A Year in the English Garden 2019 - Sample

WHAT TO DO EVERY MONTH: HOW TO CREATE YOUR DREAM GARDEN

A YEAR IN

2019

EDITION

Beautiful gardens l Practical advice l Exquisite plants

£6.99

WELCOME

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IMAGES ANNIE GREEN-ARMYTAGE; MATTHEW BRUCE; SHUTTERSTOCK COVER IMAGES ANNIE GREEN-ARMYTAGE; ABIGAIL REX

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elcome to the third edition of our annual, A Year in the English Garden. We start the year in a garden carpeted with snowdrops and crocuses, The Old Rectory in Kent, then visit beautiful gardens that showcase such delights as hellebores and daffodils, among other spring bulbs. Painterly tulips follow at Furzelea in Essex, with early summer blooms, including roses and lavender, taking over at Knowle Hill Farm.

Summer heats up – as do the colours – at Tudor Lodgings and The Salutation, before gardens mellow and the subtle tones of autumn prevail at Oakley House and Hall Farm. By December, at Drummond Castle, winter’s crisp outlines have returned.

Along with this selection of the finest gardens for every season, we round up the very best plants to add interest to your garden all year round, plus a handy monthby-month checklist of jobs to do.

We hope this helps you make the most of the entire gardening year.

CLARE FOGGETT, EDITOR

113 Contents 6 January A flood of crocuses, snowdrops and aconites lights up The Old Rectory; classic white winter blooms; plan your vegetable plot.

16 February Gloucestershire’s Trench Hill is at an early spring peak with hellebores; bright delicate bulbs; winter prune your wisteria.

27 March Magnolias, bulbs and relaxed planting at Feeringbury Manor in Essex; colourful flowers for March; plant bareroot roses.

36 April Colour co-ordinated Furzelea in Essex; April flower power; plant a strawberry bed.

49 May The intimate plantsman’s paradise belonging to West Dean’s head gardeners in Sussex; the frothy delights of May; harden off plants.

60 June Time-honed planting with spectacular views at Knowle Hill Farm in Kent; the sensory joys of June; plant up summer pots.

70 July Ancient earthworks and abstract art combine at Tudor Lodgings in Norfolk; hot summer shades; do the Hampton Hack.

80 August A reincarnated garden at The Salutation in Kent; late-summer colour; sow seasonal salad.

92 September The spectacular structured garden at 1920s Oakley House in Surrey; subtle, pastel, autumn blooms; treat vine weevil.

102 October The richly coloured landscape of Lincolnshire’s Hall Farm; autumn shrubs, bulbs and perennials; plant a mini orchard.

113 November National Garden Scheme stalwart, Ramster in Surrey; fruits, berries and dazzling nerines; tidy the vegetable plot.

122 December The stark beauty of frost-iced Drummond Castle Gardens; plants for winter scent; make a seasonal arrangement.

A YEAR IN THE ENGLISH GARDEN 3

THE OLD RECTORY

Magic CARPET Christopher and Karin Proudfoot have transformed a neglected garden in Kent into a spectacular space that lights up the winter gloom with a flood of aconites, crocuses and special snowdrops WORDS & PHOTOGRAPHS NICOLA STOCKEN

Avril Cole-Jones dips into a wide palette of tulips in colour co-ordinated shades to create wonderful spring displays at Furzelea.

Colour Me BEAUTIF BEAUTIFUL At Furzelea in Essex, Avril and Roger Cole-Jones have created an immaculately maintained and perfectly colour co-ordinated spring garden WORDS CATHERINE HORWOOD PHOTOGRAPHS ABIGAIL REX

36 THE ENGLISH GARDEN APRIL 2018

HELMSLEY FW UR AZL E LL EE DA GARDEN

A YEAR IN THE ENGLISH GARDEN 37

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Top Around the pond, purple phormiums and emerging rheum leaves contribute bold foliage.

Above Avril and Roger Cole-Jones.

Right The delicately fringed petals of tulip ‘Maja’ are the colour of clotted cream.

here are parts of essex that, according to the great plantswoman Beth Chatto, have lower rainfall than Egypt. The village of Danbury may well be one of them, lying, as it does, east of Chelmsford, just a few miles from the archetypal East Anglian estuary town of Maldon.

Arriving at Furzelea on the outskirts of Danbury, home to Avril and Roger Cole-Jones for nearly 40 years, the lush planting belies this, although the tumultuous palette of tulips on display confirms there is no shortage of sunshine.

The couple bought Furzelea in 1980, having lived in the north of England before a spell in Bahrain, with no gardening opportunities for Avril there. A job transfer for Roger meant that they needed to find a home in the east of England for their young family.

Furzelea was constructed in the 1890s by the Bakers, a family of local builders, and the Cole-Joneses are only the third owners of this fine Victorian villa.

38 A YEAR IN THE ENGLISH GARDEN

“The garden had originally been looked after by three full-time gardeners,” says Avril, “but when we arrived, we had to hack a tunnel through the weeds and brambles to reach the bottom of the garden.”

South-facing with bands of heavy clay laying on stones just a few inches below, the garden slopes down to the boundary wall where now sits the restored thatched summerhouse that belonged to the Bakers and was discovered only when Avril and Roger removed the undergrowth. The garden now is about two-thirds of an acre smaller than it was when the Cole-Joneses originally bought the property: they sold two plots to the left and right of the house in the 1990s. It surrounds the house on three sides from the welcoming entrance drive, round to the left of the house and then falling away from the rear, south-facing terraces.

Avril’s passion for colour co-ordination is plain to see. While any gardener can these days pick up a collection of colour-coded bulbs, Avril has gone far beyond this stage by selecting not only the bulbs but shrubs and perennials to complement such as Tulipa ‘Doll’s Minuet’, are surrounded each different area of the garden. The success of by emerging peony foliage and early dwarf irises. these selections is immediately obvious as you turn the corner away from the driveway, passing the small These are backed by the grey-green leaves of Melianthus major, whose towering flower spikes vegetable garden and fruit frame. Two large, brickare testament to the microclimate enjoyed by the edged beds face the side of the house, contained by garden. Low-flowering plants, such immaculate box topiary and a wide, as a mauve aubrieta and lilac-blue winding, gravel path. Shrub rose foliage Above Clematis Veronica umbrosa ‘Georgia Blue’, is just bursting through in April, but this montana ‘Elizabeth’. continue the theme. is the time for the tulips to hold centre Below left The brickAvril plants some 2,500 tulips stage accessorised by the emerging edged lawns are Roger’s responsibility, and set every year, adding old favourites foliage of perennials, in particular off busy borders to a tee. and new discoveries. Pots scattered hardy geraniums. Here, a mixed palette Below right A pot of throughout the garden often of lipstick pinks and magenta tulips, carex, milium and vivid contain only a single variety, which topped up every year by new varieties, tulip ‘Eye Catcher’. are being trialled for further use, while all the borders are kept to specific colour schemes. Many of the discreet wire frames throughout the garden have been made by Roger, who sometimes offers them for sale

APRIL 2018 THE ENGLISH GARDEN 39

ON TOP OF THE WORLD

Spectacular views of the Weald of Kent are matched by the sumptuous, time-honed planting in Elizabeth and Andrew Cairns’ well-established garden WORDS HELEN YEMM PHOTOGRAPHS MARIANNE MAJERUS

KNOWLE HILL FAR M

Penstemon ‘Geoff Hamilton’, eryngium and roses complement the sculpture Hydra

by David Harber.

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