AWASH WITH COLOUR Stunning cottage-garden planting in a coastal garden in Devon
In the height of summer, this seaside garden is brimming with the most vibrant and unexpected of flowers
Amove from a property high in the Chilterns to a cottage on the Devon coast might have resulted in the creation of a whole new style of garden, but Helen Grimes is quite clear about what kind of garden she likes, and that’s what she’s sticking to. Having spent four decades in Wendover Woods, she and her husband Roger moved to a seafront cottage in the fishing village of Beesands. ‘It couldn’t have been more different,’ says Helen. ‘In the Chilterns, we had three acres of shady garden, and as we’d lived there for so long, it took me a while to get used to being here.’
Even then, she didn’t adapt much to her new surroundings, creating not a traditional seaside garden, but instead her much-loved cottage style. ‘I always feel a bit guilty when I read that you should “go with the soil and not fight the local climate” because that’s not what I do at all,’ she says. ‘Really, with the cottage plants I grow, I should be gardening in the Cotswolds, but this is the garden I want, so that’s what I’ve got.’
The couple’s current home is an early-18th-century stone cottage that’s just 20 paces from the sea wall. The garden wraps around it and sits on several levels, which helps to add interest. There’s a raised terrace and a conservatory with views up over the sea wall to the waves beyond, and a water feature in the garden itself in the shape of ‘a winding Dartmoor stream’ lined and edged with broken slate. A pump recycles the water to make it flow and it’s a popular spot for the birds.
Irises and stream-side planting complete the natural effect, which Helen says is a massive influence on her colour choices in the
garden: ‘My mother was a passionate gardener and although you don’t think you’re taking it in at the time, I can still name many of the plants I grew when I was a child. My planting may seem haphazard in places, but I’m very particular about colour.’
One look at Helen’s garden and it’s easy to see that – especially when it’s in full summer bloom. There was a small lawn when she and Roger arrived 10 years ago but, as the beds got larger, the lawn got smaller until it was swallowed up entirely by planting. It makes maximum use of annuals, which Helen raises from seed. Sunflowers and hollyhocks tower above the front wall and ‘Lime Green’ tobacco plants (nicotiana) and Orlaya grandiflora (both among Helen’s must-haves every year) escape over it into the front bed, creating lovely cushions of flowers against the stone. Further in, there’s a jumble of cottage garden favourites – with sweet peas and Clematis ‘Wisley’ winding their way up a wooden pergola; and larkspur, white cosmos, dahlias, poppies and Verbena bonariensis all vying for space with romping nasturtiums and pockets of white alyssum.
Willow is used to support some of the more wayward plants, but often things mesh together so tightly, they begin to hold each other up. Helen has installed two pergolas in the garden to give some height, and grows annual climbers, such as the cup and saucer vine Cobaea scandens, which looks wonderfully exotic. When the sun’s shining, this is definitely the place to be.
Being so close to the seafront has, of course, brought its challenges. For instance, a storm surge several winters ago was so high, it brought a boat crashing straight through their garden wall.
‘I’ve never lived anywhere before where I’ve been so acutely aware of wind direction,’ Helen says. ‘Fortunately, we face east, so the usual south-westerlies don’t catch us, but when the sea spray does come directly onto the garden, it acts like the most potent weedkiller and can fell plants stone-dead overnight. On the plus side, there’s seldom a frost, summer days are long and the light here is wonderful.’