Scampston Walled Garden

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Chelsea Chop, Pensthorpe, Piet Oudolf, RHS Wisley, Scampston Walled Garden, The High Line

Scampston Walled Garden

I have long been a fan of the garden designer Piet Oudolf. Dutch born Oudolf has championed a new style of planting and landscaping known variously as ‘new European’, ‘new wave’ and ‘new naturalism’. Whatever you want to call it, it has become THE design style of the early 21st century and his ideas of large blocks of perennial planting have captured the imaginations of gardeners, designers and urban landscapers alike. Grasses such as molinias and calamagrostis and rudbeckias, echinacea and heleniums are all classic Oudolf plants. But it’s not just the visual impact of his design and planting style that have made his ideas so popular. His choice of plants, often inspired by the prairies of North America, tend to flower in later summer and autumn. Whereas many of the more traditional English cottage garden plants have given up the ghost by August, gardens planted with these late flowering perennials are just coming into their own. They also leave behind stunning seed heads and skeletons as the garden descends into winter which gave structure and interest. Another attractive feature of these perennials is that they tend to need little attention. Many benefit from the ‘Chelsea chop’ in late May and need dividing every 3 or 4 years but other than that they can be left alone. The other huge plus is that the plants are loved by pollinating insects. In many ways it is a much more sustainable approach to gardening particularly for parks and country houses which used to rely heavily on intensive and expensive bedding schemes.

Piet Oudolf’s style of planting has proved to be hugely popular with urban planners. The mass planting works particularly well on a large-scale where the dramatic effect of large blocks of colour can be seen at their best. Parks and urban areas in Germany, Sweden, the UK and America have all had the Oudolf treatment. Perhaps his most famous and inspirational project to date is the High Line in New York, a public park built on an old railway line raised above the streets of Manhattan.

Painterly planting – Piet Oudolf

There is something painterly about Oudolf’s designs. The blocks of colour created by sedums, eryngiums and eupatoriums make you feel like you’re looking at a work of art. The first Oudolf planting scheme I saw was at RHS Wisley where he had created his own take on the classic English country garden double herbaceous borders. It was an impressive sight but it was his garden at Pensthorpe Wildlife Reserve in Norfolk which really blew me away.

I’ve wanted to visit Scampston Walled Garden for some time now. Scampston is the largest example in the UK of a privately commissioned Piet Oudolf garden. In 1998 the owners decided to transform the derelict 4 acre walled garden and rather than restore it in a historical way they decided to go for something modern. It’s a brave choice to try to combine the old – a late 18th century Regency house and Lancelot ‘Capability’ Brown grounds – with something contemporary. For me it worked incredibly well and I loved the combination of old and new.

Katsura Grove

The Piet Oudolf area is contained within the walled garden. A path initially takes you around the edge of the garden. Known as Plantsman’s Walk, the high brick walls on one side and tall beech hedges on the other give the impression you’re walking into a maze. Deep borders are filled with hydrangeas, geraniums and the fabulously red wine coloured leaves of Cercis canadensis ‘Forest Pansy’ and the unusual berried Actaea alba. From here a path leads into a series of ‘rooms’ divided by more beech hedges. I particularly loved the Katsura Grove. I had heard of this mythical tree, whose leaves smell of cinder toffee, from my tutor at college but I have never come across them before. You know when you’ve been told something is fantastic and then when you experience it you wonder what all the fuss was about, well I’m please to report I wasn’t disappointed – they really do smell like toffee. Beds were planted with multi-stemmed Katsuras (Cercidiphyllum japonicum) and underplanted with Aster divaricatus. It was a beautiful combination and both plants have gone straight to the top of my ‘plants to buy for my next garden’ list. From here paths lead off into areas with more traditional style borders backed with beech hedging and planted with late summer flowering perennials and grasses. But it was the central perennial meadow which was the showstopper. Divided into quarters with a circular pool at the centre each section is planted with a rich palette of colours punctuated by swaying, tactile grasses. And it was teeming with bees, butterflies and hoverflies.

