Down to the woods

In her garden on the edge of ancient woodland, Fern Alder has taken a plants-first approach to creating a garden that balances beauty and nature

It’s usually quite easy to imagine the gardens behind houses, but some are a complete surprise. Walking along a terrace of boxy 1960s’ buildings, nothing quite prepares you for ancient woodland crossed by a meandering watercress stream with a lush wetland garden in between, especially in the driest part of Kent. The backdrop, and major part of this garden, is Alder Carr woodland, established and coppiced centuries ago to supply charcoal for the gunpowder industry in Faversham, a habitat described by the Woodland Trust as: ‘Wild, transient, boggy and rare. Trees like Alder, Willow and Birch dominate on wet soils, while sedges, ferns and mosses flourish beneath’. How appropriate then that the owner of this very special place should be named after two of its most prolific plants: Fern Alder.

Fern’s back door opens out on to a small terrace, its paving stones filled with tiny creeping thymes ( Thymus serpyllum ‘Minor’), down steps covered with tumbling Mexican fleabane ( Erigeron karvinskianus), over a bridged stream banked by a boggy area planted with marginals: Rodgersia aesculifolia, candelabra primulas and a pair of Osmunda regalis. This leads on to a grassy area that over the past six years, has been populated with plants such as Eupatorium purpureum, Valeriana officinalis and

Silene fimbriata, plants that don’t just survive, but thrive in the black soil that fills with water when you dig a planting hole and sometimes floods into small pools during winter. Vegetables are grown in huge tractor tyres, raised above the wet, and fruit and berry bushes are popped in between flowering plants.

A designer who has show gardens at Chelsea, Hampton Court Palace and Nagasaki under her belt, Fern knew what would grow, but unlike many confronted with a blank canvas, she didn’t sit down and order lots of plants. “The plants arrived organically. My first purchase – Persicaria amplexicaulis – came from a car boot sale, and it flourished. I wanted to take a light touch: gradually adding things I knew would love it here, then self-seeders: Cardamine pratensis, meadowsweet and Lythrum salicaria arrived, courtesy of the birds or the wind.”

Many of Fern’s plants have come from local events where plants are swapped. Fern is one of the guiding lights in the Faversham gardening world; she volunteers, cares for trees, clears

streams and is one of the pioneers of the town’s successful Open Gardens event that sees around 30 gardens, including Fern’s own, open across the town most years in June.

Heralded by a pair of Viburnum plicatum f. tomentosum ‘Mariesii’ the garden melds gradually into the woodland, and Fern has approached this undisturbed wilderness with its tangle of woody species, brambles and nettles with care. Fallen trees, metal frames and buried rubble had to be moved to plant the golden-leaved form of grey alder, Alnus incana ‘Aurea’ and Metasequoia glyptostroboides, so small patches were cleared with a brush cutter, covered with cardboard and a layer of woodchip, and then watched patiently for a year before planting. “As garden makers, we try to take control, but I’m hoping to achieve a balance between my needs and those of wildlife, curating this space in a sustainable, thoughtful way. I’m an interloper here, among the frogs and foxes, slow-worms, moles, bats and birds: I’ve even seen woodcock.”

With boundaries defined by mixed native hedging and dead hedges, gaining access through the garden was a Herculean task. She begged 300 spent car tyres from local garages and buried them some on end, on either side of the path, and others laid flat in the centre, then filled them with four tons of soil to create 150 metres of stable raised walkway that now lead to a small, cool, grassy clearing, a space to relax and celebrate this rare historic woodland.

You can feel the temperature drop as you enter deep woods, the trees stretch tall to reach the light, while nettles, willowherb, ferns, flags and meadowsweet grow in their shade. “It’s a special place: I’m aware of how privileged I am,” says Fern. Protected by a blanket Tree Preservation Order, every tree felled needs permission. As wet woodland it forms just 0.05 per cent of national woodland, and the trees, mostly alder and willow are the offspring of those planted in marshy ground for charcoal production, essential ingredients with sulphur and saltpeter in gunpowder production from the early

16th century until the First World War. In spirit with her surroundings, Fern occasionally burns deadwood to make charcoal for use as artists’ materials.

I’m hoping to achieve a balance between my needs and those of wildlife

Right Gardener Fern Alder makes charcoal in the forest clearing at the end of her woodland garden. The wood will smoke for a few hours while the gases are released, but the charcoal won’t be ready until the following day.

Above left The most ancient and beautiful tree in the woodland, a much-coppiced, 50-metre-tall common alder ( Alnus glutinosa) is underplanted with ferns ( Dryopteris filix-mas) – two of the owner’s namesakes.

Above Persicaria amplexicaulis (Fern’s first purchase for this garden), pink Diascia personata and yellow foxglove Digitalis lutea grow happily in woodland soil.

Right Stipa tenuissima and Erigeron karvinskianus self-seeded up on the small terrace on the near side of the stream. Fern is always happy to welcome self-seeders.

Above left Pilosella aurantiaca self-seeds wildly all over the garden, especially on the bridge and banks of the stream where it enjoys a boggy footing.

Above Finished charcoal made especially for artist friends from dead alder twigs. Larger lumps can be used for cooking while finer pieces make good soil conditioner or sprinkled over seedlings.

Around 300 spent tyres, partly covered with soil and topped with bark were used to make this raft of a path that is flanked with bright-green Hakonechloa, Silene fimbriata, pheasant grass ( Anemanthele lessoniana), Geranium pratense and Sanguisorba minor with Sambucus nigra f. porphyrophylla ‘Eva’ in the background.