Garden of the Week
The owner of this beautiful half-acre Leicestershire garden aims to keep the colour coming right up until the first frosts
Anna Smith’s garden, two miles north of Lutterworth in Leicestershire, is surrounded by farmland that stretches over rich pastureland grazed by handsome beef cattle, so there’s plenty of landscape to borrow over her wooden picket fence.
“The view’s lovely, but the downside is that slugs come regularly for an overnight B&B stop and munch my hostas,” Anna says. Despite their attentions, she’s done well to make her garden look mature in just 10 years, as the only thing she inherited was a huge ash tree. Everything else has been planted by her.
Anna began by drawing a rough plan on paper and then laid out gravel paths; they could be moved if needed, and she has taken some out. She didn’t foresee that these gravel paths would be tremendous seed beds and she’s constantly potting up interesting seedlings.
A rectangular lawn was laid too, using turf, and the remaining grassy areas were
seeded. “Although there’s more garden than grass,” Anna says.
Her two main herbaceous borders are large and rectangular, matching the size of the main lawn and mimicking the square dimensions of the house. “Having straight lines makes it easier to steal a bit more garden, because I just chop a bit off the lawn.”
Her visits to local Hardy Plant Society meetings in Northampton and to nurseries, such as Avondale, near Coventry, ensure that interesting plants are always popping up.
Anna had to be careful not to use toxic plants, such as yew, because of the cattle nearby. Her touches of green rely on clipped and topiarised box ( Buxus sempervirens ‘Suffruticosa’) and small conifers, all positioned well away from the boundary. She also uses green and variegated forms of
Euonymus fortunei in the borders to ‘provide more winter structure’. Some of the shrubs have been pruned into mopheads, including hornbeams and photinia ‘Red Robin’. Their presence adds a layered look to this totally level garden.
“I can plant under them more easily and I’ve also planted a lot of trees to provide heights and levels.” More verticals have been added by carefully placed tall chimney pots, partially rotted railway sleepers set on end and a small, modern water feature. An upright, wooden frame
supports roses and clematis.
Taller grasses also provide focal points, especially close to the formal pond, which has a metal grid to protect her young grandchildren. Miscanthus
sinensis, elephant grass, shelters a seat and she also uses the giant, but slightly tender, Arundo
donax, Spanish cane, and, so far, the winters have been kind enough to spare it.
“I love the rustling sound the foliage makes when the wind blows. This garden, which wraps itself around the house, is often exposed to the elements.” Shorter grasses, such as Stipa
tenuissima, line one path and Anna trims this back throughout the year to keep it looking pristine. This tactile grass softens the edges of paving and provides a ripple of movement, gradually changing from bright green to hay-meadow brown as the seasons change.
Anna’s also a flower arranger so uses shrubs in among her herbaceous plants. “It’s easy to buy a bunch of flowers,” she says, “but it’s nice to nip out and cut