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22 Chatsworth No good garden remains static, and at this grand old Derbyshire estate, Tom Stuart-Smith has been enlisted to revamp the venerable Rock Garden and other key areas to keep them fresh.
32 Rose Cottage Once the hard graft of a busy summer at his nursery, Pelham Plants in East Sussex, is over, Paul Seaborne can enjoy the clouds of colour and light in the private garden he’s designed for an autumn zenith.
41 The Beeches Owner Sandy Coppen constantly comes up with new ways to improve the unimprovable at this East Sussex walled garden, which keeps the B&B’s guests well supplied with home-grown treats.
50 Doddington Place This grand Kent garden is one that has grown into itself, its confident Edwardian structure having been enhanced and refreshed over time.
58 Yewbarrow House North meets South at these inventive gardens on the Cumbrian coast, where tropical planting thrives despite the rigours of the climate, o set by one of the North West’s most tremendous views.
77 Top 10 Plants Garden designer, author and horticultural consultant Andy McIndoe waxes lyrical on one of his favourite subjects – shrubs – and reveals his ten favourites.
83 Plant Focus Easy to grow from seed and with appealingly simple daisy shapes, cosmos are an enduringly popular annual, as Plant Heritage National Collection holder Jonathan Sheppard explains.
67 The Nation’s Favourite Gardens Find out which gardens have made it onto the shortlist in this year’s competition and vote to help us select the winners.
89 Nurseries Holden Clough in the Ribble Valley is a plantsperson’s dream. Owner John Foley explains how the business constantly evolves to meet discerning customers’ needs.
95 Courses Whether you want to improve existing skills or launch a new career, September is the perfect month to take a course to set you on your chosen path.
Our guide to plants, people, gardens and events, tasks and shopping in September
IN FLOWER NOW
Technically, this wonderful crab apple isn’t ‘in flower now’ but ‘in fruit’, its branches adorned with clusters of miniature apples flushed rosy-red. Crab apples are the perfect small garden tree: they don’t get too big (‘Red Sentinel’ reaches an ultimate height of 5m) and they offer excellent
value for money by delivering more than one season of interest. In this case, that’s clouds of pretty white spring blossom that opens from pink buds, as well as its autumn fruits and leaves that turn gold before falling. If you’re looking for a small tree, this one should be a serious contender.
for four years. My job title is ‘cultural gardener’ and I try to communicate that the garden is as much a part of the art gallery as the art inside. The role is not just caring for vegetation: it’s sharing the connections between nature, gardening, art and creativity.
It’s important to o er an active community presence. The garden is open 24 hours a day, so you get lots of visitor engagement, especially with locals who visit regularly to sit or walk their dog. The first lockdown was when people started to discover the garden. You could really see the need for green space.
York Gate
Leeds
This is a fantastic small garden – just one acre – that’s run by the horticultural charity Perennial. York Gate is only 15 miles away from The Hepworth Wakefield, so it’s easy to combine a trip to visit both lovely gardens. perennial.org.uk
The Hepworth Wakefield’s cultural gardener cares for a small garden with impact, for which she’s been awarded a British Empire Medal
After graduating university, a friend and I started helping local people with cleaning and gardening. I met and helped some lovely, knowledgeable gardeners who would tell me what to do. I took on an allotment at the same time, which I found creative and rewarding. I did my RHS qualifications and then went on to train with the National Trust for Scotland.
I worked at Tresco Abbey Garden, then RHS Garden Harlow Carr, Longwood Gardens and Logan Botanic Garden before joining The Hepworth Wakefield Garden. It was exciting because there was a chance to be involved in its creation and to be its first custodian. I worked with Tom Stuart-Smith and the builders when construction started, and I’ve been here
The garden is long and thin. It’s only one acre and very flat, which makes it accessible. It’s bordered by the monolithic, pale concrete art gallery, and on the other side are Victorian red-brick mills. The garden is planted with perennials, shrubs, trees and hedges. Big trees bookend the garden for shelter, but in the centre are floating pads of herbaceous perennials that change with the seasons. There’s lots of texture and movement that complement the world-class sculpture in the garden.
