Western Morning News (Saturday)
Tea and herb gardens are restored at historic home
THE grounds surrounding Sharpham House are officially taste-full now that they’ve been reworked as a tea garden.
Thanks to £1,400 of funding from the Devon Gardens Trust and the hard work of Sharpham’s garden team, there are now fragrant herbs, plants and flowers infusing the air – and the teas, too.
Sharpham House is a retreat centre run by charity The Sharpham Trust. More than 1,000 people visit each year, many of whom drink herbal teas during their stay.
Head gardener, Bryony Middleton, presided over the £5,600 renovation of terraced areas behind Sharpham House, known as the Percy Cane gardens.
She said: “This particular planting here is a beautiful marriage between the history ... keeping the designs in place but also having new plantings here which will be beautiful and useful and productive for what we do here today.”
Percy Cane was an esteemed 20th century garden designer, creating Italianate landscaping and planting for places including nearby Dartington Hall, owned by Dorothy and Leonard Elmhirst. When their daughter Ruth married Maurice Ash and settled downriver in Sharpham House, the Elmhirsts commissioned Cane to work there. In 1963, he drew up a geometric garden, using his trademark terracing, steep banks, cypresses and steps, for the couple, who later founded The Sharpham Trust.
The landscape at Sharpham is registered Grade II* by Historic England, with the area designed by Percy Cane contributing to the grounds’ significance.
However, Bryony said the Percy Cane area had become tired and needed revitalising. “Because this is such an important part of the garden, we really felt we had to something quite exciting here,” she said.
Bryony conceived the idea of turning the Percy Cane gardens into a place where tea and tisane plants would grow and be harvested to make drinks for people participating in retreats and courses at Sharpham.
She dug into the history of the landscaping, working with Sharpham’s archivist, Polly Morrow. “We looked at the old plans that Percy Cane had drawn and although we don’t have any planting plans or any reference to the plants he wanted to use, we have the pencil drawings,” said Bryony.
She found that the original plans had not been carried out correctly, and so she devised a new garden that returned it to its origins and gave it a fresh purpose as a place for growing herbs for teas and infusions, working with her team of four Kickstart trainee gardeners.
The beds needed reshaping in order to return to Cane’s original designs, plus they were edged in steel from a local craftsman. Lavender ‘Hidcote’ plants, compact with deep purple blooms, were planted around the borders of each bed – a traditional physic garden look. Other fragrant and medicinal plants were carefully selected, including Korean mint, chamomile, thyme, echinacea, lemon verbena and oregano. Rose bushes remain at the centre of the four beds.
Plants were chosen for their power to attract bees and pollinators, ensuring that there is a win-win for humans and insects in the garden renovation.
The Percy Cane terraces sit within the wider landscape of Sharpham – whose design may have been influenced by England’s most famous garden designer Capability Brown. Dianne Long, chair of conservation at Devon Gardens Trust, commented: “Sharpham is a Grade-I listed house with Grade II* registered gardens. We’re very pleased to support The Sharpham Trust in its restoration of the Percy Cane designed garden, reviving the Italianate formality and defining the key view towards the River Dart.”