Secrets of a head gardener
People sometimes say we’re lazy because we don’t deadhead our flowers in late summer. But here, we want shape and form, as well as colour, and seedheads give us that. Our garden was designed by Piet Oudolf and he uses the same palette of perennials that a lot of other people have, but in a different way. By leaving everything through the winter we’ve different types of interest from May through to around February, which is when we do our cutting back.
If I could recommend one plant that sums up our ethos, it would probably be astrantia ‘Claret’. It flowers right the way through from June to September in sun or shade. It looks wonderful and the bees love it, and then it has a great seedhead, too. That’s one I really like. When the time comes – for us it’s February – give your garden a really thorough tidy- up. We make sure we rake properly underneath the hedges, remove any diseased leaves we can see, get rid of as many slugs and snails as possible. It’s perhaps not the most exciting thing, but the garden will appreciate it.
There is a woody element to our garden, with the hedging, that helps promote wildlife and create our own little ecosystem. As a result we get very few pests and diseases and never use pesticides, although we’re not technically an organic garden. We’ve an awful lot of bees and butterflies – which is a sign of a healthy garden. I prefer a garden that requires a level amount of maintenance through the year. I don’t want to go hell-for-leather through the summer and then have nothing to do from October until March. Our garden is not especially designed to be low maintenance, but working through the year at a reasonable level is the easiest way to keep on top of it.
If you see a look somewhere that you like, try it for yourself. Not everyone can get Piet Oudolf to design their garden, but a lot of people come here and try to emulate different parts of what we do. So much of gardening is trial and error, so don’t be scared to have a go!
About Scampston Hall: Completed in 1800, although its walled garden was designed by Piet Oudolf and opened in 1991. The rest of the grounds were designed by Capability Brown. It is now open to the public until October.