A WINTER’S TALE
tucked under a blanket of snow, the beauty and structure of annie stanford’s cottage garden, with views over the blackmore vale, is still plain to see
Even under a blanket of snow, with just a few winter berries and flowers poking through, it’s still clear to see the beauty this Somerset garden offers
Snow doesn’t often settle on the tiny hilltop village of Cucklington in somerset, but when it does it’s spectacular. a pretty patchwork of fields appears in magical monochrome, drifts swept up by the wind form dramatic waves along narrow lanes and, in annie and Chris stanford’s two-acre garden, spherical mounds of clipped evergreens stand out in all their glory.
‘You tend to think of this time of year as being dreary, but having so much clipped topiary it never feels that way,’ says annie. ‘evergreens give interest and all-year structure and I love the flow when you repeat them all over the place. my favourite is box, but I also grow plenty of yew and bay. during summer you don’t really notice the topiary because of the froth of herbaceous plants all around it, but during winter it comes into its own.’
annie and Chris’s cottage has breathtaking views across the Blackmore Vale. When they moved here 27 years ago with their four young children, there was nothing but a large hedge, two lilac trees and a small, lonely hydrangea in the middle of the lawn. as a keen gardener, and with no particular plan in mind, annie immediately started digging out flowerbeds and planting.
such a beautiful location does have its challenges, however. as well as coping with the strong westerlies that can knock down trees or whip tiles off the roof, annie had to work with the garden’s fairly steep gradient. ‘If I were moving here now I would have it terraced properly,’ she says. ‘With flatter land I might have designed a different garden, too. I thought I’d get terribly fit living here, but I still puff and pant coming up from the bottom!’
the delight of annie’s sloping plot is that no matter where you pause to catch your breath, there’s a new perspective on it:
paths meander past curved beds and borders, which in summer brim with cottage-garden favourites in pink, purple and red.
at this time of year, annie has planned pops of bright colour from rowan, holly and skimmia berries, the shiny hips of rosa rugosa and r. ‘mevrouw nathalie nypels’ and the vibrant fruit of crab apple malus x robusta ‘red sentinel’. ‘I’ve repeat-planted ‘red sentinel’ everywhere because it has such large, fat fruits, which I thought the birds would feed on, as I have other crab apples, which they take really early on, but they don’t touch it. the result is the trees look pretty all winter, hung with bright red fruit like Christmas tree decorations.’
annie has a passion for vintage gardenalia and her large collection of galvanised watering cans, troughs and ribbed dolly tubs planted with evergreen ferns, bergenias and dainty pink hellebores, as well as a water bowser underplanted with snowdrops, are displayed artistically throughout her garden.
arguably, though, the garden’s most eye-catching feature is Long Hill Carriage, a Victorian railway carriage, with a ‘platform’ filled with an ever-changing arrangement of terracotta pots and vintage containers. Its days of carrying great Western railway passengers may be over, but the 1882 third-class carriage still gets plenty of use, thanks to annie and Chris’s hard work. ‘my brother, who’s mad keen on railways, has an old carriage in his garden and I’d always secretly longed for one,’ annie recalls. ‘about 10 years ago I asked him to look out for one, and he found this one for sale.’ It was in a field in devon, but it was in reasonably good condition. annie and Chris had it transported to a barn and then every
weekend for about six months drove down to scrape and paint, gradually bringing it back to life before moving it to Cucklington.
the couple used it as a summerhouse and office for about five years until Chris retired, when they had the idea of turning it into a holiday let. ‘there wasn’t enough space for a bed, so we bought a 1952 railway wagon for £500 on ebay – it then cost us about £1,000 to move it here!’ It was in beautiful condition and now serves as a bedroom and bathroom alongside the carriage, which houses the living area and a little kitchen. Inside, annie has continued the vintage theme with mid-century-style furniture and fabrics and – always – fresh flowers from the garden.
When the last guests have left in november and before the next ones arrive in march, annie and Chris have their glorious garden to themselves – time for jobs such as digging, moving plants and maintenance. annie confesses to having a philosophical approach to her plants’ survival during the coldest months. ‘I do virtually nothing to protect them,’ she says. ‘I always used to wrap the standard bays in fleece to protect them from burning in the wind, but this year I never got round to it and they survived. although I’ve lost plants in the greenhouse, most in the garden have done well. the snow acts like a blanket – it helps rather than hinders.
‘I do quite a lot of plotting and planning during this period, which seems like a really good idea until the following summer when I wonder why on earth I dug another flowerbed because now I have to look after it! You do that kind of thing in the winter.’
TO STAY AT LONG HILL CARRIAGE, VISIT LONGHILLCARRIAGE.CO.UK OR CALL 01747 840658.