Seduced by delicious blooms
Any garden addict will love the second book from Bridget Elworthy and Henrietta Courtauld, The Land Gardeners: Cut Flowers; it’s not only a visual feast of flowers and scrumptious walled gardens, it’s a guide to garden management and soil improvement.
Bridget Elworthy (nee Cox) was born in South Canterbury and remembers gathering armloads of flowers whenever she got home from boarding school and filling every room in the house. In her latest book (written in conjunction with Henrietta Courtauld), The Land Gardeners: Cut Flowers, she explains how her mother-in-law Fiona Elworthy travelled across continents with New Zealand peonies in her suitcase to deliver them to her in the United Kingdom; and how in 2012 she and great friend, landscape designer Henrietta Courtauld, started their business The Land Gardeners. ‘We discovered our shared love and interest in garden design, cut flowers and even soil health.’
Both Bridget and Henrietta had trained and worked as lawyers before studying garden design. Henrietta studied at the Inchbald School of Design, and went on to work with landscape and garden designer Tom Stuart-Smith before starting her own garden design business in London’s Notting Hill. Bridget studied horticulture at The English Gardening School and then garden design at the Oxford College of Garden Design, before spending three years back in New Zealand learning about soil health, peony growing, cut flowers and experimenting with biodynamic gardening on the family farm at Craigmore.
In 2012 the two decided to pool their resources, and nowadays share their time between London and Oxfordshire. ‘Henrietta comes up to Wardington one or two days a week and I go down to London once a week to work in the design studio,’ explains Bridget.
‘I had an over-riding sense that the garden at Wardington Manor [a Grade II listed Jacobean house in Oxfordshire near Banbury where Bridget lives with her husband Forbes and their three children] should not just be an expensive indulgence, but a working garden; so we decided to create our productive gardens at the manor and revive the walled gardens.
‘Having come from New Zealand, Forbes wanted to replace the many flowerbeds with sheep and trees. We had to convince him that our new business was going to pay its way and that, in time, the garden would become much more wild and natural.’
Bridget explains that as a family they have always had an active interest in soil science and organic growing, and for years soil health has been central to all of their work. ‘We now specialise in restoring walled gardens – their high walls create perfect micro-climates to extend the growing season and to protect against animals such as deer and rabbits, of which we have plenty! We also run a thriving cut-flower business from Wardington Manor and juggle teenage children with our
gardening, lecturing and design business for clients in the UK and abroad.’
‘We love sharing our love of learning about plants, soils, and how to create beautiful productive gardens. Rather than being too planned, we often start devising our lectures with a mood board and let things evolve organically,’ explains Henrietta.
And if that’s not enough, the pair take armfuls of seasonal flowers, pack them into the back of their van and drive them down the motorway for clients’ events in London. Their seasonal organic flowers include tulips and peonies, a myriad of wild and cultivated blooms including honesty in spring, roses in early summer, delicious dahlias and cosmos in late summer and autumn.
‘We grow all our flowers organically and whilst they may not last quite as long in the vase as the shop-bought blooms, they have a deeply romantic sense of character, scent and movement. So few people realise how farmed flowers are heavily sprayed with chemicals to make them last longer. If they knew, they would think twice about bringing them onto their kitchen tables,’ says Henrietta.
‘At The Land Gardeners we try to work with nature rather than controlling it,’ concludes Henrietta. ‘Our main passion is soil health and finding solutions, so farmers and growers can look after their own soil, particularly through high-quality microbially active composting. The whole essence of soil health is the health of its microbial life and this in turn affects plant, animal, human and ultimately planet health.’
‘We love sharing our love of learning about plants, soils, and how to create beautiful productive gardens.’
The Land Gardeners will be speaking at Rapaura Springs Garden Marlborough in November about cut flowers and soil health. Get your tickets today!