A garden on track!
A relaxed planting style and a fully working steam model railway go hand in hand in this colourful Hertfordshire patch
Words Geoff Hodge Photos Jonathan Ward
Agarden isn’t just somewhere to grow plants, it’s also a superb space where you can indulge in some of your other passions and interests. And that is certainly true of L’escale for Graham and Jacquie Colover.
Not only does the garden feature some beautiful and thoughtful planting, but one of its main attractions is also a fully working, double track, Gauge One, steam model railway. This snakes and weaves throughout the garden, through the deep borders abundant with drifts of perennials and shrubs. It’s complete with a station house – the station name is Elstree Ponds – an elevated bridge and a long, sweeping viaduct.
“The garden’s main purpose is to thrill me because I love plants, and for Graham to be able to play trains!”, Jacquie laughs. “It’s a dream come true for both of us – and a plantswoman’s joy for me! We use it for enjoying the company of friends, for languid lunches and parties, tranquil relaxation and for our grandchildren, who especially love the wild meadow garden. Model railway friends come over weekly and we even host a coachload of railway friends from Switzerland every other year.”
L’escale has a relaxed planting style, with a large wildflower
area and wildlife ponds – hence the Elstree Ponds railway station name. There are mixed borders and more intensive planting closer to the house, where most of the al fresco entertaining is done.
These borders contain some of Jacquie’s favourite plant combinations, including:
Verbena bonariensis with tall, deep pink cosmos; pink centranthus, offsetting
Sambucus nigra ‘Black Lace’; golden rudbeckia and heleniums ‘Karneol’ and ‘Coppelia’, creating a fiery sunset of colour.
Garden visitors enter through the densely planted, paved terrace leading through more beds packed with planting, wandering down two flights of steps to a further terrace, directed by a grass path, and a heavenly lavender walk, framed with lavender and nepeta.
You’re now in the heart of the garden, which includes the totally integrated railway, a large, well-manicured lawn and a mound of late summer perennials, which also provides a screen to a more secluded section of the railway. Gravel and railway sleeper (what else would Graham use!) paths pass through a bank of wild meadow planting. At the far end there’s a gate framed with roses, and an invisible fence, swathed in species roses, which protects the ponds.
The original railway station, now renamed The Boathouse, at the lowest part of the garden, catches all the sun on its surrounding oak decking. “Here you can watch all the relaxing activity in the ponds, surrounded by the wild meadow planting stretching up to the railway,” says Jacquie. “Even in winter, it can be warm. And if not, you can sit inside on a comfy sofa with the doors wide open, framing that part of the garden. And in May and June it’s my favourite place in the garden.”
Even in the depth of winter chills the garden looks a spectacle, with the colourful stems of a birch tree and dogwoods at their very best. Masses of hellebores, which thrive, flower their heads off and there are splendid mahonias. “We actually love seeing the garden ‘asleep’ during the winter months,” Jacquie says.
Like most gardens, L’escale has gone through several transformations since Graham and Jacquie moved to the house – not all of them exactly planned!
When they moved in, in 1972, it was quite formal – a lawn with a central pond, surrounded by small conifers, with narrow strips for bedding plants along the boundary fence – plus a truly wild area of ‘no man’s land’, fronted by a bed of evergreens and a strip of roses for cutting. “Graham built his first railway in ‘no man’s land’ and the garden evolved into a woodland shrub garden. Just one gorgeous cedar remains from the original garden,” Jacquie says.
But a forced, major transformation and overhaul happened six years ago, when the garden suffered a major calamity. “Literally half of it was totally destroyed, inundated with water, flowing across and down the slope at the rate of a litre every 10 seconds over three years, thanks to a nearby disturbed artisan well. We had to start again from scratch.”
But, despite this huge disaster and upheaval, Graham and
Jacquie persevered. Out of this adversity came the opportunity to create the garden of their dreams – for both of them.
While the 100m (120yd) long model railway is a major feature at L’escale, Graham wanted to ensure it was fully integrated into the garden and didn’t dominate it. A feat he has skilfully achieved.
“I’ve loved trains since I was a kid and had a typical small set up in the garage with what I call ‘electric mice’. But I’d always wanted a proper model railway and the garden here gave me that opportunity. Most of the train locomotives I own are working steam with coal, gas or alcoholfired boilers. They produce the characteristic ‘chuff-chuff’ noise, steam pours from their chimneys and they even have working whistles, all reminiscent of the full-scale thing many of us remember from years ago.
“And having the layout in the garden means that this is a very social activity – we have numerous visitors and everyone can get involved. I’m not tucked away on my own in the attic!”