A fine balance

Ecological consultants Alex Crossman and Jenni Weaver have taken a sustainable approach to creating an harmonious blend of perennial planting and vegetable plot in their Somerset garden

It is hard to believe that the area around Shepton Mallet was once a thriving and no doubt, hectic, noisy and polluted coal-mining district. The lush green of the surrounding wooded hills feels like an embrace for a Somerset village, but until the 1950s this was an active industrial neighbourhood. Indeed Alex Crossman and Jenni Weaver’s house was originally the colliery pump house. The two ecological consultants – whose workload includes carrying out the bat and badger surveys that developers often have to commission before planning permission is granted – came here in 2012, and started making the garden in 2014. They first opened their garden to the public under the National Garden Scheme an incredible two years later. Such rapid development speaks of good planning and, of course, perennials, which establish quickly.

The thriving clumps of perennials are what immediately seize the attention, and the neat, but still young, hornbeam hedges with views of the surrounding hills greeting the gaze above them. The woods and hills are an important part of Alex and Jenni’s sense of belonging here. “It’s part of our sense of ownership, and that inspires us,” says Jenni. “We feel surrounded by the woods, and our hedges seem to disappear into the trees, connecting the garden to the landscape. We feel we need to frame everything,” adds Alex, by way of explanation.

While the hills frame the garden’s surroundings, the hedges do so internally, and make an effective backdrop for the perennials. They also divide the garden into smaller spaces, which has the effect of making the whole seem a good deal larger than the quarter-acre it really is. The couple are, not surprisingly, Piet Oudolf fans. “We went to the Oudolf garden at Hauser & Wirth [in nearby Bruton, Somerset] the first week it opened,” says Alex. “We’ve been to the High Line [in New York] as well, which blew us away, and we also went to the Netherlands and managed to see the Oudolfs’ garden in Hummelo shortly before it closed to visitors.”

Alex and Jenni have successfully translated the Oudolfian style into a much smaller space than the celebrated Dutch garden designer ever works with now. The key is surely using a limited number of plants and repeating them.

Working to a tight budget, the couple were able to buy multiples of plants from wholesale suppliers Orchard Dene and the nearby Arvensis Perennials, and continue

Above Persicaria amplexicaulis ‘Firedance’ forms a solid clump in the front garden, flourishing in the heavy soil, and flowering for much of the late-summer season. Yellow comes from Achillea ‘Hella Glashoff’, pink from the spikes of Liatris spicata and violet-blue from Nepeta subsessilis.