Garden with beauty in abundance
Its borders burgeoning with old-fashioned flowers, Highfield Cottage garden harks back to a gentler time
On a Worcestershire hilltop, sheep graze while the golden haze of oilseed rape shimmers in the warm sunshine of early summer. A winding lane weaves through a haphazard patchwork of fields and ancient hedgerows. Just visible from it are cascades of roses encircling a half-acre cottage garden, where thriving borders create a living embroidery of colour. Highfield Cottage lies between the hamlets of King’s Green, Wichenford and Martley. At the mercy of scavenging south-westerly winds and bitingly cold easterlies, it is surrounded by a dense windbreak of trees and hedges. Both the shelterbelt and picket gates are vital to secure the boundaries. They keep out straying farm animals, as well as the occasional muntjac deer. Inside the hedges’ protective cocoon, the plot is a true English cottage garden. An abundance of roses bloom here, against a backdrop of birdsong and softly buzzing bees. They scramble over trellis, sheds and rustic arches framing views of billowing borders filled with fragrant flowers. It is 40 years since Valerie Mills, her late husband David and two young daughters moved to the 1830s semi-detached cottage. The plot was open to the surrounding fields and had become completely overgrown. While awaiting approval for a grant to install running water to the cottage, the family started work on the garden. The first step was to build fences, and plant trees and hedges on the boundaries. “To begin with, neither David nor I knew much about gardening, but we learned as we went along,” says Val.
The original soil is very heavy clay, but it has been greatly improved by decades of farmyard manure and homemade compost. “Now when visitors see the lovely black soil, they say how lucky I am,” says Val. “But not far beneath the surface lies solid clay, which is why roses grow so well here.” The pace of life seems to slow at the lifting of the latch on the garden gate, harking back to a bygone era. “There’s a nostalgic feel about cottage gardens which I love,” says Val. “This is especially so in early summer when the plants are coming to life, and getting ready to peak in June. Every morning, I draw back the curtains, and look out on my garden. There is hardly a day that I don’t venture out.” Gardens like this, with beautifully balanced and coordinated planting, evolve gradually. Initially the couple laid much of the plot to lawn, and dug a wildlife pond. “In the early days, David had a passion for heathers and dwarf conifers. Over the ensuing years, these grew huge and have now mostly been removed,” says Val. David also loved delphiniums and, as the borders evolved, he grew more and more. Finally, following retirement in the late 1990s, Val was able to spend more time in the garden. It was during this time that she developed the cottage-style planting throughout the plot. “David loved his lawns but, bit by bit, as the borders grew larger, the lawns shrank,” she recalls. At the same time, the garden was divided into different areas. This was more by chance than design as David, a builder, built more wooden, rustic-style arches. “I love arches to train climbers over,” says Val. “They not only add a totally new dimension, but also an arch leads through to another area.”
A froth of plants
The garden gate opens onto the back terrace outside the cottage. Here, trained over an arch, ‘Albertine’ roses mingle with clematis ‘Etoile Violette’. As the gate brushes against the roses, a strong sweet scent is released. A stone path meanders through foxgloves, campanula, penstemon, lavender and astrantia. It eventually arrives at the front door. Trained along the boundary wall are clematis ‘Princess Diana’ and rose ‘Times Past’. Nearby, a table and chair are flanked by pots filled with tumbling stems of white bacopa and fuchsia. A salvaged
chimney pot is planted with fuchsia ‘Tom West’. This is set against a rising border of delphinium, hardy geranium, catmint, thalictrum and, at the top, the rich red rose ‘William Shakespeare’. This English variety has a strong old rose fragrance that is at its most intense on balmy summer evenings. The rising border flanks steps that lead up from the terrace to a rustic arch and gate. This opens onto the main borders. From there, a wide grassy path creates a calming foil between overflowing borders. It leads under a second arch and onward into woodland, before curving back up the opposite side of the garden. Finally it progresses through a kitchen garden and gravel garden, before returning to the gate. The broadest, almost south-facing main border creates a perfect setting for traditional cottage plants. Individually these do not have strong scents, but grouped together, there is a soft blend of mown grass with floral sweetness. These include roses, clematis, hardy geraniums, lupins, foxgloves and aconites. There is also catmint, astrantias, scabious, phlox and bellflowers. The delphiniums line up, tall and magnificent. “They are absolutely majestic and simply take your breath away,” says Val. Around their tall blue spikes, other colours flow seamlessly in every direction. The main border is largely creams, pinks, white, blues and purples. In summer the only yellow flowers are Welsh poppies, which Val describes as having a mind of their own. As the flowers start to appear in spring, she places plant supports in the borders. These are made by bending galvanised wire pig netting into circles to place around clumps of perennials just as the leaves are breaking. “It was David’s idea. At first, it looks ugly, but plants soon grow through the netting. By mid spring, you can’t see it at all,” she says.