Drifts of Grass – Scampston Walled Garden

Currently one end of the garden is boarded off. The old glasshouse, in desperate need of restoration has been removed in sections to be repaired with the help of Lottery funding. It will be an impressive sight once completed looking out on to the hub of the garden. It’s a pity more thought isn’t given to construction work on tourist sites though. I remember as a child my dad complaining that wherever we went on holiday in Europe there would always be scaffolding or a crane spoiling the very view we had travelled so far to see. The Italians though had a very nifty idea. They used to – I don’t know if they still do – hang huge canvasses over the building which is being restored. The canvas would have an artist’s impression of the restored building which would hide the worst of the building work. It wasn’t perfect but vastly superior than a lot of plywood and a big blue lottery sign.

Piet Oudolf planting at Scampston Walled Garden

In contrast to the colour of the perennial meadow the adjoining area consisted of blocks of one type of grass, Molinia caerula ssp caerula ‘Poul Peterson’. It was simple, striking and hugely effective. It was impossible to walk through without stroking the grasses. There are other areas too, a small orchard and kitchen garden and the landscaped grounds which, on this occasion, we didn’t have time to see, but these really are the sideshows to the spectacular centrepiece. Designs, styles and plants come and go in gardening just as they do in fashion and interiors but I think the influence of Oudolf will be around for some time to come. If you can, try to visit one of Piet Oudolf’s gardens or parks – I don’t think you’ll be disappointed.

Tea, Cake and Someone Else’s Garden

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Country Life Magazine, Crocus, Kentchurch Court, national gardens scheme, NGS, Noel Kingsbury, Piet Oudolf, Tom Stuart-Smith, University of Sheffield Landscape Department

I love my tea; I’m quite partial to a slice of cake now and again and I have to admit I do like a nosey around other people’s gardens. Combine them all and I’m like a pig in the proverbial. So, whenever possible, I try to visit an NGS garden where I can indulge in all three and, even better, the money I spend goes to charity.

The National Gardens Scheme (NGS) started in 1927 as an idea to raise money for the Queen’s Nursing Institute. Private gardens would open for the charge of a ‘shilling a head’ and the public would get the opportunity to visit gardens that would otherwise be out of bounds. In the first year 609 gardens opened and by 1931 it was proving so popular that Country Life magazine published a guide-book to the gardens that would open. The ‘Yellow Book’ as it became known, after its colourful cover, now contains over 3700 gardens that open, raising over £2.5 million for selected charities every year.

Persicaria – a classic naturalistic plant

The joy of the NGS is the wide and varied choice of gardens on offer. There are larger gardens which are often already open to the public which donate the admission fee on these days to charity, there are gardens created by renowned garden designers, the personal gardens of these renowned garden designers, creekside cottage gardens in Cornwall, gardens famous for their snowdrops, gardens created by alpine lovers, and gardens high up in the Pennines.

We have visited a few gardens locally to us over the years. There was Meadow Cottage in the Forest of Dean which was a third of an acre and packed with beautiful plants. Kentchurch Court on the Herefordshire/Monmouthshire border has been lived in continuously for more than a thousand years by the Scudamore family and is surrounded by 25 acres of beautiful gardens and woodland. Brockhampton Cottage, the garden of Peter Clay, the co- founder of Crocus, was designed by Tom Stuart Smith the multi-gold medal winner from RHS Chelsea. Then, a couple of weekends ago, we made a trip to the garden of Noel Kingsbury in Herefordshire. Noel is a garden writer, designer and lecturer best known for his ideas on naturalistic planting approaches to garden design. He is a lecturer at the University of Sheffield in the Landscape Department which is building quite a reputation for innovative approaches to our urban spaces. Noel has also collaborated with the designer Piet Oudolf on two books. I’m a big fan of Oudolf’s planting ideas and the opportunity to visit a garden which was similar in ethos was too good to miss.

