gardeners, so we wanted something that was as easy to manage as possible – although there’s no such thing as easy in gardening! So we also planted lots of evergreens to produce a ‘foresty’ feel.”
The two green, sentry box sheds are used to store the couple’s gardening tools and are the hiding place for the dustbins, as there’s nowhere else to put them. “And the NGS doesn’t like gardens with dustbins!,” Anna adds. The living sedum roofs help them blend in further with the garden, as well as helping to attract lots of wildlife.
Scent is very important, and the air is filled with the heady fragrances of jasmine, honeysuckle and Oriental lilies, as well as that from the bellshaped flowers of the cruel plant,
Araujia sericifera. Its blooms are produced from August to October and they then develop into pear-like fruit that later burst to reveal silky floss and seeds within. It gets its cruel plant name because the flowers attract and trap moths for pollination, then let them go in the morning. It’s a half-hardy climber that needs a warm wall to flourish and is usually grown in a conservatory or cool greenhouse, or brought indoors for the winter. It may survive short spells to 0C (32F).
In Anna and Lal’s garden it normally flourishes, thanks to the warm microclimate. It did die out one winter, but Anna and Lal managed to get hold of another plant by a tortuous route.
“A visitor, who’s a member of
the local horticultural society, asked if he could take some cuttings as he wanted to grow one in his garden,” Anna says. “Then, when ours died a couple of years later, we tracked him down and asked if we could have one of the plants back as a replacement. It has flourished ever since!”
Raised beds mean Anna and Lal don’t have to rely on growing all their plants in pots. “We’ve done away with pots as much as possible to reduce watering.” But one huge pot takes centre stage. This originally sat on the top of one of the gates of a stately home – and now houses a stately phormium. “Lots of the plants look like they’re growing in pots – but they’re bottomless, so the roots go down into the soil, which makes watering much easier,” Anna added.
Not only can you see the skills of these Royal Academy artists in their garden planting, but also in Lal’s sculptures which are partially-hidden among the plants, and Anna’s paintings that adorn the walls of the house. All these are placed with the intent of adding even further charm and interest for visitors. Mirrors also feature throughout the garden, strategically placed to reflect light to brighten it.
One sculpture, called ‘a bit of rough’, has an interesting story. It’s a large statue that’s all rusty, rough iron, but with a smooth bust of Anna on the top. When the couple got together, Anna was small and petite, whereas Lal was long-haired, bearded and generally hirsute and their friends would always refer to Lal as Anna’s ‘bit of rough’! The statue celebrates this period in the couple’s relationship.
Many of the artworks have intriguing and interesting stories, which Anna and Lal will beguile you with. Alluding to Anna’s artistry, colourful pencil sculptures appear throughout the garden, including two quirky and fun pencil gates made by Lal.
Other pencils appear among the plants, including in the large willow tree. “When a branch gets old, Lal sharpens the end, paints it and creates another one of his pencils. He then tells visitors that this is where he grows the pencils!”