SPRING INTO ACTION

Early preparation at this time of year makes all the difference to the summer borders in a Northumberland garden

“GET AHEAD” IS A PHRASE THAT JANE LOVETT uses often. As a food writer she specialises in easy recipes that can be prepared in advance to make the end result seem effortless. And every spring she applies the same principles in her garden, going all-out with early work in the borders to achieve the best possible effect later on. The secret lies in staking – a network of frames, rings, wigwams, obelisks and twiggy structures that are all put in place now to provide hidden support as everything grows.

“I love the planting to look natural but I don’t like things flopping, so the earlier we can get these in, the better,” Jane says. “They hardly show once the plants have covered them.” She and her gardener Alison Inness, who helps out two days a week, have got underpinning down to a fine art, matching material, style and size of support to a plant’s growth habits. Sprawling perennials such as hardy geraniums, achillea and anthemis are given a lift with a framework of spruce branches, while large shrub roses are held up with metal frames, and clematis is given scope to ramble over tall steel obelisks.

Jane started gardening when she and her husband John moved to Hetton House 28 years ago, learning from a more experienced friend, reading extensively and visiting other gardens to build up her knowledge. The house lies in a river valley 20 miles from the coast, near Alnwick, and sits in a frost pocket. To offset this, the wide, open views have been broken up and framed by dividing hedges of yew, thuja and beech for shelter and low stone walls around the paved garden for outdoor dining and entertaining.

When the garden is waking up in spring, there’s already plenty to see, from delicate cowslips, fritillaries and erythroniums to showy Magnolia stellata and Amelanchier canadensis in full blossom.