A garden of constant evolution

With a rill, medieval moat, sunken garden, woodland and pretty meadow, this Lincolnshire gem is a store of variety and vision

When Pam and Mark Tatum moved into Hall Farm 35 years ago, there wasn’t much garden to speak of. Although Mark’s family had lived there for 200 years, they were farmers rather than plant lovers and all that the couple inherited was large copper beech and an ancient and slightly sulky wisteria.

But Pam wasted no time and the fields immediately around the house were swiftly adopted and planted; helped by the fact that she had given herself a head start by setting up a nursery on the doorstep.

“I started with one polytunnel and added more as the nursery expanded,” she explains. “We grew hardy perennials and roses and it was successful. But, in the end, it was doing too well! As it expanded, so did the number of customers and the workload increased. So, as I got towards retirement age, I decided I needed more time to myself.”

In the nine years since the nursery’s closure, Pam has thrown herself into her garden, creating a series of interlinking areas that run down a gentle slope towards a medieval moat. The site wraps more or less around the house with formal areas, including a rill and a sunken garden, segueing into lawns, wide borders and eventually into woodland and meadow that blend into the surrounding countryside.

“I like both formal and informal styles,” she says, “and I tend to use circular shapes – they work better than squares and rectangles. It becomes less formal as you get away from the house – as it should.”

With time, the garden has become complex and densely planted in Pam’s energetic signature style and although Lincolnshire is an area of the country that’s known for its low rainfall, it’s brimming with summer colour. Tulips and forget-me-nots have given way

to roses and alliums; erigeron, Alchemilla mollis and geraniums selfseed into cracks in the paving and arches and arbours are swathed in climbers such as clematis ‘Marjorie’.

The soil here is good – nothing to complain about at any rate – yet Pam and Mark feed and mulch to help the plants establish and retain what water there is. In this respect, they have fallen on their feet.

“A lady in the next village asked if we’d like some horse manure – which of course we did – so we’re working our way through a great

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