Peaceful oasis within ancient walls
Hidden behind ancient walls, a Hertfordshire garden is a sanctuary of colour, texture and movement, which peaks at the height of summer
THERE IS A singular serenity about an old walled garden: a reassurance deriving from ancient brickwork and timbers that have silently straddled the centuries, even as people, plants and plans come and go. Such gardens are very special places, with a deep sense of tranquillity, and this was what immediately struck Janet Tyndale and her partner Peter Craig when they first visited what was to become their 500-year-old medieval Wealden farmhouse, one of the oldest buildings in Stevenage today, and its third-of-an-acre walled garden.
For a millennium, Stevenage remained a thriving farming community, before changing radically in 1946 when designated as the first New Town to provide Londoners with improved housing. “Apparently, as late as the 1960s, cows were led across the street to graze in nearby meadows,” says Peter. These meadows had been built over long before the couple moved to Southend Farm in 2005. It is tucked away in a world of its own behind walls and trees that muffle extraneous sounds. “We wanted a period home with character, that feels as if it is in the country, while being close to a town centre,” explains Peter.
The garden had clearly once been loved, but was long neglected, with features engulfed in overgrown bushes and randomly placed trees. “It was without form or structure, but Janet could see its potential and was keen to have a virtually blank canvas,” he adds. The farmhouse harks back to an era when life was simpler, and Janet has captured something of this spirit in the fine garden that wraps around the timbered building, with its pathways and courtyards; benches and an arbour; containers, beds and accomplished borders that peak in the late summer.
“Janet wanted to create a garden that respected and worked in harmony with the structures, while also allowing the planting to evolve as she discovered new plants,” explains Peter. Janet’s sudden death last September leaves the garden in Peter’s hands, a role he is gradually coming to terms with. “Her death was so unexpected that she left no notes or instructions,” he explains. “But, although I do not know the name of every plant, I can recall the annual cycle of gardening that Janet undertook to keep things in balance.”
Place of tranquillity
Over the years, the garden had evolved and matured as an oasis away from the demands of Janet’s work within the charity sector. Separate areas developed steadily, always
cocooned within the dense boundary screen of hollies, horse chestnut trees, conifers and maples. “The trees create a lovely leafy backdrop, but Janet said they lapped up all the water and, especially on the southern edge of the garden, created areas of dry shade, where little would flourish,” says Peter. Nonetheless, with regular watering to help them establish, some ferns, spotted deadnettles, periwinkles and hardy geraniums have found a foothold, even in the most inhospitable corners.
Paths of cobbles and stone lead all round the west-facing farmhouse, and the first glimpse is of the winter garden flanking the entrance drive and north lawn. It is alive with clipped box balls, interspersed with feather grasses and perennials, such as perovskia, hardy geraniums and the blue spires of Salvia x sylvestris ‘Mainacht’. In the centre stands Cornus sanguinea ‘Midwinter Fire’: a leafy presence in summer that erupts into flame-coloured stems in the winter. In the shelter of the house rests a bench beside pots of hostas that separate several acid-lovers: a variegated pieris and a rhododendron, both evergreens that thrive in ericaceous soil.
Against a wall at the far end of the path stands a magnificent cloud-pruned privet, with fern fronds and blue veronica at its feet. “When we first arrived, the privet was an unruly bush, but, over the years, Janet gradually clipped it into shape,” says Peter. Opposite the privet, a gate leads round the back and up steps to a raised walled patio, where fleabane, Erigeron karvinskianus, and Verbena bonariensis seed spontaneously between the York stones. Against the wall, there is a line of six evergreen Portuguese laurel standards. “There would have been seven, but it was such back-breaking work digging out old roots that, in the end, there was only space for six,” adds Peter.
There are some charming container arrangements here, each designed for long-lasting colour and texture, while also being low maintenance. In one group of assorted terracotta pots beside a small pond, there are low-growing succulents, such as echeveria and sedum; burgundy-leaved heucheras; the Japanese blood grass, Imperata cylindrica ‘Rubra’; and Molinia caerulea arundinacea ‘Transparent’: a purple moor grass, with airy seedheads that quiver in the slightest breeze. In another, the luminous purple flowers of Verbena bonariensis tower over salvia ‘Hot Lips’, which is a particular favourite for its tiny white and pink-lipped flowers.
