Garden of the Week
Over 60 years, this pretty Scottish Border plot has been transformed into a series of enchanting garden rooms by its octogenarian owner
John Irvine might be 89, but he’s still tending and developing his charming cottage garden in the Scottish Borders. “It takes me a bit longer now, but I’m glad I’m fit enough to do it!” he laughs. Although John’s been at The Cottage for nearly 60 years, he didn’t start properly developing the garden until his children moved out, 30 years ago. Realising the space was “too long for the width”, he took the radical step of planting a beech hedge right across the garden, which brought better proportion to the space.
He can view his main garden all year round from his house, while behind the hedge a cottage garden, herb-filled seating area and Laura’s garden – a tranquil, secluded space filled with brightly coloured plants that John created for his late wife, Laura, when she became ill – offer lots of interest from March to October. The garden extends right down to the river, “but I’ve left the sloping embankment in a natural state for wildlife,” John explains.
His house was part of a development created in the 1890s, when the surrounding trees were planted. “These Douglas firs and Scots pine make fine backdrop trees and enhance my garden view,” he says.
The main garden contains beds of spring-flowering bulbs, shrubs, roses and herbaceous perennials with a large lawn, pond and stately silver birch, laburnum and Acer davidii (snake-bark maple). John has gradually developed the planting and continues to do so. “After this year’s wet summer, I’m rejigging and replanting the cottage garden in a different layout. And I keep tinkering about and making a note of what would look better.”
He now has hundreds of herbaceous perennials, some of which he planted in the middle of the last century! John made his plant choices from a book by Alan Bloom of Bressingham Gardens, in which he rated plants out of 10. “I decided that if Alan gave a plant 9 or 10, it was good enough for me,” says John.
He chose a variety of plants to give a long season of colour, or with fine architectural qualities that bring structure and prolong the period of interest. Hellebores and winter aconites provide dots of colour early on, with lots of spring bulbs planted in pots outside John’s garden room so he can enjoy them from inside.
He recently transformed a pond that was in a shady spot.
“I knocked out the bottom, then filled it with compost and created a perfect bog garden for Himalayan poppies ( Meconopsis
betonicifolia), rodgersia and giant cowslip ( Primula florindae) that flower from spring through to early summer.”
Spring-flowering shrubs give way to crowds of summer perennials before the autumn colour spectacle offered by the snake-bark maple, with its crown of red and gold leaves and silvery bark; blood-red foliage on the rowan tree; scarlet cotoneaster berries; the deep purple leaves of an acer ‘Dissectum’, whose
rich tones are echoed by the large, plate-like leaves of ligularia; and swathes of Rosa rugosa with its glowing golden leaves and huge, scarlet hips.
A resourceful gardener and handy at DIY, John built his toolshed, workshop and greenhouse himself – twice in fact, after a rotten Douglas fir flattened them during a storm in 2000. “But it meant that my cottage garden received more light, which improved it no end!” John laughs. He also constructed his splendid summerhouse, learning the art of thatching to complete it.
Apart from an occasional spot of lawn weedkiller, John aims to garden organically, and the garden is rich in wildlife. Two mallards visit his pond every year, and grey squirrels are regular visitors, together with many species of birds.
“I’ve moved the feeders up close to the seating areas, so I can still enjoy seeing their antics now that my eyesight’s not as good as it was!” he says.