Favourite flowers
Over the years, she has discovered which perennials perform best, establishing different varieties. Campanulas, with their pretty bell-shaped flowers in white or blue, have become a favourite. “They seem to grow anywhere without fuss. It doesn’t matter whether they’re in the main borders, or in the bottom beds, which don’t get as much sun. I split them most years, and they clump up very quickly.” Campanula persicifolia, C. latifolia and C. latiflora all prosper. There is also C. lactiflora, the milky bellflower, with its tall bushy stems of small blue flowers. “We first saw it backing a whole border at Bodnant Gardens in Wales. It was a wonderful sight,” Val recalls. “We bought just one plant, from which all the others originate.” Pink prairie mallow, sidalcea, is also much loved. She first saw it in Wales, running wild round a tiny riverside cottage. “It spreads all over the place here, but I love the spontaneity of self-spreading plants,” she says. Other prolific self-seeders include Verbena bonariensis, Welsh poppies and aquilegias. “We started out with a few different aquilegia colours, but after a bit, the old-fashioned
purple varieties just appeared. They must have been lying dormant in the soil,” she adds. Another useful plant that seeds itself around is feverfew, Tanacetum parthenium. “It is a good blender, binding different colours and textures together.”
Cutting and sharing
The main borders end at an arch smothered in the rambling pink rose ‘Belvedere’. This is a vigorous rambler with trusses of tiny cupped soft-pink flowers that have a subtle, pleasing fragrance. Val grows many plants from cuttings, not only taken from her own garden, but also from those belonging to friends. “That’s how I obtained the ‘Belvedere’ rambling rose. I original planted it against the house, but it grew so quickly that it blocked the windows and I had to cut it down.” Since then it has been restricted to arches. This one leads to a shadier border where delphinium seedlings thrive alongside campanula, and feverfew. Phlox, penstemon, foxglove, prairie mallow and hardy geraniums all flourish there too. Over the years, Val has gained many beautiful specimens through exchanging plants with others. One of the first was Geranium x magnificum, a hardy geranium with pretty blue flowers. Then she established Geranium psilostemon, a rampant perennial with shocking-pink flowers. It clambers over other plants, seeding everywhere. The most recent acquisition is geranium ‘Rozanne’, which flowers all summer long. “Hardy geraniums are the glue that holds a border together,” she says.
Woodland and vegetables
From the shadier border, the path continues to a small woodland. Planted mostly with birch, it has pens for ornamental pheasants bred by David. Nearby, Val grows hazel. “It’s perfect as it grows so quickly. I cut hazel sticks to use as plant supports,” she says. From the woodland, a path leads under another arch, this time covered in two clematis, ‘Rouge Cardinal’ and ‘Lasurstern’. It arrives at a recently created small kitchen garden. “David used to grow all the vegetables, but now I’m experimenting for myself,” she says. Unfortunately, the lower area is proving too shady for anything other than carrots and raspberries. Instead Val is planning another bed nearer the shed for beans and potatoes.
Blossoming climbers
The path continues back in the direction of the cottage. It passes beneath another arch bearing rose ‘Belvedere’ interlaced with the deep purple clematis ‘Etoile Violette’. “Apart from viticellas,
clematis didn’t do that well here, until I began feeding them with a lot more compost,” says Val. This arch frames a view of the cottage, seen above a high trellis covered in the pink rambling rose ‘Dorothy Perkins’. The grassy path gives way to gravel. Meandering on, it weaves between clumps of Jacob’s ladder with its bell-shaped blue flowers, leucanthemum, alchemilla, hydrangea, fuchsia and hardy geraniums. Bordering the southern side is a timber shed. This creates a backdrop for a collection of old garden implements and vintage items. These include a rusty plough, a tennis court line marker, and an old lawn roller. “Salvaged items have a charm that fits in well with old-fashioned flowers. My daughter, Sheryl, has brought me watering cans, chimney pots and old tins that I’ve planted up,” adds Val. The shed is almost swamped by the rambling rose ‘Dorothy Perkins’. This also travels along the trellis separating the garden from the driveway. Running below the trellis is a gravel path, partly veiled in high summer by sprays of hardy geranium, Jacob’s ladder, veronica and scabious. “I’ve been asked how I planned the paths, but the answer is that I didn’t,” explains Val. “It’s just how it’s evolved. Things happened naturally.”
Keeping it flourishing
It would be easy to underestimate the time spent maintaining this natural-looking garden. “I’ve always got a pair of secateurs in my pocket,” says Val. “Every plant needs to be pruned or cut back at a different time, so it’s a never-ending task.” Homemade compost is key, especially for the hugely tall delphiniums. The only time Val uses slug pellets is in spring to protect these stately plants. She puts a small ring round the crown of each delphinium just as the foliage is peeping through. “Then I cover the pellets with an upturned flower pot for several weeks. This is long enough to keep birds at bay, while enabling the foliage to take hold. Once each delphinium is a few inches high, the slugs seem to lose interest.” A particular pleasure lies in the endless stream of beautiful plants to experiment with. Recently she bought some irises. “I hadn’t planned where to put them,” she admits. “It’s the wrong way round to garden. You should find the place, and then choose a suitable plant. I’m not sure it’s a good example to set my granddaughter, Clarrie, now that she’s studying horticulture.” It is a huge source of pride to Val that her love of gardening has passed first to her daughter, Dawn, and then to Clarrie. “A garden is an endless joy that never stops growing and evolving. Even though this garden peaks in midsummer, it never sleeps. I do some gardening job or other nearly every day. Next to my family, the garden is my life and takes up most of my time.”