“Our borders are buzzing with wildlife” This prairie-style garden has a light and airy feel thanks to its billowing, bee-friendly borders
This prairie-style garden has a light and airy feel thanks to its billowing, bee-friendly borders. Owners Kim and Stephen Rogers treat us to a tour
For an elegant, airy look in borders, you can’t beat a harmonious colour palette and wafty plants. “We’ve gone for a wild and natural look using grasses and summer-flowering perennials,” explains owner Kim Rogers, who created the garden at Dove Cottage Nursery, with her husband Stephen. “It’s become an oasis for insects and birds, especially in late summer and autumn.” The nursery and garden sit high above Yorkshire’s picturesque Shibden Valley, offering panoramic woodland views. “The garden is enclosed by Yorkstone walls and yew hedges, which protect it from the easterly and westerly winds,” says Kim. “Now they’re mature the hedges provide homes and nesting sites for wild birds too.”
NATURALLY GOOD (clockwise from above left) A vibrant mix of diascia, stipa, erynigum and achillea; burgeoning beds of silvery eryngium, Stipa gigantea, purple salvia ‘Amethyst’ and Veronicastrum longifolia; Hordeum jubatum ‘Early Pink’; monarda ‘Neon’; achillea ‘Salmon Beauty’ among salvias, veronicastrum ‘Erica’ and tall white Erigeron annuus Both Kim and Stephen have their roots in the area. “Stephen’s family were butchers in nearby Halifax,” says Kim. “But he realised that working six and a half days a week wasn’t conducive to family life, so he re-trained in horticulture at York’s Askham Bryan College, as a mature student.” After a stint working at The Savill Garden in Windsor, the couple hit on the idea of running their own nursery. “We were having a glass of wine with friends and they suggested it,” Kim explains. “We’d already been inspired by the colourthemed borders at Arley Hall, Cheshire and by Bury Court Garden in Hampshire,
It’s become an oasis for insects and birds, especially in late summer and autumn
which has atmospheric prairie-style borders designed by Piet Oudolf.” The couple set about creating their new nursery garden in 1995, planting perennials and grasses on a north-facing slope and arranging them in thoughtful combinations rather than large blocks. “When visitors open the gate leading to the garden, they have a real surprise in store,” says Kim. Creating the garden from scratch hasn’t been easy. “The soil and plants had to be barrowed in so we didn’t introduce pernicious weeds such as mare’s tail and ground elder,” says Kim. “We added a lot of stone chippings to create paths and built terraces from raised planting beds.” The paths meander gently down the hillside in sinuous curves, allowing visitors maximum time to take in the plants and hillside views. “There are no buildings or evergreen ‘bones’ to the planting,” says Kim. “But there are plenty of seats and there’s always a buzz of wildlife over the flowers.” Grasses play a key role all year round. “They help to unify the planting and add a sense of movement and texture,” says Kim. “One of my favourites, acquired from Beth Chatto many years ago, is an unusual, deep pink Hordeum jubatum that f lowers four weeks earlier. It’s one of the plants we do allow to seed around.” There are lots of different molinias too. “Purple moor grass is native to the Pennines and thrives in high rainfall areas like ours,” says Kim. “We grow taller ones, such as ‘Windspiel’, and much shorter ‘Heidebraut’ because its dark, pointed leaves stay erect. We collected Calamagrostis brachytricha ‘Mona’, in Holland too – this one has a more open feather that’s pinker. Its new shoots are very dark in spring.” Perhaps the most admired grass is Stipa gigantea ‘Gold Fontaene’. “Aptly, it looks like a golden fountain when the sun shines through it,” says Kim. The wispy grasses are anchored by colourful accent plants such as achillea and salvia. “Flowers are repeated throughout to create cohesion,” explains Kim. “But to avoid a jarring effect, we’ve taken out all our white phloxes, because they dominated the planting too much. Instead we go for subtle blends. Shape and texture are just as important as colour. “We tend to mix shapes by combining grasses, buttons and spires with stronger architectural shapes. We also love to grow SINUOUS CURVES (clockwise from above) Yorkstone walls enclose raised beds of Stipa calamagrostis ‘Lemperg’, pink diascia and eryngium; Hordeum jubatum ‘Early Pink’ with phacelia and anthriscus; pink Dianthus carthusianorum with Stipa tenuissima and S. gigantea; hordeum, salvia and Calamintha nepeta ‘Blue Cloud’ create an ethereal look
taller plants that are slim and upright; you can look through them at eye level and they enclose you if you sit down.” With 500 different perennials on sale at the nursery, there’s certainly plenty of choice. “Our favourites include sanguisorbas – especially those with small, bobbly f lowers. We introduced shorter Sanguisorba officinalis ‘Red Buttons’, which flowers for a long time. We also love taller white Sanguisorba tenuifolia ‘Stand Up Comedian’, which has red stems and glossy green foliage. “The main thing is to create a pleasing effect that will last well throughout the summer and into autumn, with dramatic seedheads to take the interest over winter. This way you can get a good spread of f lowers throughout the year.”
Shape and texture are just as important as colour