Back to nature

Out of the rubble of a former brownfield site, Jo McKerr has created a beautiful and natural managed-meadow garden

When you look down on Jo McKerr’s wonderful meadows and over to the hills beyond it is easy to get seduced into romantic notions about pastoral idylls. Her expansive naturalistic planting style means the garden teems with wildlife, pollinators buzz and at night bats swoop from her 70m-long abandoned canal tunnel on to this rich, biodiverse landscape. But it wasn’t always this way. “When we first came here the landscape was very much scarred by human intervention,” explains Jo. Despite sitting bang in the middle of the countryside, it is actually a brownfield site, which at one point had housed a canal, hence the tunnel, a railway line and a dairy farm. “The landscape has been dug up, shifted, moved by cows, canals, trains and people, but it still retained such personality. On my first impression I completely fell in love with a place,” she says.

That took some vision because the landscape was covered in brambles and pioneer species, the buildings were half renovated or not at all. What’s more, when Jo and her husband first took on this mammoth task of renovating all the buildings and gardens, they hadn’t realised Jo was pregnant. “By the time we got the keys I was actually heavily pregnant, but it was a great gift really. I had two years to just dream about what I wanted for the garden,

Behind the house a grape-covered arbour provides a sheltered space for outdoor dining with views to the wildflower meadows beyond. Near the house the borders offer an Oudolf-esque matrix mix of perennials that includes Alchemilla mollis, Althea cannabina, Eryngium x zabelii ‘Big Blue’, Nepeta racemosa ‘Walker’s Low’, Oenothera stricta ‘Sulphurea’, Verbena hastata f. rosea and Allium sphaerocephalon.

If people are going to adopt wilder-looking design for wildlife, then it needs to look very good

I could work out what needed unpicking and observe the detail already there, where the ferns were growing in damper shade, for example. Time is really the greatest gift for a garden.”

So, for the first 18 months, they did a little land shifting to shape the garden, covered it with black plastic to suppress the brambles, planted a native hedge around the edge of the garden, added hazel and crab apple trees and then left it while they worked on the house. In this time, Jo started to wonder if it was possible to make a garden where you couldn’t quite tell where the garden stopped and the wider landscape started. She decided on native meadows and plantings that would help regenerate the existing seed bank. The soil is not particularly fertile and in places deeply compacted, which lent itself to wildflower meadows. “It’s essentially derelict land lacking in nitrogen, but that actually means more possibilities; the dynamic of poor soil is actually something great to work with.”

Jo has done lots of research in bioremediation: “By using meadow plants we are essentially cleaning up the site, making it more holistic and wholesome. But as a design tool this is really interesting because you’re also making an ecological memory bank. In 20 years’ time it will have a very different seed bank than now, the meadows will change, the landscape will evolve but you can build that into your design,” she explains.

The garden is a series of different matrices because this brings in diversity and creates resilience across the whole system. Around the houseit is at its most ornamental in a traditional sense, while the main garden

Making the most of the good drainage provided by the steep bank beneath the wall, Jo has introduced a thyme meadow that tumbles down into the main meadow mix from Emorsgate Seeds, which is based down the road from Jo’s farmhouse. The tall spires of Verbascum thapsus add vertical accents that link to the tower of the 14th-century village church beyond.

By using meadow plants we are essentially cleaning up the site, making it more holistic and wholesome

is composed of a large, naturalistic pond and the many meadows. “We did some earthworks at the start, we created the slope in part to use up all the rubble and made a reclaimed wall to keep the neighbour’s garden from falling into ours,” she laughs. Throughout these spaces all the material from the stone, to the timber beams for seating is carefully reclaimed and recycled in keeping with her environmental ethic.

At the start of the meadows under a walnut tree is a spring meadow of cowslips, white violets and Crocus tommasinianus that blends into a bank of a herbal meadow full of thyme and origanum, then the garden rolls out into summer meadows. The meadows are cut in rotation, starting with the spring ones and ending with the railway lines meadow that sits next to the hedgerow. “By cutting in rotation we can allow the wildlife somewhere to move on to and it means we don’t need to use a lot of machinery,” Jo explains.

Although traditionally managed, the meadows are not grassland. “They are gardened meadows, which means they are managed for flowers and effect. They are deliberately meant to look beautiful and aspirational, because I believe if people are going to adopt wilder-looking design for wildlife, then it needs to look very good.”

USEFUL INFORMATION Find out more about Jo’s work at jomckerr.com

In the gravel garden at the side of the house, Jo has used a planting palette that complements the house’s Cotswold stone with grasses, such as Stipa tenuissima, and perennials including Verbascum bombyciferum ‘Polarsommer’ and oreganums. This sunny space also includes a greenhouse for propagating plants and a couple of raised beds for vegetables.

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Above The borders to the rear of Jo’s house are filled with Dierama pulcherrimum, angel’s fishing rods, which dance above Achillea ‘Moonshine’. Behind these, in an area that bakes in the afternoon sun, tower cardoons and the soft grass Stipa gigantea. Below Close to the house, planting is slightly more ornamental with grasses mingling with the tall, yellow spikes of Verbascum bombyciferum ‘Polarsommer’, alongside Echium vulgare, Salvia ‘Blue Spire’, Phlomis russeliana and euphorbias.

Above The dining area close to the house is shielded by a mix of tall Echinops bannaticus ‘Taplow Blue’ and Eryngium x zabelii ‘Jos Eijking’. Much of Jo’s perennial borders, like her wildflower meadows beyond, are allowed to self-seed and regenerate naturally. Below Jo is passionate about wildlife and her borders are filled with plants that attract insects. Here these include fennel, Nepeta racemosa ‘Walker’s Low’, Allium sphaerocephalon, the roundheaded leek, and evening primrose, Oenothera stricta ‘Sulphurea’.

Above The pond offers a focal point for the long, sloping lawn and draws the eye to the middle ground. It is planted up to attract wildlife, such as dragonflies and damselflies, with Pontederia cordata, bulrushes, loosestrife, meadowsweet and waterlilies. Below In the sunny gravel garden situated to the front of the house, plants suited to the hot, dry conditions, including Verbena bonariensis, Erigeron karvinskianus, Oenothera stricta, the grass Stipa tenuissima, fennel and verbascums, are allowed to self-seed freely.