First impressions
How a visit to Monet’s garden at Giverny inspired one couple to create a vibrantly coloured and biodiverse garden
WORDS NOËL KINGSBURY PHOTOGRAPHS CLAIRE TAKACS
Gelli Uchaf is not an easy garden to get to. Even after you have found the house sign you still need to drive half a mile up a steep dirt track to reach the 17th-century Welsh longhouse. But as soon as you step out on to the terrace in front of the house – a riotous tapestry of low-growing ground-cover plants – it becomes immediately apparent that this is no ordinary garden. Delve a little deeper and you find this is a garden that brings together real technical innovation and creativity in a way that is all too rare. It has been made by Julian and Fiona Wormald who have owned the property since 1993, but only began the garden in earnest in 2005.
“About the time we started to seriously garden we visited Giverny,” says Julian. Monet’s former garden in northern France, with its masses of intermingling flowers and abundant insect diversity, had a huge impact at Gelli Uchaf, and the Impressionist artist’s garden has given name to their garden blog: the Garden Impressionists. Local wildflower meadows have also influenced how the garden has evolved. “Increasingly we are interested by how many plants from different countries can be grown within the same square metre, spatially and temporally,” says Julian.
What has been dubbed the Multicultural Magic Terrace Garden is one of the first things you see – and one of the most innovative features. Developed on smashed up concrete and shale from the building’s restoration, it’s completely covered in low-creeping plants, including Persicaria vacciniifolia and, in spring, small bulbs. Originally, this area was based on a series of single-species blocks
“We are interested by how many plants from different countries can be grown within the same square metre, spatially and temporally”
inspired by Welsh flannel quilt designs, but over the years it has morphed into a more naturalistic style. Low-growing, ground-cover plants, such as Saxifraga x urbium, Silene uniflora and Ajuga reptans, help to reduce the possibility of weed growth, and in many cases can be combined with taller perennials, including Stachys officinalis, which are able to break though the ground cover and grow above it without competing.
It’s clear that there is a really good seasonal spread here. Spring starts early with Julian’s collection of snowdrops and some spectacular drifts of Cyclamen coum. The layering of plants is also crucial, with tall and shorter ones often occupying the same space and flowering at different times. Lower-growing species often flower earlier, but not always, and one of the really distinctive features of this garden is the number of late-flowering forms of Saxifraga fortunei, low clumpforming plants whose dark foliage is a feature in its own right for earlier in the season.
Plants are also selected because they will perform well in the rather challenging conditions the garden offers. Sitting at around 240m above sea level, the garden has cool summers and, occasionally, very cold winters – and a lot of rain. It also has thin, acidic soil but the couple use this to their advantage as the poor soil stops vigorous species growing at the expense of slower ones, allowing for more diversity.
Julian and Fiona are passionate about insect biodiversity, and having a wide range
of plants is probably the most important factor in what Julian calls “multicultural, multi-layered plantings” with perennials, bulbs and shrubs used to maximise flower numbers throughout the year. Not only does this increase the feeding opportunities for insects, it also creates a complex habitat, offering shelter to invertebrates and birds. Self-seeding plants are also important in the mix, filling gaps and building up habitat.
As well as the garden, there are also two areas of wildflower meadow. The first, above the house, is now an established hay meadow, which the couple maintain by cutting once a year and allowing sheep to graze in winter. The other, a wet meadow in the valley below the garden, has a very different plant range, although creating this mix wasn’t easy: “It was almost solid soft rush three years ago, but we dealt with that through cutting and using a weed wiper,” says Julian. “Now there are 120 species.” Paths cut through the meadows make for a very romantic impression, the final touch to a garden that integrates nature and art in many varied and novel ways. USEFUL INFORMATION Address Gelli Uchaf, Rhydcymerau, Llandeilo, Carmarthenshire SA19 7PY. Tel 01558 685119. Web thegardenimpressionists.com Open For the NGS, by appointment, on Sundays, February to May, and on National Meadows Day, 1 July at 10.30am and 2.30pm (please call to arrange a slot). Admission £4.
“Multi-layered planting not only increases the feeding opportunities for insects, it also creates a complex habitat, offering shelter to invertebrates and birds”