THE NATURAL ENVIRONMENT
Secret gardens of Jersey We feature Jersey gardens that are in private ownership and not always accessible by the general public. In this issue, RURAL’s gardening correspondent, Gill Maccabe, was shown around the gardens of Woodlands Court in Grouville
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hirty years since moving in, and six grandchildren later, Jurat Robert Christensen and his wife, Fiona, could with justification do nothing but relax on the terrace of their Grouville home. Half a lifetime of love and toil has gone into the creation of a stunning, nearly six vergée area of hidden rooms and sweeping lawns surrounding their home, Woodlands Court in Route des Côtils, Grouville. And for the first time, last summer it was opened to the public as part of the Jersey Association for Youth and Friendship’s Open Gardens scheme.
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One of the things I really wanted to do was to have hidden bits in the garden, little spaces to entice people to walk around, so that when you come along you can’t see what’s around the corner
‘Quite frankly, it was a bit of a mess when we moved in 30 years ago,’ Jurat Christensen said. ‘The fabulous view of the castle is probably what attracted us to it most, as the house was in a bit of a state and the garden (part of which was a potato field) bore little resemblance to what it is now and was overrun with bindweed.’ The work continues. ‘It’s always a work in progress, there are always things going on, you don’t get it right first time. You always think “Oh, I wish I had got round to that”, but eventually you do get around to it. ‘One of the things I really wanted to do was to have hidden bits in the garden, little spaces to entice people to walk around, so that when you come along you can’t see what’s around the corner.’ As if on cue, we entered a gravelled clearing on the far eastern boundary of the land, an area that used to be oppressive and dark until agreement was reached with neighbours to remove a giant leylandii hedge.