Noel Kingsbury’s Garden

So often gardens open to the public are not gardens of an individual and are managed by a team of people, the great thing about the NGS is it gives us the opportunity to experience personal gardens and the idiosyncracies in them. Noel’s garden was packed with spirit and personality. He’s obviously a keen traveller which was evident with the yurt, Balinese flags and statues dotted about the garden. There were pots and tables decorated with broken pots and china and small woven willow decorations placed throughout the herbaceous borders and meadow. The garden had a real sense of place sitting comfortably in the local landscape. Noel likes to experiment with the blending and blurring of the line between garden and nature. The more cultivated area of the top part of the garden was planted with persicarias, grasses and sanguisorba, amongst others, taking its influence from nature. Paths meandered down to two ponds and then to a meadow area where the garden and surrounding countryside seemed to merge. Teeming with bees and butterflies the garden appeared to be a haven for wildlife. There were bee hives, a small orchard, chickens and a veg growing area and it felt like a garden of someone with a strong connection to the land.

The Pavillion

I loved his ‘Pavillion’ with its green roof which is used as accommodation for B&B guests but would also make the most amazing place to write. Although, whether you’d actually get much done whilst staring out, onto the garden, is another matter. The slope below the pavillion smelt wonderful with the lavender emitting its essential oils into the muggy air. There was a particularly impressive patch of hollyhocks, towering above me, and swaying in the light breeze; they were like a plant version of his Balinese flags. Not exactly in keeping with the naturalistic planting of other parts of the garden, I liked how, although he obviously has strong ideas about design and planting, there are plants which find their way into the garden even if they don’t necessarily fit.

Hollyhocks

There was squash envy, as I compared my own pathetic plants and my two  measly squashes to his abundance of them.

Squash Envy

I love naturalistic planting but for me elements of Noel’s garden were a little too loose. I personally would like a bit more structure from trees and shrubs. However, that is the joy of visiting other people’s gardens it gives us the chance to see how others use and see the space they have in front of them.

It might be the end of August but there are still plenty of opportunities over the next couple of months to visit some fascinating gardens and of course eat lots of cake. This Sunday, for instance, blogger Victoria’s Backyard opens up her garden in London, on September 2nd Peter Clay, co-founder of Crocus will invite visitors to Brockhampton Cottage and on the same day it’s possible to visit the Pretoria Road allotments in Bristol. The NGS have a great website so it’s really easy to find a garden to visit. I’d love to hear about any NGS favourites of your own.

A Question of Taste

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Chris Beardshaw, Jekka McVicar, Piet Oudolf, RHS Chelsea Flower Show, Tom Stuart-Smith

Walking past the trade stands of any of the large flower shows this year it’s clear to see that taste, like beauty, is in the eye of the beholder and that money doesn’t necessarily buy it. How is it that crazy paving and rock gardens were once so fashionable and yet, now, are design no-nos? Why are gnomes banned from Chelsea and who thought a plastic meerkat skiing would make a great garden ornament? I am fascinated by what appeals to one person can repulse another but I am in no way setting myself up as an arbiter of taste.

Several years ago, I mentioned to a fellow student on a horticulture course I was doing, that my garden was looking like an homage to Barbara Cartland, as I had planted quite a lot of plants with pink flowers. Her reaction, as she visibly recoiled, surprised and amused me in equal measure. Apparently, the colour pink would never be seen in her garden; she didn’t ‘do’ yellow either. I later got to see her garden which was beautiful, tasteful and with no pink or yellow to be seen but I’m sure it could have been equally as lovely with some sunflowers or phlox mingling with the other plants.

What’s wrong with pink?

Gnomes are often derided, seen as the pinnacle of bad taste within a garden. First introduced to Britain in the 1860s from Germany by Sir Charles Isham. He was so enamoured with them he built a rockery in his garden at Lamport Hall in Northamptonshire and filled it with gnomes. I can feel the colour draining from the faces of many a garden designer at the thought of rockeries and gnomes. Since 1990, gnomes have been banned from the RHS Chelsea Flower Show, although in 2009, multi-award winning herb grower Jekka McVicar did sneak in her ‘lucky’ gnome, Borage.

I quite like a gnome, his cheeky, cherry little face peering from behind some foliage. I’m less keen on them en masse and even less of a fan when their paint has flaked off and they’ve been repainted using whatever leftover paints were lurking around in the back of the garage. I came home from school once to find repainted gnomes that had developed shocking dress sense, looked a little flushed and one of them appeared to have 2 black eyes. Mum, what were you thinking?

