Garden of the Week
This softly-structured Suffolk garden comes into its own under a layer of seasonal snow
As Christmas fast approaches, Caroline and David Holmes will be out in the garden collecting armfuls of winter greenery to decorate their 15th century Suffolk cottage. Snipping branches of holly, glossy bay leaves, ivy, and stems of aromatic myrtle, they will heap a trug full of natural decorations for the seasonal table, and adorn the mantelpieces and banisters of their characterful home. “I do think sometimes that our garden looks at its best when it’s covered in snow,” says Caroline. “It’s not formal, but it does have structure, and you can see that very clearly when it’s under a blanket of white.”
The couple took on the property over 40 years ago. Divided into two cottages, one of which had lain empty for about 10 years, there was no plumbing and no electricity when they bought it. “There was a vegetable garden, which was well fertilised from the primitive sewage system,” laughs Caroline.
“We also inherited one ‘Williams’ Bon Chrétien’ pear tree, and an unknown species of apple, both of which we still have. Apart from those three features, we started from scratch.”
The garden has evolved over the years into “a cottage garden with structure”. Caroline’s job as a garden historian, lecturer and writer has influenced some of the elements. In 1990, she introduced an informal knot garden, with squares and triangles formed by a living frame created with box hedging.
The knot garden is home to a variety of colourful annuals and perennials in the summer months, and creates a strong evergreen centrepiece in winter. “We have an upstairs window which is centrally placed over it. On a clear, frosty moonlit night we can see the shapes in the garden very clearly.”
Caroline created the box hedging from just six plants, using cuttings she propagated herself. “It’s very easy to do, you don’t even need to be that patient, and it’s as cheap as chips,” she says. A thorough prune once a year at the end of June or the beginning of July, when the main growth has finished, is enough to keep the box in good shape.
“We’ve never been afflicted
with box blight. I think it’s because we haven’t bought any plants in and, as we live in the countryside, there’s nothing nearby to infect our hedge.”
Caroline has also used box to form a circular hedge around a medlar tree, creating another dramatic feature. The tree was planted in 1980 and now produces a good crop of fruit, which she often uses to make a delicious medlar ice cream.
A small orchard was planted in 1980, and refreshed again in 2013. It now has 16 fruit trees, including apples, pears and plums. The trees are all underplanted with a selection of bulbs, starting with snowdrops in January, which kickstart a run of colour and interest which ends
in April when the fruit blossom begins. “The orchard really doesn’t take a lot of looking after, other than pruning once a year,” says Caroline. “I tackle the apple and pear trees in autumn, but the plums are pruned in spring to avoid infection.”
Stunning during winter is the hornbeam ‘allée’, focusing the approaching eye on the front door with its jaunty wreath. This feature was planted in the early 1990s, with the trees spaced around a metre apart and trained up attractive wrought iron supports to create a sheltered walkway. “David does a lot of the weaving in of the hornbeam branches and stems,” explains Caroline. “He has a blitz when the leaves have gone in November, and then again in spring when the new shoots are forming.
“It’s a marvellous garden. In spring, when you look down it, you can see a sea of white snowdrops, followed by white violets and then early narcissi, dwarf narcissi and primula.”
For now, though, spring is just a promise, but there is still plenty of seasonal charm to enjoy in this magical, mature garden.