‘I WANTED IT TO BE AS WILD AS I COULD MAKE IT’
And Chris Ashworth have created a new space at the other end of their garden in Blackheath, London
Carolyn Ashworth and her husband, Chris, who are in their late sixties, didn’t have to move very far; in fact, it was only to the other end of their 100ft garden in Blackheath, south-east London, where they have created a garden in a space of about 20ft x 30ft. A new wall of reclaimed bricks, which matches that of the contemporary eco house they have built there, divides the two and they planted a stand of silver birches in their former garden before they left, to screen it off lightly.
Unlike Mr Hargreaves, who is not one for sweet disorder, Carolyn wanted her garden “to be as wild as I could make it”, both in terms of the planting and encouraging wildlife to visit. She asked Catherine Clancy (catherineclancy. com), a designer who lives just down the road, to help her make a garden of generously proportioned brick and crazypaving paths winding between wide borders filled with tall perennials, such as 7ft-high rudbeckia, to seating areas.
Chris, a retired solicitor, has taken up painting and likes strong colours, so there are lots of plants with different shapes and shades for him to capture. Having made quite an investment in making sure it had decent, weed-free soil, “it is just a matter of keeping the perennials under control; there is no heavy digging,” says Carolyn.
Raised beds of quartz paddle stones from CED (cedstone.co.uk), not only add another level of planting and wall edges to sit on, but make it easier to tackle any weeding and cutting back. The Ashworths brought only a handful of plants to their new garden, including the rudbeckias, a hydrangea and a rose, all of which are thriving.
The couple have installed an irrigation system, and there is no lawn to grow wild when they are travelling, or at their house in France for two months in the summer. “I can come back and deal with it all pretty quickly,” says Carolyn. “I’m not afraid of leaving it.”