In fact, there is much from the decades of my childhood, the seventies and eighties, that wouldn’t stand the taste test now. Rockeries, conifer gardens, shrubberies and the centrifugal garden with the lawn in the centre and everything else flung out into narrow borders around the edge; it all seems so incredibly dated. Then the nineties and the era of the TV makeover garden brought with it instant gardens, coloured wood stain and the phrase ‘water feature’. One of my own bugbears is the identikit garden assembled entirely from a DIY store or garden centre. There is a street nearby, where there are 3 gardens that all look the same, with their spiky cordylines, large blue ceramic egg-shaped things and metallic planters. For me, personality and individuality are so important in a garden.

Often, it is the scale or number of items that you use in your garden that can tip something from the quirky to the tasteless. I love vintage and recycled bits and pieces. I have 2 zinc baths planted up with herbs and an enamel baking dish full of succulents but I’m well aware that I should limit these items, otherwise ‘rustic chic’ could quite easily become ‘scruffy scrapyard’. For me its plants that are the stars in my garden and everything else should enhance them not detract from them.

One of the biggest puzzles for me is the desire to adorn gardens with a variety of plastic animals. The oversize and podgy blue tit, is possibly the most disturbing creature on display at my local garden centre. There must be a demand for such products though, since a veritable menagerie is on offer.

Piet Oudolf designed garden at Pensthorpe in Norfolk

According to the Horticulture Trades Association, the garden retail market was worth £2.6 billion in 2010. Gardening has become like the fashion industry with the media telling us what plants are in, how we should be using our gardens and companies selling us the latest, must-have products. Plants used in show gardens will spring up in gardens across the country. Garden designers have the power to change our ideas about planting and the whole feel and style of our gardens. In the last decade or so, the Dutch designer, Piet Oudolf, was at the vanguard of introducing us to plants such as echinacea and heleniums and showing us how to use grasses in herbaceous borders, all of which are now considered the height of taste. This more naturalistic planting and meadows and wildflowers are the gardening zeitgeist.

Furzey Gardens, designed by Chris Beardshaw. RHS Chelsea Flower Show 2012 (photo courtesy of picselect)

More traditional plants such as rhododendrons and azaleas have fallen out of favour, so much so, that when garden designer, Chris Beardshaw, used them in his Chelsea show garden this year, he was worried the garden would prove less popular because of his retro style plants. They certainly didn’t stop him winning gold and, much as I love the fluffy, natural style of planting that has proved so popular at Chelsea in recent years, I personally found his garden a refreshing change.  So, does that mean that there will be a shift in what is considered tasteful, planting wise? Will we now want to start growing some of the plants popular 30 or 40 years ago? I’m not so sure but I’d love to see a Chelsea designer try to make conifers cool once again.

Personal taste also has the ability to change with time. I’ve noticed in recent years that I’m seeing plants that I have disliked ever since I can remember in a new light. Irises, for instance, really never did it for me at all but last year I bought the first ones for the garden with plans for more purchases. Sometimes it’s about widening your plant knowledge. I don’t like big, blousy pelargoniums but I’ve discovered the more delicately flowered scented leaf varieties, and the exquisite species, both of which I love.

So, ultimately, we all have our own likes and dislikes, what we consider tasteful, that’s what makes life interesting, after all. If every garden you ever visited looked like a Tom Stuart Smith creation you’d soon get bored and would crave something else and this means accepting all manner of personal tastes   . . . well, maybe not the plastic skiing meerkat.

My Garden School Course Review

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Capel Manor, gardening courses, My Garden School, Pensthorpe, Piet Oudolf

A beautifully designed garden - Piet Oudolf's garden at Pensthorpe in Norfolk

At the beginning of January I started a four week online course with My Garden School (see my previous post My Garden School). I chose to do Planting Design Part One with Hilary Thomas, a former head of garden design at Capel Manor. Well I’ve just finished my last assignment so I thought I’d let you know how I got on.

