CAPABILITY BROWNS OF WALSALL!
Couple transform their suburban garden into a perennial wonder
EXPLODING with dazzling colours, cleverly designed and immaculately maintained, this garden looks like it should belong in a stately home.
But this verdant oasis can be found tucked away behind an unassuming, 1930s suburban house in Walsall, West Midlands.
And its creators? No, not the likes of 18th century landscape architect Capability Brown… but self-taught (and admirably dedicated) gardeners Tony and Marie Newton. The couple have put more than 3,000 plants in the 188ft by 60ft plot over the 37 years that they have lived at the house, having meticulously planned the layout to create a ‘four seasons’ effect.
By alternating deciduous and evergreen trees, using blue and yellow conifers and laying various bedding plants, it produces enchanting dis
plays of colour throughout the year. Despite its perennial beauty, retired GP Mr Newton and his wife Marie, a retired transport planner, agree that this time of year the garden begins to look its best.
‘The garden wakes up in May, it’s just incredible. We thought we were behind this year but recently it just came back up,’ Mrs Newton, 71, said.
Since 2006 the couple have opened the garden, which has won two national competitions, to the public several times to raise money for charity and the latest opening is due this weekend. The couple moved to the four-bedroom detached home in 1982 and began landscaping the garden ten years later when their four children no longer used it as a play area.
It takes them on average two hours a day each tending to the space but they said it was a ‘labour of love’. The upper garden, nearest to the house, features more formal planting, while in the lower area palm trees, bamboos and banana plants lend a wilder feel. It also includes five water features and 00ft of paths.
Mr Newton, 69, said: ‘There has been a lot of trial and error to get the garden the way it is now. We try to add to the garden every year.’
His wife added: ‘It has been very satisfying to use so many skills, and to have done every task ourselves. All but two of the plants in our garden have been planted by us. But there are so many now I can’t even count.’