On the right track

Creating their beautiful cottage garden brimming with foaming and frothy colourful blooms has been a steady journey of discovery for Jude and Mat Jansen

Winners of best garden, Jude and Mat Jensen have curated an awe-inspiring cottage garden

Jude and Mat Jansen are used to people peering over the garden fence to admire their colourful cottage garden. They have even welcomed a few curious passers-by who have mistakenly wandered through the garden gate for a better look. For their beautiful displays of fluffy astilbe, hostas, sweet-smelling roses and purple masses of lavender, peppered with Helenium ‘Sahin’s Early Flowerer’ and phlox, are a sight to behold. In fact, their garden is so full of flowers that some spill onto the railway platform next to their home – the Grade Ii-listed former stationmaster’s house in the pretty Cumbrian village of Wetheral. For rail passengers, the Jansens’ garden is a real visual treat as they cross the railway line via a Victorian footbridge, and enjoy an elevated view of Jude and Mat’s glorious creation, including its neat terraced vegetable plots and flower beds bursting with vivid hues. Yet the garden has only really taken shape in the past eight years, since Jude retired and developed a passion for gardening and the outdoors. ‘When we bought the house, the land around it was just one continuous slope of grass and very overgrown,’ she says. ‘There were a lot of outbuildings and an old greenhouse; it all looked very neglected.’

To create some kind of focus to the large garden, Jude and Mat employed a young stonemason to demolish the outbuildings and use the reclaimed stone to turn the slope into a series of terraces for growing soft fruits and vegetables. The remaining rubble became the hardcore for a series of patios.

The next phase was to demolish a station toilet block and waiting room to the side of the house and turn it into a walled garden, using the original room layout to define the position of raised beds, a barbecue and a dining area. ‘We tried to reuse ➤

everything that was already on site,’ says Mat.

‘The main access to the house is over the railway footbridge, so everything has to be manually carried from the car to the garden. There used to be a sleeper crossing on the railway line so we could use a wheelbarrow to bring things over, but that was eventually removed for safety reasons.’

The sleeper did come in handy, though, for ferrying tonnes of shingle, used to create a gravel garden and footpaths. Jude and Mat have also incorporated leftover railway paraphernalia to create features and focal points, like an old sack barrow, window lintels, stone railway sleepers, metal signs and even a lamppost.

In recent years, the main things to be carried over the footbridge are plants – and Jude is always on the lookout for something new. ‘Once the structural elements of the garden were in place it was a case of letting the planting evolve,’ she says. ‘I come from a farming background, so I was keen to grow lots of fruit, herbs and vegetables. We have

four children and 12 grandchildren so we get through a lot! Then I joined the local gardening club and my interest in flowers and plants really took off. I help to organise club trips so I get inspiration from gardens and garden centres all over the UK and abroad – there is always something to learn and something to tempt me.’

She has filled the garden with textures, shapes and colour, planting everything from lavender, phlox, and roses, to lilies, clematis and lobelia.

‘I love hostas and have dozens which I’ve bought, or have been given to me, over the years. I have put them together in specific areas – including the patio, where they are in pots, away from the slugs.’

Succulents have also been included in the gravel garden and decorative pots around the garden walls, while the cottage garden flowers

are constantly being replenished and added to, creating a riot of colour around the front door of the stationmaster’s house.

Jude is particularly fond of ferns, which are ideal for north-east facing gardens, and cottage garden flowers, which bring summer-long colour into the beds and borders. ‘It was a huge learning curve,’ says Jude. ‘I’m still learning. In the early days I would plant things that were too big for the position and end up moving them, or I’d plant something that overpowered the plants next to it; but gradually you learn how things work together and when they will be at their best.’

The garden also includes a small orchard of pear and apple trees, and a chicken run – created and cared for by Mat. As a result, it comprises a series of ‘rooms’, each with their own character and purpose, all of them leading down to a beech hedge that divides the garden from a deep gorge down to the River Eden.

‘We love it when people waiting for trains look into the garden and enjoy the flowers,’ says Jude. ‘A garden is for sharing and we share it every day with people travelling to and from the village. We have even planted up some areas of the platform to continue the colour around the edges.

‘It’s a garden for all seasons,’ she adds, ‘but it’s at its best in high summer when the cottage garden flowers are in bloom. Then it’s an absolute picture.’

Above: Swathes of lavender point the way towards one of the original train station signs Right: The view from the railway footbridge in the Cumbrian village of Wetheral, shows the garden at the former stationmaster’s house in all its floriferous glory

Right: Various shades of green with hot spots of colour, including hostas, ferns and buddleias, create a beautiful flower border at the edge of one of the patios. The wall to the left of the picture was built with stone reclaimed from demolished outbuildingsOpposite: The path of stone railway sleepers leading up to the Victorian porch is flanked by a riot of pretty cottage garden plants, including helenium, phygelius foxgloves, salvia, and delphiniums

Left: Jude and Mat regularly clean the beautiful cast-iron footbridge, which forms a colourful frame to phlox, a rambling rose, astilbe and Helenium ‘Sahin’s Early Flowerer’ Right: Jude bought the metal wind spinner sculpture, around which is planted yellow ligularia and veronicastrum, after falling in love with something similar during a visit to the famous Butchart Gardens on Canada’s Vancouver Island

Left: Lady’s mantle, orAlchemilla mollis, flourishes in the vegetable beds, where Jude grows beans, peas, celery, asparagus, Swiss chard, cabbages and swede, as well as soft fruits and herbsBelow: An old station fire bucket is perfect for growing the late-flowering penstemon

Right: The auricula theatre was made by a friend and filled with pots full of young plants inspired by the largest of the group – which was a gift from a friend. This is a traditional way of displaying auricular plants as the cover protects the dusty bloom on the leavesBelow: The thick patio walls are perfect locations for a linear display of potted plants. A container from TK Maxx is filled with heuchera and Tiarella ‘Angel Wings’

Above: The sheltered patio, once a waiting room and toilet block, is ideally sheltered for dining alfresco. The large table comfortably seats the family when they visitLeft: Hostas are a favourite of Jude’sRight: Hostas of all shapes and sizes create a little vignette nestled in a shady spot on the patio

Far left: An old stone urn stands nestled between alliums and ferns by the red stone wallLeft: The Newcastle to Carlisle railway line runs across this viaduct over the River Eden, creating a spectacular backdrop to the garden