•THE NURTURING GARDEN
Botanical artist Gael Sellwood – and the local wildlife – have reaped the benefits of her ‘hands-off’ approach in this conservation garden
Sometimes less is more when it comes to conserving a garden’s natural wonder
You’d expect a botanical artist to feel the need to be surrounded by nature, and that’s exactly what drew Gael Sellwood and her husband, Michael, to this house and garden in rural Hertfordshire. ‘We weren’t even looking to move,’ says Gael, who first came here on a dull, dark, late-november day in 2007. ‘We were in a very lovely thatched cottage nearby but as soon as we saw this place, with the house at the centre of its plot and surrounded by fields and woodlands, we just fell in love with it.’ An imposing holly tree ‘absolutely laden’ with berries seemed like a good omen, as did several other interesting, mature trees around the property – an ancient pear, a lovely mulberry, some ball-clipped topiary and a small orchard to the rear of the house. ‘The garden had been laid out in the 1930s and 1940s by a retired army major and it had a sense of being contained, whole and safe. And, as much of it was grass, it wasn’t particularly daunting or challenging,’ says Gael.
It was also extremely beautiful, as Gael and Michael could only fully appreciate the following spring, when they moved in to find tens of thousands of daffodils lining the drive and under the trees in the orchard. The best was yet to come, however, when just a few weeks later the blossom broke. ‘I remember feeling absolute wonder,’ says Gael. ‘I still do. At around 400 years old, the pear tree is probably one of the oldest in the county – possibly the country – and when covered in blossom it looks as though it has snowed.’
It wasn’t only the pear tree that took their breath away. As if overnight, the garden transformed from bare branches to a froth of white and pink, from palest shell to deepest magenta, as the fruit trees – apples, cherries, gages and plums – came into flower. As the bees descended on the blossom, so butterflies, including >
❝WHAT WE LOVE MOST IS HOW THE HOUSE IS AT THE VERY CENTRE OF THE GARDEN. IT’S ALLENCOMPASSING AND FEELS VERY NURTURING❞
peacocks, commas, orange tips and ringlets, came to feast on the bluebells, cow parsley, stitchwort and stinging nettles that sprung up beneath the trees.
‘While I love gardens as an environment, I don’t want to spend all my time working in them; I want to be painting,’ says Gael. ‘When we came here, we realised that by leaving much of the garden relatively wild, we’d end up with far more nature around us.’
Focusing instead on the shapes, colours and textures of trees and shrubs, Gael and Michael have created a ‘conservation garden’, in which no pesticides or chemicals are used and management is kept to a minimum. They have tried to work with what’s there, gently enhancing it in the most natural way possible. A badly positioned and overgrown pond has been re-sited so it can better reflect the sky, and an elderly rhododendron glade, which had become a misshapen mass, has now become a woodland walk complete with silver birches, red-stemmed cornus and snowdrops divided from clumps elsewhere in the garden. Where plants are introduced, they are considered not only for their beauty, but for their role in the larger ecosystem. ‘This garden has made me much more aware of the bigger picture and the connectedness of things.’
In this way, blossom and wildflowers provide nectar for the bees and the butterflies, fallen fruit provides food for the insects and the rodents, and they in turn keep the birds and larger mammals well fed. ‘Who’d have thought that having apple trees might benefit the owl population?’ she says, clearly revelling in the diversity of creatures that have made a home in the garden. These include >
❝This garden provides a habitat to so many creatures. I don’t know if we’re hosting them or if they’re hosting us, but we feel very privileged
red kites and buzzards, which compete for roosts in the boundary ash; goldfinches, which feast on the thistle heads; and fieldfares and redwings in winter. Rosebay willowherb is lauded for the nectar it provides to bees and moths. If a tree dies, Gael is bereft, but if a branch should fall, she knows the woodpeckers will be happy. ‘We have green and spotted varieties nesting here, and when they send out their young, it’s like they’re sending them to school – a whole lot of trainee woodpeckers whizzing round the garden all yaffling at one another. It’s delightful.’
Badgers, rabbits and deer are slightly less welcome visitors, but Gael takes the view that ‘it’s easier to share’. Metal fencing or chicken wire provide a degree of protection to her ‘special plants’, including the roses, irises and hydrangeas that she loves to paint. Gael chooses to see the positives: ‘If we can just relax a bit more, the benefits are massive. We gain time because there’s less hands-on gardening to do; the animals and insects have more food and habitats to choose from; psychologically it feels better – and it’s still lovely to look at. It’s the ultimate non-gardeners’ garden.’
Twelve years since moving in, Gael still looks forward to the blossom each spring, but each season has its charms, from the flowering of the privet in summer to the apricot-coloured bullace plums, which hang like baubles in the hedgerows in autumn, and the tree silhouettes – and the wonderfully berried holly – in winter. ‘I look out on the garden, and every single day it lifts my heart,’ she says. Gael’s book, The Measure of the Year (Mascot Media, £25), can be bought at gaelsellwood.co.uk.