Garden of the Week
The nights may be relentlessly drawing in but there’s plenty to look forward to in the colder months in this Scottish garden
Arriving at a new home, some gardeners assert themselves with vigour, effecting change and making their mark in short order, regardless of what came before. But for Sue and Bruce Osborne a gentler path presented itself, and their gardening progress has been gradual, subtle and altogether more relaxed.
“When we got here 28 years ago, the garden was a little bit wild,” remembers Sue, a former teacher. “It had been laid out nicely by the people who converted the house and there were lawns and shrubs and a gravel drive, but the previous owners had children and ponies and weren’t that into gardening.”
The couple left the existing structure much as it was, but proceeded to smarten things up, repairing and replanting the trellis and taking out a scruffy shed which they replaced with a summer house. The planting followed organically, according to whim, taste and opportunity.
“The main area of planting, shrubs and flower beds is to the south-west of the house. But we’ve lots of tubs of colour to the front, such as roses and agapanthus. Valerian self seeds around the place, and there’s an actinidia and some lovely clematis, so we don’t feel the flower beds are too far away.”
When not diverted by mowing the lawn and keeping the hedges in check, former chartered surveyor Bruce’s real interest is the veg patch.
“I love soup made from home-grown ingredients.” he enthuses. “I grow leeks for leek soup, parsnips for parsnip soup… plus veg for roasts and French beans, too.” But his strategy has changed over the years. “I’ve got more idle as I’ve got older. So I’ve cut down on the veg and increased the amount of fruit we grow. Strawberries didn’t work so I gave up on those, but we have raspberries, gooseberries, currants, some good apples and a lovely cherry.”
Sue, meanwhile, likes to grow flowers and shrubs for cutting and, at this time of year, the garden is filled with autumn hues. “The beech hedge at the end of the garden colours beautifully and malus ‘Golden Hornet’ has been fantastic this year. It’s going over slightly now, but I even made some crabapple jelly.”
“The berberis and cornus are looking good and the amelanchier always has great autumn leaves. I do think that sedums are particularly good value, too,” she says
Wildlife is plentiful in such a rural spot. Buddleja attracts the butterflies and there are lots of bird boxes. Bruce feeds the birds throughout the winter and their spaniel Tamu, knows not to investigate too far.
Some wildlife is less welcome, however. “I’m conscious about planting things that the rabbits don’t like,” says Sue. “We also get roe deer that come in from the surrounding farmland. They love nipping off the rose buds and nibbling the shrubs.
“But I’ve discovered they don’t like human hair! So every year I go to the hairdresser and get a bin-liner full of hair, put it in nylon pop-socks and hang it on vulnerable shrubs. It doesn’t look that beautiful, but it works! When it gets covered by foliage it’s less obvious and it keeps the deer away. They really don’t like it!”
They’re now starting to put the garden to bed for the winter. The herbaceous perennials are being cut back and leaves raked up, while stray twigs and any branches brought down by the gales go on the bonfire.
Sue is also planting a few new bulbs to enhance the spring show, and she particularly favours narcissi in creams and
coral colours, “Although we have plenty of the ordinary yellow ones,” she says.
The nights may be relentlessly drawing in, yet there’s much to look forward to. “We’ve a lovely winter-flowering cherry in the lawn that was given to us by friends,” says Sue, “It has great autumn colour and then it flowers in the new year, around the same time as the snowdrops.
“I also have a very pretty collection of hellebores – my sister-in-law Juliet Davis breeds them at Kapunda Plants near Bath, and I have some my mother brought from Dorset that must be 50 years old!”
Nestled under the hill and protected by surrounding trees, the flaming autumn colours fade gradually to ochre and taupe under the moody Scottish skies.
Sue and Bruce take their gardening pleasures as they come, appreciating the details, the vegetables and the seasons as they change. Says Sue: “We didn’t start off as hugely knowledgeable horticulturists, but you learn in your garden and we always enjoy what we do!”