Digging inn!
The weed-infested plot behind an abandoned pub has been transformed into an NGS garden
Sarah Smith is a woman with vision. When she and her husband Mark bought the boarded-up pub in her village in 2012, she knew what she wanted to achieve. “I was determined to transform the jumble of nettles and thistles behind the old pub into a garden fit to open for the National Garden Scheme (NGS), and I gave myself five years to do it,” she says. Sure enough, when the Derbyshire NGS assessor visited in 2017, the Old Shoulder of Mutton got the thumbs up. “I was overjoyed!” says Sarah.
The Smiths were living in a cottage in the same village as the pub. With the arrival of their third child, they wanted a larger home and a bigger garden. When they couldn’t find a suitable property, they made enquiries about the dilapidated pub and their offer was accepted. So, while they were waiting for their cottage sale to go through, they started tackling the overgrown grass and weeds. “Once Mark started mowing, that was a real help and it became a useable space,” says Sarah.
She carefully drew out her vision for the garden, set on two
levels, and started work with gusto. “However, it was really daunting and there were a few false starts because I tried to take on too much at once,” she says. “So I concentrated on digging out a lot of turf to create the main upper border, which I filled with various potted plants from my old garden.” Little by little, she moved on to digging new borders from her plan, helped by friends and family. “The bonus is that the soil was amazing, really rich and loamy, so once the turf came out, it was really easy to work. My son and I dug the pond in two afternoons!”
Inspiration for the planting design and even plants themselves were gleaned from visiting gardens. “I simply love visiting other gardens, whether that’s large ones open to the public, to NGS gardens or simply what my friends are doing.” Sarah gradually built up the border plantings into the wonderful jostle of perennials and shrubs that create such a spectacle for NGS visitors. “There’s colour and interest from early spring to the first frosts. The flowers just keep coming nearly all year round.”
Beside the house, the lower terrace and paths have been landscaped with grey paving around a circular lawn edged with curved borders. An outdoor dining area, pleached hornbeam hedge, brick-built pizza oven and trough with a trickling water feature have all been incorporated into Sarah’s design.
From there, a flight of steps leads to the upper garden, which is laid to lawn with large borders filled with
swathes of perennials, including Shasta daisies, verbascums, delphiniums, salvias and hardy geraniums with an abundance of hostas and grasses. A rose arbour and rope swags draw visitors onwards to cosy seating areas, and the large pond is softened with marginals and packed with waterlilies. Although the groundwork is done, Sarah continues to tweak the planting. “It’s ever changing and challenging,” she says. “The shrubs I planted five years ago need to be managed to keep them contained and I’m always moving things around trying different colour palettes.”
For this reason, Sarah’s not opening for the NGS in 2023. “It takes a huge amount of work to have the garden just right to give visitors a really special day out, and I want to generate some new areas, which need time to develop. Then we’ll be able to provide even more delights in 2024.”