Glistening winter garden
Frost-covered topiary and soft winter colour bring seasonal interest to Easter Weens in the Scottish Borders
ON A CRISP December day in the Scottish Borders, there is frost on the fields and a clear sky. The view northwards is of rolling hills and fertile valleys, where rivers, including the Teviot and the Tweed, have, for centuries, powered the woollen industry for which the region is still famous.
One mile from the tiny village of Bonchester Bridge, set off a narrow country lane, lies a house built from mellow, red sandstone, surrounded on two sides by woodland. This is Easter Weens, with its fascinating garden shaped by three generations of the same family.
The house was once the stable block of the neighbouring estate. In the 1960s, former diplomat Sandy Curle, whose mother had been born in the mansion house, returned from long service in East Africa and set about transforming the stables into a family home.
Back then, the potential of agricultural buildings to be reconfigured as beautiful residences was yet to be recognised, so the Curles were pioneers of restoration. They understood that if the project was going to be successful, the garden was as important as the bricks and mortar. Fortunately, during their time in East Africa, they had come to know the renowned garden designer of the time, Percy Cane, who had designed the palace gardens in Ethiopia. Percy had worked on some of the world’s grandest gardens, but he saw the opportunity to take on a domestic one as a refreshing change from large-scale projects. His formal scheme, with a central lawn surrounded by borders, and stairs leading from a grassed terrace to where the garden descends into the valley, still persists, although the planting has changed considerably since he drew up his plans.
Most of the changes took place once Christian Curtis and her husband, John, took over Easter Weens from her parents in 1978, and although they have since moved into the adjoining cottage to allow their son, Roger and his wife, Alison, to enjoy the main house, Christian is still a hands-on presence, working in the garden every day.
The garden occupies the bottom of a narrow valley, facing south-east to Bonchester Hill. Although it is sheltered from the prevailing winds, this picturesque setting can be a frost pocket in winter, when cold air comes tumbling off the high moors that surround it to settle at the bottom of the slope.
Courtyard garden
Little of the garden is on show until visitors come past the cottage and step between a pair of stone gateposts, decorated by a tracery of herringbone cotoneaster, C. horizontalis, its tweedy weave studded with berries, and into the courtyard.
“Originally, this would have been completely enclosed,
but my parents demolished the stables on one side to provide a view outwards into the landscape,” explains Christian.
It was a bold move, but it allowed for the creation of a magical space, with a large central lawn, containing a shapely apple tree, and deep borders around three sides.
At the time they were created, the borders were filled with topsoil and, thanks to regular mulching with home-made compost, they provide the perfect conditions for growth.
Large cones of clipped box form punctuation marks around the edges of the courtyard, giving structure when flowers have faded, and the roses, clematis and climbing hydrangeas that scramble up the walls in glorious profusion during the summer, still add interest when they are stripped back to their vines.
All kinds of stone troughs, chimney pots and roundels decorate the garden. Some of them were salvaged from the neighbouring estate, including a ram’s head and a traditional Scottish sundial, while others were brought back by family members, from their travels. Mellowed by lichen and touched by frost, these help to anchor the garden during the winter months, creating a feeling of permanence and continuity.
Over the years, Christian has refined the planting scheme within the courtyard, replacing some of the original selections that proved not to be sufficiently hardy to withstand the cold.
Touch of gold
In the north-east facing border, which gets the least sun, she has concentrated on using shrubs with golden foliage, which add a bright glow to the garden on the dullest of days. The variegated holly, Ilex x altaclerensis ‘Golden King’ is a particular favourite, and she has planted it in several places along with another hardy evergreen, Euonymus japonicus ‘Highland Gold’, which is as resilient as its name suggests.
In fact, on closer inspection, most of Christian’s evergreens will reveal a band of bright variegation around the edges. “This golden border is my favourite part of the garden,” she says. “I enjoyed designing the planting scheme, then watching it grow.”
The sandstone walls of Easter Weens make the perfect foil for these golden shrubs, but, when packed into tightly-planted borders, some of the more exuberant
“I’ve been a dweller on the plains, have sighed when summer days were gone; No more I’ll sigh; for winter here Hath gladsome gardens of his own” Dorothy Wordsworth, ‘Peaceful Our Valley, Fair and Green’
among them must be made to behave. “I do believe the key is to prune little and often,” says Christian. “If you don’t, they will get away from you and may have to be taken out.”
Year-round interest
It is during the winter that Christian can best assess what is working, and, as she walks around the courtyard, she is vigilant to signs of anything that is getting too big. One feature that has grown very large in recent years is the apple tree. “My mother planted a crab apple here, but we top-grafted it with cooking and eating apples, and now it is enormous,” she says.
From spring, when the tree is smothered in blossom, into autumn, when it is weighed down by fruit, and through to winter, when its dark skeleton emerges from beneath the foliage, the apple tree is a significant presence in the garden throughout the year.
A low wall separates the courtyard from the garden beyond, and visitors pass through a set of decorative wrought iron gates to where a second lawn descends, down a set of steps that are a signature of Percy Cane designs, into a long alpine bank that runs the whole width of the garden. Clipped box and a large golden lonicera occupy the upper level, while creeping thyme and other rock plants spread out below. Covered in frost, and with berries for jewels, countless small evergreens resemble the work of a silversmith.
Decorative lake
The lowest point of the valley is occupied by a lake. At 130ft (40m) in length and 50ft (15m) wide, this was one of the first changes that Christian and John made to the garden, using a digger to scoop out the soil. It has given them constant pleasure ever since, providing somewhere to enjoy a drink from the comfort of a small rowing boat in warmer weather.
“For the first few years after we dug the lake out, it would freeze over in winter; never so thick that you could actually skate on it, but a definite cover from edge to edge,” says Christian. “The climate has definitely changed, because now we seldom have more than an icy fringe around the edge.”
The lake forms a reflecting mirror for the Douglas firs that grow beyond it, and its trout, which leap from the water to compete with the swallows for the flies that hover over it during the summer, provide a feast for the resident otters.
Between the rockery wall and this calm stretch of water lies a steep bank of rhododendrons. It is here that Christian is currently concentrating most of her efforts.
“My parents planted these, and I suspect that, at that time, most of the varieties were grafted onto rootstock of Rhododendron ponticum, which we now know is horribly vigorous and invasive,” she says. “Along with the help of our gardener, who comes once a week, I’ve been attempting to cut them back, but many are now huge, and they are crowding out the more refined varieties.”
She may have help now, but for most of her time at Easter Weens, Christian has been the sole gardener, and it is her eye for a good plant that makes the garden a delight, even during the darkest months. “It is essential to have something to enjoy during the winter,” she says. “It makes you want to get outdoors, whatever the weather.”
“The Frost performs its secret ministry, Unhelped by any wind” Samuel Taylor Coleridge, ‘Frost at Midnight’