Early bloomers Novice gardeners have created a fragrant paradise
Two novice gardeners have tamed a difficult plot and transformed it into a fragrant and lush paradise with beautiful areas for entertaining and relaxing
Creating a new garden from scratch is no mean feat, especially when faced with heavy wet clay, nettles, rabbits and a lack of time and money. But Claire and Chris Farthing are an impressive team. ‘Chris loves the garden as much as I do, and has done a lot of the manual work, but he leaves all the planning to me. I come up with ideas and he makes them happen,’ says Claire who, like her husband, is in her early fifties. The original plot at the back of their four-bedroom 1980s house in the village of Rougham, Suffolk, has been joined to the neighbouring field and the couple now have a two-acre family garden and woodland. Claire tells the story of how it all came about…
GARDENING ON A BUDGET
When we moved here in 2000 with our two small daughters, we were broke and I had a part-time job, so we spent weekends working in the garden. Chris took on all the practical tasks, while I started to learn about plants. The grass was in good condition and there were three lovely trees – a variegated Norway maple by the terrace, and a Persian ironwood and honey locust in a 30-metre-long border that was full of stinging nettles and periwinkles. It ended at a leylandii hedge that we later had removed to give us views of our field, where we planted specimen trees. Gradually we cleared the long border around the trees, digging in lots of organic matter – it took a few years for the heavy clay soil to break up, but now it’s home to alliums, roses, hardy geraniums, catmint, foxgloves and poppies.
TAKING SHAPE
There was a rock garden in the middle of the lawn and we got rid of it before we’d even unpacked properly. The plot is awkwardly shaped, so we laid a large oval lawn – we call it ‘the eye’ – enclosing it with borders of plants to disguise its irregularity. There was a weeping birch and I added a maple, phormium and four standard liquidambars for their rich autumn colours. I also planted hebes, but they couldn’t tolerate the wet soil so were replaced with box balls, while Alchemilla mollis and forget-me-nots spill over the edges of a circular stone patio.
The patio is set into a south-facing terrace immediately outside the kitchen extension. Originally there was a wooden pergola that was held up by a grapevine. The vine was taking over so we cut it back, but then the pergola fell over, so we redesigned the entire area to make space for a table beneath a wisteria-clad pergola with narrow metal poles. It’s planted far enough away from the house that it doesn’t block the light, but you can still smell the fragrance of the flowers from indoors.
BENCH WITH A VIEW
Halfway down the garden a kidney-shaped pond is overlooked by a wooden deck with a ‘gin and tonic bench’ that catches the evening sunshine. The pond and deck were created after I saw Alan Titchmarsh design something similar on ITV’s Love Your Garden.
Luckily our neighbour has a digger and excavated the pond.
I’ve also established a small bog garden and a stream to filter the water. At one end I’ve planted a pale pink bistort – it’s one of my favourite plants. The colour is just right, the height is good, it spreads well without being invasive and, provided it doesn’t dry out, flowers for ages. Alchemilla mollis is another plant I love. You can’t kill it with neglect, it self-seeds freely and goes with everything. Hardy geraniums are wonderful too – I grow ‘Johnson’s Blue’ and ‘Rozanne’, which flowers up to the first frosts.
BOXED IN
By far the most useful plant is box, Buxus sempervirens. Every garden should have some because it’s evergreen and can be clipped into all sorts of shapes. I bought mine as very small plants and clipped them tight for three years. Now I do it lightly just once a year.
In 2009 we added part of our field to the main garden. Measuring 23 metres by 20 metres, it lies on the west side of the long border. My first idea was based on straight lines, but I changed it to circular shapes
after seeing a motif on a floral napkin. Chris suggested the gravel path to go between the outer and inner circles of box hedging – it took
500 tiny box plants to form the two rings. The inner circle contains a bed planted with a central Portuguese laurel among bearded irises, alliums, centaurea, persicaria and roses. I let the aquilegias do their own thing and I just cut them back once they’re over.
THE PERGOLA WALK
We built the pergola walk to connect the old and new gardens. There wasn’t space to walk straight through, so we turned the pergola sideways so you enter via a path in the long border, turn left and then emerge on the right into the new garden. There’s a bench that catches the morning sun – it’s lovely to sit there with your first cup of tea of the day. Chris dug the holes for the posts over Easter, but rainwater froze in them so they had to be drained before the concrete could be poured. We’ve trained fragrant pink and cream climbing roses such as ‘Félicité Perpétue’, ‘New Dawn’ and ‘Madame Alfred Carrière’ along the rope. Beyond stands a beautiful Cornus controversa tree, framed by one of a series of green oak arches that separate the new garden from the field.
PLANTING INSPIRATION
My priority when buying plants is hardiness because of the cold winds here and wet soil in winter. Then I look for colour and form in equal measure – I like soft pinks, purples and blues and dislike yellows. Until six years ago I did most of the garden maintenance, but then I injured my back and can now only do light work such as deadheading and growing seeds. But I couldn’t imagine living without a garden. Even when I’m not well enough to work among the plants I still get great joy from being outside. I’m always thinking of new projects or improvements I could make… much to Chris’s dismay!
Claire and Chris Farthing’s garden at Bay Tree House opens on 21 May (10am-5pm) in aid of the National Gardens Scheme. Find out more at ngs.org.uk