The experimental plot
Garden designer Stefano Marinaz’s Chiswick allotment is both a productive space and a place for him to trial new plants and combinations
Five ago waiting garden designer Stefano Marinaz had something of a near miss. Having been on the
list for an allotment for two and a half years, he overlooked his acceptance letter by a week, leaving him with just a few days to take up the offer. “Thank goodness I wasn’t on holiday,” he says, “or it would have been given to somebody else.” Luckily, everything worked out and the allotment is now a vital part of his life. He’s there at least three mornings a week before work, and at weekends too – although he concedes that this time is more about enjoying the space than working on it.
Stefano started out simply hoping to grow some of his own veg, to reduce his reliance on the supermarket and all the plastics that so often entails. But as time has gone on, the plot has become so much more besides, acting as both a trial garden and a nursery space for his commissions, and as a welcome escape from city life. As such, it is an appealing mix of the productive and the ornamental with planting beds filled with Knautia macedonica, Allium hollandicum ‘Purple Sensation’ and Asclepias tuberosa dotted among the neat raised beds of onions and cavolo nero, the strawberry cage and the trailing squashes (‘Turk’s Turban’ and red onion squash are particular favourites).
The greenhouse at the front of the plot is pivotal. “I grow my tomatoes there but I’ve included shelves so I can trial lots of seeds, too,” says Stefano. As the grandson of a seedsman, this has always been a keen interest of Stefano’s and he likes to keep an eye out for unusual cultivars. He favours Sarah Raven’s selections among others and also propagates from unusual or interesting plants picked up on
his travels. “By growing your own plants, you can observe them year round and at every stage of their lives,” he says. “You learn so much.”
Some of this is practical. Noting Verbascum bombyciferum’s ability to cope with drought, not to mention its height and beauty, Stefano has included plants grown at the allotment in the dry gravel path of a new project in Essex, which also features several of his Lunaria seedlings. “From my trials, I’ve realised how important self-seeders are,” he says, “so if there’s a bare spot, it’s them that fill it, rather than weeds.”
Other learnings have been aesthetic. He was delighted to note that another self-seeder, Nigella papillosa ‘African Bride’ has a seedpod quite unlike, but just as interesting as, that of the more common N. damascena species. At the other end of the spectrum, the allotment allows him free rein with planting combinations, something he assesses both in the beds and through his daily cuttings, arranged in a vase to inspire future pairings. “Because I see this as a sort of workshop, I don’t feel particularly attached to any of the beds in the way one might in a garden, where you want plants to establish,” he says. “I’m always excited to replant after a couple of years and to try something new.”
So what is he planning for this year? Recent successes, including Oenothera biennis with the silvery seedheads of Stipa ichu, first spotted in the grass garden at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, and a striking mix of Salvia microphylla, Geranium Rozanne (= ‘Gerwat’) and the fluffy seedheads of Anemanthele lessoniana, will be allowed to continue and develop, and Stefano will take cuttings of the salvia to increase the display next year.
Grasses such as Stipa tenuissima and Molinia caerulea subsp. arundinacea ‘Transparent’ are used
throughout the allotment to link different beds and create a sense of cohesion and volume without blocking the view, and Stefano is keen to trial more. “Grasses are the key for sustainable natural planting,” he says. “If you have a good matrix of the right grasses, the perennials will work around them, but without them, you lack the main ingredient of the meadow.” Stipa gigantea has already been planted, and other tall, transparent grasses that move with the wind, such as Pennisetum macrourum and Calamagrostis ‘Karl Foerster’, are on the list.
As with most of the plants on the allotment, part of the attraction is their low maintenance. The plot is large and Stefano has limited time, so plants that can thrive with little or no intervention always catch his attention. “That’s what I love about perennials,” he says. “If you’ve planted them in the right place, you can just leave them to do their thing.”