Back to the land
Wardington Manor, in Oxfordshire, is the stunning garden in which The Land Gardeners, aka Henrietta Courtauld and Bridget Elworthy, grow the flowers they supply to London’s most exclusive florists
There was a time when ladies in tweed would pull up outside the West End premises of florists Constance Spry or Pulbrook & Gould to unload sizeable branches of blossom, sprays of berries and superlative home-grown flowers. They supplied freshly snipped vignettes of mid-century country life, before bowing out with the age of convenience. Thankfully, a small army of growers are doing it again, although The Land Gardeners have swapped tweed for navy cotton drill. Henrietta Courtauld and Bridget Elworthy – garden designers, growers, flower decorators and now compost manufacturers – are both modern and traditional, owing more to their doughty forbears than they could have realised in 2012 when they first came into being. Although they are partly based at a small design studio in Henrietta’s London garden, the raw materials for their floristry business come from Bridget’s home, Wardington Manor in north Oxfordshire. A former nunnery dating back to the 15th century, the rambling stone house is surrounded by an Edwardian garden where everything is fair game for cutting.
The borders in and around the Arts and Crafts design of yew enclosures and topiary were originally planted, more than 100 years ago, with cutting in mind. From the library windows, lines of Iris pallida underplanted with Scilla frame the narrow lawn, like rills of clear blue. They are picked in spring. Old borders dedicated to delphiniums, acanthus or snowdrops are all picked. An unusual seam of acidic soil has allowed twisted old magnolias to thrive along a jungly path with rhododendrons, camellias and azaleas. These are ‘live pruned’ – cut when in bud or blossom – and taken to events.
“It’s almost as if the garden demands it,” says Bridget Elworthy, who has lived here since 2008. At first she was unaware that the manor was surrounded by a large cutting garden, planted for purpose by the first Lady Wardington and continued by her daughter-in-law Audrey. Having supplied the most exclusive florists herself, the second Lady Wardington expressed amazement at Bridget and Henrietta’s plans to follow suit. Why would they want to bother, swimming against the tide of progress? The answer is in the name: The Land Gardeners have always wanted to get back to the land, the earth and the soil.
When Bridget moved to Wardington, the walled garden was no longer productive and a dedicated cutting garden across the street had been let as allotments. Both had miraculously good soil, as did the whole garden, having been worked for almost six centuries. The old cutting garden is bordered by a slope
A former nunnery dating back to the 15th century, the rambling stone house is surrounded by an Edwardian garden where everything is fair game for cutting
HOW TO HELP THE CLIMATE BY LOOKING AFTER YOUR SOIL
Pulling carbon out of the air and into the ground can be as simple as improving a plant’s rate of photosynthesis. A healthy plant is supported around its roots by vast communities of microbes and fungi, which feed the plant with minerals in exchange for a photosynthesis by-product, carbon sugars. It pays to optimise this natural coexistence; the more efficiently the micro-organisms are working, the more carbon will be taken out of the atmosphere and sequestered into the ground.
Adding homemade compost or sowing green manures over exposed ground helps the soil to retain carbon. Weeds also protect soil and add diversity, both above and below ground. Monocultures encourage pathogens: even with a lawn, soil health will be improved by spreading compost over it and allowing for clover and daisies. Mowing less frequently and allowing grass to grow longer will encourage deeper root systems, supporting richer microbial life while aiding water retention.
of cottages, and is set out in practical rows, while the original walled garden plan has been re-instated. Tulips are followed by cosmos, and dahlias mingle with an increasing number of vegetables.
Microbes are never far from The Land Gardeners’ thoughts. “The soil acts as the stomach of a plant,” says Henrietta. “The roots go down into the soil and release sugar for the microbes. They in turn take minerals from the soil and exchange them, in a plant-available form.” In other words, microbially rich soil produces plants of amazing vitality. “We need to look after the creatures underneath the ground as much as those above,” says Bridget. “We are almost farming those microbes.”
Aeration and hydration are important in keeping the microbes (as well as all the other symbiotic organisms, including fungi about which we know surprisingly little) happy, so digging, except in extreme cases of compaction, is avoided. Instead they use a broad fork which lifts the soil.
“Normally we layer compost on the soil, which we might have broad-forked, just to aerate it,” says Bridget. “We’re not turning the soil. We plant the width of the broad fork, with small paths in between for walking on.” When a crop is harvested, green manures cover the ground. Henrietta:
“We are covering the soil all the time. We dig the green manure in before it flowers but sometimes we leave it because it’s too irresistible – and bees love it.”
In processing their own green waste and digging deeper into the physics of compost, it has become clear that soil health should be vital to the planet’s health. “We don’t need more carbon in the atmosphere but we really need it in the soil,” says Henrietta. “Years of ploughing have released it upwards.” Carbon is naturally taken out of the air through photosynthesis but compost-making can add hugely to a ‘carbon sink’ effect through careful preparation on a domestic or grand scale. The Land Gardeners call their own version, manufactured with the aid of a neighbouring farm, Climate Compost.
Soil is a business for The Land Gardeners. In the same way, the garden at Wardington is a business, which is why they are reluctant to disappoint garden groups looking for perfection. Weeds are allowed to increase biodiversity above the ground and among the micro-organisms below the ground. As Bridget says, quoting environmental economist Dieter Helm: “Where there’s mess, there’s life.”
USEFUL INFORMATION
Find out more about The Land Gardeners at thelandgardeners.com
The borders in and around the Arts and Crafts design of yew enclosures were originally planted more than 100 years ago with cutting in mind