Each Saturday a video and course notes, along with details of that week’s assignment were available to view on the website in a section called My Classroom which you get access to once you have signed up to a course. You could log on any time during that week to view the video and read the notes and go back to them as many times as you wanted, even during the following weeks. The videos lasted about half an hour and consisted of a series of photos illustrating the themes whilst Hilary talked you through the subject.

Each week there was an assignment related to the themes of that week. For example, I had to create a planting plan inspired by Piet Oudolf and create a collage of purely evergreen plants and select a group of plants based on their special characteristics such as beautiful bark. Assignments were uploaded in the My Classroom section and then I would receive comments from Hilary on how I had done. It was also possible to chat and leave messages for fellow students.

So what was my verdict. Well I found the course interesting and informative.  The course is really aimed at someone who hasn’t really had an previous experience so I did find the course easy but there are courses available for those with more knowledge and experience. A plus is that it did highlight the mistakes I have made in my own garden. The negative is that because we don’t think we will stay in this house too much longer I probably won’t implement the necessary changes, so now I will have to look at my mistakes knowing where I’ve gone wrong. I’m not sure whether I preferred blissful ignorance! Anyway, I do feel I have a much better understanding of why structural planting is so important in a garden and  I will definitely refer back to Hilary’s notes with any future garden projects.

I thought the tutor support and comments were prompt, friendly and constructive. My previous experience of an online course with another horticulture college was completely let down by the lack of tutor involvement. So it was good to see one of the more important elements of a distance learning course working well here.

I know the word ‘assignment’ can sound quite scary but they weren’t complicated or onerous and really just required sitting down with some good gardening books and/or the internet and selecting plants that fitted the requested criteria. Possibly the most time consuming aspect was finding suitable photographs to create the collages.

I found you do need a certain degree of computer literacy, being able to create a digital collage. I just used the photo package on my computer and once Wellyman had shown me what to do I was fine. You do also need access to a scanner for elements of this particular course. Fortunately, Wellyman could use a scanner at work.

Now the crunch question – did I think the course was value for money?  The courses cost £120 for the 4 weeks. I personally would have liked another week or two for that price but if you have nowhere locally that offers gardening courses or you have limited time available then they may well be what you’re looking for. If you do have access to a local college or you want something more in depth or with some practical experience then it probably isn’t the best value. For instance, my local college is offering a 15 week garden design course for £67. Although this course is for 2 hours every week during the day so might not be convenient for a lot of people. There is also the added value of the calibre of tutors the college offers, such as Hilary Thomas and John Brookes.

Ultimately My Garden School is offering a level of convenience that most colleges can’t offer, as well as tutors that are respected in their field, that most of us wouldn’t ordinarily be able to get access to.

I would just like to thank Hilary and Elspeth for their time.

For more information go to www.my-garden-school.com

My Dream Garden

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hazel coppice, Holt Farm Organic Garden, my dream garden, Pensthorpe, Piet Oudolf, walled garden, wildflowers

When I have a moment, when I’m on a bus or in the car or trying to get to sleep at night I’ll dream about my ultimate garden. I hope this doesn’t sound annoying to those of you who don’t have a garden. For 8 years we moved around living in rented houses. We’d clocked up 7 moves in those 8 years when we finally settled in one place. So now that I do have my own space I know I’m very lucky. Its just this gardening thing … well its addictive. The more I read the more I want to grow. The more gardens I visit, the more ideas I get that won’t fit into my small back garden. So when I have a moment to spare I conjure up images of my dream garden.

I love the old bricks of this walled garden at Kentchurch near Hereford

My dream garden would have a walled section to it. After a year on my windswept allotment I’ve discovered how important shelter is for plants. I’ve always been drawn to walled gardens. I love the seclusion, like you’re cut off from the world outside and the beneficial microclimate that is created would be a dream. To be able to grow fruit trees trained against the walls. I could grow my favourite fruit – the cherry. There would be a lovely wooden greenhouse with a brick base. The walled garden would be full of vegetables, fruit and flowers for cutting. There would be a wooden bench in a slightly shady part of the walled garden so I could sit and have a cup of tea.

