Grand designs
WHEN it comes to finding a dream home, the garden can often be the dealbreaker.
But while a big garden might be a priority for prospective buyers, bigger doesn’t always mean better.
Three keen gardeners are proving that it’s what you do with the space you have that is important.
Whether it’s a mythical hideaway in a quiet suburb, a multicoloured courtyard in the cramped city centre or a sci-fi inspired den in a family garden, anything is possible.
Here, budding horticulturalists share their stories of how they turned somewhere small into somewhere special.
Artist Gordon Cooke, 68, has spent decades transforming his modest garden in Sale into something extraordinary.
Combining this with his artistic eye for detail, Gordon was able to build his own ‘Hobbit’ hut and a living roof garden.
And more than 20 years on, the quirky hut, which has electricity and running water, has stood the test of time.
Winding paths lead to different sections of the garden, while a long rectangular water feature stretches through the centre, facing the stone hideaway.
It’s so impressive that the garden is now open to the public twice a year.
Gordon said: “I have lived here for about 35 years.
“When we moved in there was nothing here, just Tarmac, a wornout garage, a pear tree, which has since died, and a small lawn.
“About 20 years ago we bought the house next door and put the gardens together because it just wasn’t big enough any more.”
Building a patio seating area on top and a ‘bug hotel,’ where garden creatures can nest, he is now able to enjoy the fruits of his labour.
“It makes me feel contented,” he said. “The textures and the way that it changes over time; there is always something different. No two years are ever the same.”
And it’s not just in suburbia where people use limited space to create limitless possibilities.
Narrow terraces are generally what constitute a garden for most in the concrete jungle, so city dwellers need know how to make the best out of what they have.
And nowhere is perhaps quite as inventive as a small patch of green space in Ancoats.
Overgrown and bleak, the courtyard at Victoria Square, just off Oldham Road, had definitely seen better days.
Seeing the garden he loved fall apart, former drag queen, Graham Giles, aka Dame Gracy, took on the task of tending the communal gardens several years ago, after the caretaker retired.
He said: “I have lived here for about four years now.
“There used to be a caretaker that would look after the garden but when he retired it became overgrown. The council gave me one of the four sections to look after but the other three were going to rack and ruin.
“So I started to do a bit here and a bit there, getting it all tidy.
“I had never gardened before in my life. I did it all by trial and error.
“It’s a big job but luckily I have a friend who helps with the heavy lifting. It’s a community garden so I wanted it so that people can come out and see the garden from their flats and enjoy it.”
Since these tentative beginnings Graham has transformed the four communal patches into a city centre oasis. And it’s not just the foliage that is impressive.
Victoria Square is also home to several colourful statues, proving a hit with the children that visit.
A replica of the Statue of Liberty has been a feature of the beautiful enclosed courtyard garden inside the grade-II listed building for years. Recently, 63-year-old Graham took to sprucing up his ‘Libby.’ He said: “It’s a bit of fun. I just gave it a facelift. “It had gone derelict. It was black. The paint had chipped off. It was broken and had no torch. I added a new torch and made a new crown. I gave it a bit of charac- Graham Giles