Perennials and grasses
From the walled courtyard, the path continues along the back wall of the farmhouse to the southern side, where the main lawn is enclosed on two sides by colour-themed
“Every moment has its pleasure and its hope”
Jane Austen, Mansfield Park
herbaceous borders. “It is a lovely soft, green space and, on a sunny afternoon, this is where we tended to gravitate to relax,” recalls Peter. Having been a farm, the soil is well-worked loam, which proved ideal for the drifts of perennials and ornamental grasses that profoundly influenced Janet during visits to the gardens of Piet Oudolf in the Netherlands and Karl Foerster in Germany.
The effect was to gradually steer Janet away from the classic cottage garden that is the obvious choice for an ancient farmhouse. “Rather than sticking rigidly to the cottage garden tradition, she was moving the planting towards a more contemporary style,” explains Peter. As a result, she was replacing her original palette of annuals, blended with different treasures obtained from small specialist nurseries, with combinations of successful perennials and grasses. At the same time, Janet was studying for an RHS Certificate of Horticulture and Diploma in Garden Design at Capel Manor College, developing her knowledge of both design and planting.
Dynamic borders
There is an art to creating beautiful borders, and Janet’s are a constant ebb and flow of textures, shapes and colours. They are carefully structured to peak in late summer, allowing time to replace any failing plants. Many end-of-season border giants need space and are shown to best advantage in deep borders that are tiered upwards from front to back, ensuring a balance of shorter plants that are not overshadowed. Exceptions include airy Verbena bonariensis and fennel, which, despite their height, can be planted near the front of a border without fear of obscuring the plants behind.
Back-of-border stalwarts include Hydrangea macrophylla, Eupatorium purpureum and Miscanthus sinensis ‘Cabaret’, dropping down in height to smaller clumps of Phlox
paniculata ‘Bright Eyes’, the Japanese anemone ‘Bressingham Glow’, salvias and hardy geraniums: invaluable filler plants that bind the planting together. For jewel-like splashes of colour, there is the Michaelmas daisy Aster x frikartii ‘Mönch’, while several bistorts inject leafy clumps with flowers that last for weeks on end, with bright red Persicaria
amplexicaulis and soft pink P. campanulata.
Running along the back of the border are the pointed evergreen leaves of a rampant Clematis armandii, which partly obscures an outbuilding in which Peter houses a collection of Belgian mechanical organs, a love sparked while hearing one played as a five-year-old. It overlooks a hot-coloured island bed, planted with goldenrod, Rudbeckia
fulgida and helianthus ‘Lemon Queen’ mixing with orange day lilies and crocosmias. At the centre are clumps of the feather reed grass Calamagrostis x acutiflora ‘Karl Foerster’. The lawn extends beyond the island bed to a metal arbour
clad in clematis; a mass of fluffy seedheads by late summer.
Janet had been adding more and more ornamental grasses, leaving them through the winter to add structure, long after most perennials have disappeared. Coming in different shades of blue, grey, buff and gold, she was discovering that there is an ornamental grass for every garden situation: sunny, shady, damp or dry. Most are tough, provided they do not become waterlogged, with taller varieties adding body and seedheads to autumn borders, while shorter species spill casually over the edges of containers or along the front facade of the farmhouse.
A straight stone and cobbled path extends along the front, lined in containers. The path links the southern lawn and hot-coloured island bed with a classical statue that is raised on a plinth, set into a niche cut from a conifer hedge on the northern side of the farmhouse and flanking a driveway. There are a number of containers, some either side of the front door; others simply softening the hard landscaping. Drought-tolerant ornamental grasses feature again; the haze of seedheads from pheasant’s tail grass, Anemanthele lessoniana, brushing the weathered cobbles, while the sedges Carex comans ‘Bronze Form’ and ‘Frosted Curls’ cascade out over the side of their pots. A formal touch is added with clipped box cones, and a sense of rhythm is injected with repeated pots of white marguerites.
This is a garden that leaves a strong impression, not only for its secluded spaces and lovely planting, but also because it resonates with the spirit of the person who lovingly created it.
“Janet always wanted to do things that made a difference to people’s lives, and we used to love opening the garden in aid of charity,” says Peter. “Sharing the garden is what we most enjoyed, and my hope is to be able to continue to do this in the future.”
“Where-e’er you tread, the blushing Flow’rs shall rise, And all things flourish where you turn your Eyes”
Alexander Pope, ‘Pastorals: Summer’