I'd like a sculpture like this one

Outside the walled garden I would like to be able to have a few trees, Birch, Prunus serrula for it’s beautiful bark, Liquidambar for its amazing autumn colour, a crab apple and a small hazel coppice that would be underplanted with spring flowers. I could use the hazel in the garden.

I love this brick path at Abbey Dore Garden near Hereford

I’d like a potting shed that was big enough to have a comfy seat in it. I’d like to see if I could get some electricity in the shed from solar power, so I could have the radio on and have a cup of tea in an eco-friendly way.

Piet Oudolf's Garden at Pensthorpe in Norfolk

I love the style of design and planting that Piet Oudolf uses. Broad drifts of plants such as grasses, Sedums and Rudbeckias which create a stunning effect. I have created a bit of an homage to Piet in my own garden but on a tiny scale, so to have the space to do something bigger would be a dream.

Pond at Holt Farm near Bristol

Encouraging wildlife into the garden would be important so I’d like there to be space for a pond, with a seat nearby so I could sit and watch the damselflies and dragonflies that would hopefully take up residence. My dream garden would also include an area for wildflowers.

Meadow with bee hives at Holt Farm near Bristol

I would love to hear about your dream garden. Would you have lots of topiary, is there a particular plant you would like the space to collect, maybe you love a particular garden designer and would like a garden inspired or even designed by them? Why not write a post and then link through to it from here? Happy daydreaming.

Book Review – RHS Nature’s Gardener by Matthew Wilson

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environmentally aware, Matthew Wilson, Pensthorpe, Piet Oudolf, planting plans, RHS

I received a copy of the updated, paperback version of the RHS Nature’s Gardener – How to Garden in the 21st Century last week. The author, Matthew Wilson, has worked for the RHS, managing 2 of their gardens, at Hyde Hall and Harlow Carr. These gardens have very different climates and will suffer in different ways from future climate change. Using this experience he has written a book that shows how gardeners can minmise their impact on the environment and adapt their space to cope more successfully with the changing climate.

For me gardening is about working with nature so I was particularly interested in reading this book.

As you would expect from a RHS book this is very comprehensive, covering all the topics you would want if you were new to gardening; from working out your soil type and pH, to how to make compost and how to plant a plant properly. Where this book differs is the emphasis on conserving resources, minimising damage to the local and wider environment and ultimately gardening in a more sustainable way. I particularly liked the chapter ‘Reuse, Recycle and Sustain’. The author shows how choices are not always straight forward. For instance, quarried stone would probably be seen as a bad choice by most people. However, if it is sourced from a local quarry, so has low transport miles and the quarry provides jobs in an area where employment opportunities are small and when the stone is in place it will be hard wearing and around for a long time, in this context it compares well with other choices.

I thought the section on understanding the importance of climate, both macro and micro was very useful and will certainly make me look at my own garden in more detail.

The emphasis of this book is very much on understanding what your growing conditions are and planting plants that will thrive. Rather than adapting your conditions to the plants you want to grow. Matthew uses examples of gardens with sustainable planting at their heart such as Piet Oudolf’s Millennium Garden at Pensthorpe in Norfolk and the Dry Garden at Hyde Hall in Essex. Ultimately this new approach is good for all concerned, plants, the environment and gardeners. Who has time to spend on plants that need mollycoddling?

I loved the ideas for greening garden structures but would have liked some examples of these in small, what I call ‘normal gardens’, rather than from an RHS garden, just so the average gardener could be inspired to try something in their own garden.

The book finishes with a selection of plants grouped into different growing conditions and different growing heights. I loved the choices and if you had a new border to fill you could easily use these as the basis of your planting plan.

I think this a great book for someone new to gardening. It manages to distill a lot of the information you would get in a much bigger RHS book and combine that with being a more environmentally aware gardener. As a slightly more experienced gardener I would have liked a bit more on how I could impact less on the environment. It would have been nice if the use of plastic and finite resources such as vermiculite and perlite had been covered, their environmental impacts and what gardeners could do as alternatives. Having said that it is an interesting read, there is no doubting the author’s passion for his subject and it is good to see the RHS embracing a more modern approach to horticulture.

Thanks to Karen at Octopus Publishing.