I was delighted to be awarded the British Empire Medal by the King, for work that makes a big impact in a short period of time and for services to arts and the community. It recognises the decision of The Hepworth Wakefield to create a garden that’s inspiring, welcoming and beautiful, and the wonderful volunteers who help me care for it too. ● hepworthwakefield.org
She eld
This is an extraordinary example of urban planting and the UK’s largest inner-city ‘Green Street’, providing a beautiful scene of plants and flowers in She eld city centre where there was once a dual carriageway. greytogreen.org.uk
No good garden remains static, and at grand old Chatsworth in Derbyshire, Tom Stuart-Smith has been enlisted to revamp the venerable Rock Garden and other key areas to keep them fresh and enticing while respecting the thrilling Victorian design
WORDS JAMES ALEXANDER-SINCLAIR PHOTOGRAPHS CLIVE NICHOLS
The 100 Steps Glade in the Arcadia section at Chatsworth overlooks the yew maze on the former site of Paxton’s Great Conservatory.
Most of you, being gardeners, will have spent a fair bit of your time wandering around garden centres. Some of you may even have bought a few things. Now imagine having 250,000 plants delivered. 250,000 holes to be dug, 250,000 pots to be recycled, 250,000 plants to be watered and cosseted through a first winter. It’s as if the entire populations of Worcester and Preston have appeared at your door, each bearing a plant.
Lucy Wharton knows exactly what this looks like, since she (along with her team and the head gardener, Steve Porter) has been largely responsible for finding homes for that many plants over the past few years at Chatsworth House in Derbyshire. This is one of the biggest, most beautifully kept and undeniably grand houses in the country: the gardens cover 105 acres and have been in cultivation for nigh on half a millennium. The Dukes of Devonshire have called it home for 16 generations and, over that time, have encouraged architects, artists, craftspeople and, of course, gardeners.
Probably the most famous gardener to have worked at Chatsworth to date was the extraordinary Joseph Paxton. He began as a gardener under the 6th Duke of Devonshire here aged 20 in 1823 – the story goes that on his first day he climbed over the wall at 4.30am and by 9am he had explored the gardens, instructed the gardeners and met his future wife! He worked here for most of his life, designing and building glasshouses and dreaming up the extraordinary rock garden. His achievements were not limited to Chatsworth or gardening, however, since he ended up a knight of the realm, the creator of Crystal Palace, an MP, an architect and a publisher. Fast forward a couple of centuries (we are now onto the 12th Duke) and this bit of the garden found itself in need of some rejuvenation. No matter how big or how small, whether looked after by 15 gardeners or just one householder, all gardens are constantly changing. This process started with a garden that Dan Pearson made at the RHS Chelsea Flower show in 2015 which served as the starting point for the restructuring of the trout stream. This was followed by the larger task of tackling the Rock Garden: step forward the winner of many RHS Gold medals, the thoroughly good egg Tom Stuart-Smith. The rockery had become rather overgrown. The late Dowager Duchess (better known as Deborah Mitford) had planted lots of rambling roses, which, while looking spectacular in their moment, had slightly reduced the intended impact of the rockery.
Right The towering boulders in the Rock garden were all moved into position without modern machinery in an awesome feat of Victorian engineering. Below Beneath Arcadia’s trees, Tom Stuart-Smith has added great drifts of jewel-bright eupatorium, asters and persicaria.
This is one of the biggest, most beautifully kept and undeniably grand houses in the country: the gardens cover 105 acres
As Lucy explains: “The intention was for the planting to be subservient to the rocks.” Imagine a series of towering stacks of rock, obviously manmade but no less awe-inspiring. Huge boulders precariously balanced on top of each other. You should walk into the garden and be stopped dead in your tracks by the combination of awesome engineering and breathtaking planting. No modern cranes or diggers, it was built purely on ingenuity and manpower, not very different from the way Stonehenge was put together many millennia before. In addition, Tom and team have done a few things that have had enormous impact. First, they have changed two of the entrances – “they needed flow and focus,” Lucy explains – so by removing some overweening yews and putting a bit of a chicane in the path they have rejuvenated the approaches. Second, they have made a series of new stone stacks that give impact to previous underwhelming corners.
Imagine a series of towering stacks of rock, obviously manmade but no less awe-inspiring. Huge boulders precariously balanced on top of each other
