“I love our frothy prairie plants”
This colourful garden has a light and airy feel thanks to its mix of grasses and easy-care perennials. Owner Kirsty Grocott shows us around
This stunning prairie garden in Shropshire offers a romantic haze of late-season colour. “It’s full of herbaceous perennials and grasses that start to get going in late summer, then carry on into autumn,” says owner Kirsty Grocott, who lives here with her husband David. “Lots of the grasses are planted towards the west of the garden so that when the sun sets, the low-angled sunshine lights up their stems from behind. It really looks quite magical.” Large stands of dramatic Stipa gigantea lend height, elegance and movement to the borders too. “They’ve taken over the garden pretty well,” says Kirsty. “We do like to let a few plants like this self-seed, to see what happens. We also have lots of Stipa tenuissima, and a circle of upright Calamagrostis acutiflora ‘Karl Foerster’ planted around the old apple tree.” Other good autumn plants include perovskia ‘Blue Spire’, which matures to a ghostly blue as temperatures start to dip. “We’ve planted blue globes of echinops among the feathery bronze fennel too, which is a nice contrast of texture, and Achillea filipendulina ‘Cloth of Gold’, which fades from bright yellow to a softer hue in autumn.” Pink-topped sedums and wiry stems of purple-flowered Verbena bonariensis help to flesh out the picture. “The verbena has gone mad this year,” says Kirsty. “There must be about 200 self-sown plants now, which look
When the sun sets, the low-angled sunshine lights up their stems
so beautiful en masse. They’re buzzing with bees and butterflies in summer.” To keep the look naturalistic but easy to maintain, the winding paths are made from Breedon self-binding gravel. “These are edged with metal to keep their outline crisp as it weaves among the beds and borders,” says Kirsty. “In general, prairie gardens can be quite low maintenance compared to other garden styles. For instance, we didn’t water anything during last summer’s drought and most of the plants managed perfectly well. There’s a lot to be said for letting plants fend for themselves a bit, rather than cosseting them too much. “When we created the garden we dug in tonnes of green waste compost to improve our clay soil, and we layer on a thick mulch each year so the weeds aren’t really all that troublesome. I spend about one day a week doing spot weeding.” Kirsty likes to leave the spent flowers and seedheads intact over winter to enjoy their sculptural forms. “It’s good to see the bones of the garden emerge at the end of the season,” she says. “I generally wait until February to cut them all back, which takes about a week.” Kirsty’s relaxed and colourful prairie garden is neighboured by more formal plantings. “It’s all part of a 75-acre smallholding where we keep a few Hereford and Angus cattle,” she explains. “I actually gave some of the garden back for grazing! It was an area laid to lawn where we spent so much time mowing that it made more sense to give it back to the cows to graze instead.” Judging from her clever planting schemes it’s no surprise that Kirsty is a qualified subtle sHADes (clockwise from above) Perovskia ‘Blue Spire’ and beyond Achillea filipendulina ‘Cloth of Gold’; Veronicastrum virginicum ‘Album’; Anthriscus sylvestris in silhouette, with Stipa gigantea; Echinacea purpurea; foxglove seedheads stand well among the autumn flowers; self-sown Verbena bonariensis INset Calamagrostis acutiflora ‘Karl Foerster’
garden designer, having studied at night school for her BTEC diploma. “I did it with a view to knowing what I was doing when I created the garden,” she says. “I think it has really paid off in terms of the layout and plants I’ve used. My inspiration came from the designs of Arne Maynard and Dan Pearson – I love his naturalistic style. And obviously, Piet Oudolf. I particularly like Piet’s combination of wilderness contained by formal box and yew squares, which I’ve included elsewhere in the garden. “The more relaxed, prairie part of the garden is brilliant for wildlife though,” says Kirsty. “We try not to spray and leave any aphids for the birds to eat. We have nesting housemartins, and visits from butterflies and tiny little wrens who love the fennel seeds. Plus we have some resident guinea pigs who love to spend sunny days outside in their pen, nibbling the lawn!”
We spent so much time mowing we gave the land back to the cows!