GARDEN TOUR
Colour is the star throughout the year in this picture-perfect labour of love garden, says Marina Jordan-Rugg
Abarrage of colour greets visitors to Val and Dave Booth’s Derbyshire Garden, which is packed with perennials flowering in every hue from June until September. “Rather than cluster a few of the same plants together to create impact, I’ve filled my garden with all the different plants I love,” says Val. “I position them according to their growing requirements, then see what might go well with what.” Sometimes rogue poppies, foxgloves and Canterbury bells pop up in the mix and Val decides whether to pluck them out or not. She had always wanted a large garden, so the half-acre plot was a big draw when they bought the house in 2003. “Wandering around the large expanse of grass, I realised it was going to take an awful lot to make it work,” she says.
Val started by cutting out a large bed from an area of worn grass and filling it with different plants. Then she created another bed as she ran out of planting space and just kept on going. “Now just a few grass paths and pockets are left!”
Statement trees including a flowering cherry and sorbus ‘Joseph Rock’ add height together with pergolas smothered with clematis ‘Sweet Scentsation’ and wisteria, but perennials are the stars of the show.
Roses are a favourite, blooming all summer long in hues from dusky purple ‘Rhapsody in Blue’ to striking orange ‘Sparkle’, candy pink ‘Gertrude Jekyll’, butter-yellow ‘Graham Thomas’ and pale pink ‘Crazy in Love’.
There are spires of purple and white foxgloves and campanulas, blue delphiniums, Russell lupins, golden lysimachia and white veronicastrum with fiery colour from lilies, alstroemeria, penstemon, poppies, sweet Williams and lychnis. Providing textural contrast are grasses woven through planting with the bobbing flat heads of ammi and achillea.
The planting cascades downwards with well-chosen shrubs, such as burgundyleaved berberis, lilac-flowered hebe, glossy-leaved pieris and golden-flowered hypericum forming the backdrop against which the herbaceous plants shine.
Frothy-flowered alchemilla, long-flowering hardy geraniums and sun-loving osteospermum camouflage the border edges.
While the herbaceous planting is Val’s domain, Dave cares for the two ponds they’ve created and the raised fruit and veg beds, where he focuses on soft fruits. “They crop so well we have plenty to give away, freeze and turn into jam,” Val says.
The garden is divided into two levels, with steps leading between an upper terraced area beside the house to the lower garden where a semi-circle of herbaceous beds surround a circular seating area. Recently they’ve relaid the paths that curve among the borders and around the ponds with larger pavers and brick edges to make them flatter and more accessible.
Although the garden peaks in summer, colour runs right through the year. “The season starts with early-rising snowdrops and hellebores with low-growing Polemonium reptans in ashady area created by an old apple tree with a good lean on it,” says Val. Yellow daylilies and pale iris follow with sweet Williams and foxgloves kickstarting the herbaceous displays. Asters, salvias, erysimum and penstemons round off the season in early autumn with fabulous leaf colour from the ornamental cherry, yellowberried sorbus and fiery cornus stems.
For the garden to thrive, feeding the soil annually is key. “Dave constructed several bins from solid concrete blocks with a wooden slatted front topped by old canvas from a haulage lorry and we get an annual delivery of horse manure, stored at the furthest point of the garden. Still we never seem to have enough compost!”
PHOTOS: NEIL HEPWORTH, SHUTTERSTOCK
