Visits to Members' Gardens   Tuesday 6^th July 

Report by Sue Lord 

On a pleasantly warm afternoon 30 or so members ventured into the Mallerstang valley to visit 5 members' gardens.

Our first stop was Southwaite Farm, the home of Mary and Mike Langley, which on first view is a typical Cumbrian stone farmhouse with roses around the front door and backed by large mature trees.  The garden goes all around the house and most of us embarked on a circular tour to discover several separate and different areas.

The front garden has a sloping lawn bordered with Lavender, cranes bill geraniums and sedums and this leads through a small wooden gate into a sunken garden which has a sheltered eating area making the most of a  wonderful view down the valley. All around is a profusion of colour, roses, including the lovely Rosa Munda, various shrubs, achilla molis, white astrantia, hostas, lupins and the tall yellow flowers of Phlonius Russell Iana. A typical cottage garden enhanced with a sprinkling of pots of cosmos.

Next to this and still on the front of the house, is the very neat vegetable garden. Manageable raised beds divided with paths of gravel, were bursting with onions, dwarf and broad beans, courgettes, carrots, salad and herbs, which were interspersed with nasturtiums. Not an inch to spare and pots of lilies to attract the insects.  Moving on we found a gravel garden, with grasses, alliums, potentilla and designed cleverly for easy maintenance.

The path leads you around the back of the house where the fields meet the garden and we found an interesting and natural bed featuring standing stones with foxgloves and valerian and the mature trees.  Further round was a small raised garden, which originally appeared to lead to an old barn and a feature had been made of the old solid door surrounded by rambling pink roses. A very pretty and unexpected corner.

Returning towards the front of the house we reached a wild area with a beck running through, although it was totally dry despite being shaded by large mature trees.  Allowed to “do its own thing”, ferns, iris and wild flowers abound creating a perfect habitat for wildlife.

Mary told me that they have been at the farm since 2001 and although the basic design remains, walls have replaced many of the fences.  Most of the plants have been changed and new ones planted. She wanted to create a natural feel to the garden and for it flow without being regimented. Personally I think she has achieved exactly that, a beautiful peaceful and colourful garden, which sits comfortably in its natural surroundings. 

Next we moved to The Gate House at Toll Bar, the home of Pauline and Glynn Dennison.  Much smaller than the previous garden, the house is on the roadside and has a parking bay surrounded by a raised bed made from railway sleepers and again having a natural planting scheme.  The welcoming front door had an unusual hanging “basket”, made of three aluminium plant pots suspended one below the other and containing very pretty mauve pansies.

Moving around the back, the house originally had no garden at all, but they managed to buy some of the adjoining farmland to create the current garden. Mainly given over to lawn, it has three large beds, crammed full of perennials mainly in shades of pink and mauve interspersed with yellow. Lupins, foxgloves, catmint,astrantia and achillia molis.

Around a sheltered corner, which catches the sun is a pretty seating area with a lovely overall view of the garden and in one corner is a wooden  and well organised greenhouse, which had some healthy tomato plants in pots. One variety, which was full of tiny flowers was “Sweet Pea Currant”, a pea sized cherry tomato variety. Around two sides of the greenhouse are raised beds of soft fruit bushes and vegetables including a pyramid of sweet peas. A good crop of home grown food in a relatively small area demonstrated that we could all grow and enjoy our own without too much space.

Approaching the home of Sue and Rob Bradley, the first thing you see is an “Andy Goldsworthy Beehive”. A lovely and unusual natural stone feature.  The garden is divided into two by the gravel drive and dropping down a few shallow steps towards the house we found an attractive rockery, which could be viewed well from the house. On either side of the path it was filled with an array of rockery plants in pinks, mauves and evergreen dwarf shrubs and hiding a statue of a small boy peeping out from the plants.

The main garden is bordered by another of the becks which are frequent along the sides of the valley, again it was dry and very different from the winter that it overflowed and flooded parts of the house. Since then, Rob has done a lot of work in an attempt to divert the water away from the house, to ensure it doesn’t happen again.

Across the drive the raised beds were divided by lawn and full of cottage plants, some of which we hadn’t seen before.  A tall specimen of lemon scabious, bright orange maltese cross, ornamental thistles, nicotiana in several shades of pink and an Elderflower Niger which are all backed and framed by a large sycamore tree. To the side of this tree and along side the beck, a decking terrace has been made to make an attractive seating area and to level a difficult slope.

The greenhouse held tomatoes, courgettes and basil and a good use of space was made of cold frames full of cuttings in pots. Sue had put out photo albums of the garden at various stages of its development for us to view and this showed how we all need to be patient and flexible gardening in such harsh conditions but the work is worthwhile.

Moving on, we travelled over the border, ‘just’ into Yorkshire to the home of Caroline & Ian Woolstenholmes, White Birch Cottage.  Caroline and Ian have lived there for 6 years and at 1200 feet this must be the most challenging of garden environments. It is situated on a very steep slope at least a 45 degree angle and was a rocky field when they took over.

The gardens main feature is yet another lovely natural stream which runs through the centre. This is also the source of their domestic water supply, which is directed through several pipes and filters from the top of the hill and eventually into the house.  Despite the current drought, unlike the previous ones, this stream was still running and in the time they have lived there, Carol said they have never been without water.

Forming a garden has clearly been a very physical challenge and three circular stone patios have been created. One at the top with a spectacular 360 degree view, one half way, which has a lovely wooden octagonal summerhouse, and a delightful seating area and the third one near the bottom.  The land has several mature trees, which soften the landscape and a serpentine path created out of pieces of railway sleeper led us from one stopping off place to the next.  Pots of various plants were strategically placed and some borders in the shelter of the walls were getting established. This was a very different and natural garden, clearly not for the faint hearted.  I think most of us were full of admiration for the way that Caroline and Ian have tackled a very difficult terrain and are winning the battle to make a most enjoyable garden. Unfortunately as we left Yorkshire and travelled back down the valley it started to rain.

Arriving at a delightful hamlet of 5 houses, we visited our fifth and final destination of the afternoon, Shoregill House, the home of Gordon Hutton.  Originally the hamlet’s farm house, in 1980 it had only a field and two trees to the front door with hens and old farm implements in the ‘garden’ at the front of the house. Today, entering through the gate, the front garden is welcoming, with neat lawns, borders, colourfully planted stone troughs and a seat.

Moving around the side and into to rear garden we found a beautiful open space with mature trees and borders and large ornamental pots of colourful annuals.  Despite the rain we huddled under umbrellas and Gordon gave us a brief history of the gardens development during his time there. The barn at the back of the house had been converted and incorporated into the main house, so well, that it all looked original.  After 9 years he had purchased more farmland and some track to extend the garden.  Fifteen years on it is impossible to see where the original part ended and the new begins.

There are many mature and attractive specimen trees and they help to give the garden some protection from the strong winds and freezing temperatures which are a feature of the valley particularly in the winter. There is a spring garden close to the house, then several different beds and areas around a large close cut lawn some with Rhododendrons and shrubs.  A striking feature is a bed of low growing acers of mixed colours interspersed with geraniums.  Down the left hand side was a large bed of cottage plants cleverly constructed with a path through the middle, not readily visible, but placed to enable the gardener to maintain the planting at the back without treading down the soil. Again we saw the tall yellow scabious, enormous lush hostas and the very unusual Centourea Machro Conflea, which was showing the rust coloured buds before flowering.

Gordon proved to be the perfect host and we were most grateful to be invited out of the rain and into the house for a welcome cup of tea and scrumptious cakes, tray bakes and scones with jam and clotted cream.