Daily Mail - Daily Mail Weekend Magazine
WATER PARADISE!
Annmarie Swift, 56, a teaching assistant in a nursery school, and her husband Andrew, 59, a fire safety engineer, live in a 1960s house in Walsall, West Midlands.
When Annmarie and Andrew
Swift started planning their garden, they intended to give it a Japanese theme. ‘The trouble was we’d go to a nursery and come back with something that wasn’t
Japanese,’ says Andrew. ‘We got waylaid by seeing so many plants we liked. So if we’re asked what our gardening style is, we say it has Japanese influences, but really it’s just full of plants we love.’
Annmarie has lived in the house since 1997, and Andrew joined her there in 2008. Together, they began tackling the 15m x 11m site. ‘It was a standard rough lawn with conifers around the edge,’ he says. ‘Annmarie fancied a bit of slate, and I wanted to keep fish, so we dug out a pond. Then we made a stream, followed by another pond with a waterfall at the end, and eventually joined it all up.’
The water features have been a huge success. ‘Water brings so much wildlife into the garden,’ says Andrew. ‘The birds bathe, and we have frogs, newts and loads of types of moths and butterflies.’ Annmarie adds, ‘Bees nest near the water too. We used to have so many slugs and snails, but now they’re almost gone – we think the frogs are eating them.’
Their favourite flowers include moisture-loving astilbes and ligularias, but foliage is also a major feature. Near the house is an area for ferns, and there are also bamboos, hostas, tree ferns, acanthus, palms, cordylines and yuccas, plus a splendid gunnera by the water’s edge. ‘It’s been moved twice but it doesn’t seem to mind as it’s grown to 3m,’ says Andrew.
There are an astonishing 47 trees in the garden, including maples, hazels and a fig tree. ‘With so many trees in a fairly small space, we have to do a lot of pruning to keep it all in check,’ says Andrew. One of their best-loved trees is a horse chestnut, which was grown by Annmarie’s nephew from a conker and is now 5m tall.
At the far end of the garden is the Spa House, with its hydrotherapy tub. ‘I’d wanted one for ages, and finally got it a few years ago,’ Annmarie says. ‘It needed a crane to lift it over the house, but it was worth it! We can sit in the tub and watch the birds feed and see the waterfall.’
Andrew and Annmarie spend every spare minute in the garden. ‘We haven’t been away on holiday for five years,’ says Andrew, ‘because when we’re in the garden it feels like it’s a holiday.’
They were persuaded to enter the National Garden Competition by a neighbour, and are thrilled to be through to the last four. ‘We can’t really believe it,’ says Andrew. ‘It’s a lovely pat on the back for what we’ve done.’
Terry Riding, 62, and his wife Sue, 58, are both retired banking consultants. They live in Bretherton in Lancashire.
When Terry and Sue Riding bought a semiderelict smallholding in 1997, the property came with a rectangular plot of about three-quarters of an acre. The house had been empty for many years and the garden was swamped by brambles and wild grass.
The house needed to be rebuilt, so it wasn’t until 1999 that the couple finally turned their attention to the garden and began the laborious task of clearing rubble, levelling the ground and seeding a lawn.
‘We started by putting in a range of trees, as well as plants and shrubs,’ says Terry. ‘We had no gardening experience and sadly many of our shrubs and herbaceous plants died, but we learned from our mistakes and gradually began to understand how important it was to put plants in a place that suits their growing conditions.’
They invested in some gardening books and visited other gardens for inspiration.
‘We realised we wanted to take advantage of the natural beauty around us: we look out over arable farmland with splendid views across to the West Pennine Moors,’ says Terry. The boundary beech hedges are kept low to allow a seamless transition from the garden to the surrounding countryside.
Near the house the Ridings created a shaded woodland area. In the more open areas of the garden the planting is herbaceous, with trees and shrubs added to the mix – a diversity of planting that’s greatly increased the number of birds in the garden. ‘At this time of year we especially love the “hot” orange and red borders, then in autumn there’s a blaze of colour from late-flowering asters and ornamental grasses,’ says Terry. ‘It’s hard to choose our favourite parts of the garden – they change with the season.’
Wherever possible, recycled materials have been used in the garden. The raised beds around the patio area were created from reclaimed cobbles, while the small water feature is made from an antique sink. In the woodland area the paths are either recycled railway sleepers or chipped bark, which is then used as a garden mulch the next year.
Sue and Terry have done almost all the work themselves, although they had to call in professional help with the pond. ‘We planted some aggressive bulrushes and ended up puncturing the lining,’ says Terry. ‘We called in a pond specialist who helped us develop a much larger pond, incorporating a viewing platform, and this has become a lovely central focus in the garden and attracts lots of visiting wildlife.’
They look after the garden together, although Sue is dubbed the ‘creative director’ and takes care of the planting combinations, while Terry is in charge of maintenance and does most of the planting, propagation and transplanting. They open the garden three days a year under the National Garden Scheme – ‘a charity very close to our hearts’ – but mostly, says Terry, ‘we just enjoy our garden. We get enormous pleasure from sitting there and simply watching the bees on the lavender bed.’