The English Garden – September 2019

SEPTEMBER 2019 THE ENGLISH GARDEN 55

working on the house, they reduced its depth and
made it more manageable. But it was a puzzle: why
would anyone dig such a deep pond when there
was already a lake? The answer came when Vicky
conducted a garden tour for a private group. “I know
because I dug it,” one visitor announced. “It was
a swimming pond for the owner’s children.”
Hundreds of conifers were removed during those
first few months. “They were planted only feet apart
and most were dead or dying. We used the wood to
make gates, furniture and a pretty shack on stilts at
the side of the pond where our son and daughter-in-
law spent their wedding night,”saysVicky.
There wasn’t a masterplanforthegarden’s
development. Work beganoneachnewareaas
time permitted. Because
the garden sits in a frost
pocket and is visited by
deer, it was essential that
Vicky, a former florist,
extended her plant
knowledge. She studied
for the RHS Level 1 and
2 Practical Horticulture
qualifications as she gardened,expandingthe
garden as her knowledge grew.Perhapsasa result,
each section of the 10 acresatTheGrangehasan
atmosphere all of its own. “OneofthethingsI love
about the garden is that I feelcompletelydierentin
each part of it,” she explains.

Top A wooden bridge

leads across the lake,

now cleared of reeds

and its island planted.

Above Eupatorium

maculatum and

Nicotiana mutabilis in

the herbaceous border.

The herbaceous border was one of the first areas

to be created. The tall yew hedge, part of the ‘bones’

of the old garden provided a perfect backdrop.

“There wasn’t a flower to be seen here when we

moved in,” Vicky remembers. “We reduced the

height of the hedge by about a metre and cut gaps to

give views through to the old apple orchard behind.”

In late summer, the dark pinks of Eupatorium

maculatum, Atriplex hortensis var. rubra and

Hylotelephium ‘Thunderhead’ complement a rich

mix of salvias and clumps of Echinacea purpurea.

Layers of blue are provided by Perovskia ‘Blue Spire’

and Nepeta racemosa ‘Walker’s Low’, punctuated

by drifts of Nicotiana mutabilis.

Visitors to the garden are always amazed to see

the ‘before and after’ photographs of the lake and

stream, both of which were once clogged with

“One of the things I love

about the garden is that

I feel completely different

in each part of it”