SPRING HAS SPRUNG
Millfield’s walled garden is a riot of colour
Millfield sits in a raised position on the edge of the historic village of Falkland in Fife. The Lomond Hills rise up behind the house, which is approached by a curved drive that runs through a woodland garden, where in early spring the ground is carpeted with bulbs and early-flowering shrubs.
To the rear of the house a raised terrace draws the eye up to a semi-formal garden where structure comes from the outline of box and lavender beds and a double row of pleached lime trees.
But it was not always thus: the night before Rob and Sarah Marshall and their son Aaron moved into Millfield a flash flood rushed down the Lomond Hill, across fields and through the garden towards the house.
‘Within minutes the neighbours had channelled the deluge away from the house down the side of the garden,’ explains Sarah.
Nine years later there are no signs of the resulting devastation. The house is now an elegant and practical family home while Sarah and Aaron have developed a remarkable mother/son horticultural partnership, resulting in a strikingly varied garden radiating from the house and expanding into the flooded fields.
Aaron, who has a degree in zoology and is currently studying for a BSc in horticulture and plantsmanship at the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh (RBGE), began helping in the garden with his mother as a child. ‘We work well together; we bounce ideas off each other and make a point of visiting unusual nurseries,’ he says. Much of the maintenance is done by his uncles Tom and Nat, who mow, sweep leaves and are responsible for the razor sharp edges.
Leading the way up the flight of stone steps to the raised terrace, he explains how they felt that a formal garden based on a geometric pattern of rooms was best suited to the house. ‘Having experimented with plans on tracing paper we finally settled on a cruciform design with a central and horizontal path backed by rectangular compartments.’
The wider garden is a series of connected spaces based on different vistas that unfold, creating a sense of discovery as you explore. Planting was for a long season of interest.
While Sarah, currently studying for a diploma in herbology at the RBGE, is more interested in the herbaceous side of the planting, Aaron is passionate about woodland plants.
The first step, he says, was to engage water feature specialists Splash Gordon, who transformed the emergency ditches into a burn which became t he focal point for a water garden. Edged with ribbons of deep pink primula, golden marsh marigolds and hostas the ‘cracklin’ burn’ wanders down the side of the hill through the woodland garden.
The uncles’ input is perhaps most keenly felt in the walled garden to the rear of the house where a flight of steps leads to a formal layout of copper beech and yew hedge compartments planted with herbaceous beds. Here the immaculately mown grass paths are perfectly edged and the young hedges are neatly trimmed.
Structure comes f rom a summer house, and the formal, stone-edged fountain opposite. Height comes from the pleached limes that flank the central path and the arch of malus ‘Evereste’ crab apple, chosen for its white blossom and scarlet autumn berries, that backs the horizontal path.
Late spring tulips, alliums, camassias and candelabra primula are followed by Narcissus poeticus and different perennials. The welltended beds, the result of ‘ hours of weeding until late at night’ says Aaron, are nourished with compost made in the nursery area.
Beyond the walled garden a Hazel Walk leads towards the fields. One of the hazel trees has been inoculated with truffle fungus, so in seven or eight years they will be able to harvest truffles.
Speedier results are obtained f rom the heritage apple varieties in the orchard. Adja- cent to the orchard is Annie’s Walk a Prunus walk which was a present from Sarah’s mother, Annie Hedley.
To the east a generous border – laid out with a hose pipe – sets the tone for the woodland garden. Before planting could begin the space had to be cleared and Aaron, helped by his brother Robbie, cut back dense rhododendron and laurel. Here, below the existing mature trees, he indulges his passion for shade-loving varieties such as dactylorhiza, anemones, roscoea, and podophyllum ‘Spotty Dotty’. He has also assembled a small collection of arisaema, the curious tubular cobra lilies he first spotted at the Gardening Scotland show and thought were ‘so alien’.
The formal theme is again reflected in the lower box garden, where rectangular beds enclose hellebores followed by lilies, astrantia and leucojum.
Set within the framework of a magnificent double row of Monterey cypress trees, this space forms a spectacular finale to the work of a remarkable family team. ‘My mother loves a big project,’ Aaron laughs.