n o s u g r e F h t i e K © With over 2500 taxa there’s something to see throughout the year. The front garden In May, with clematis and roses. n February 1996 we left Gardening on heavy clay Ibehind about a 1/3-acre garden of light Bagshot sand with 2 small islets of clay, soil Keith and Lorna Ferguson not dissimilar to that at the tell us how they worked the soil, and the RHS Garden at Wisley some 2 miles away, and moved to plants that now thrive in it. north west Gloucestershire, to an 1850s Victorian farmhouse n o s with 4.5 acres (fig. 1). u g r 1 e About a /2 acre of original F h t i garden lay to the front of the e K south-facing house; it had © been used as a market garden after World War II. By the time we arrived, a large area had been grassed over, but a vegetable plot, some shrub and herbaceous borders, and 60- year-old apple trees remained. The soil in this Old Garden has been cultivated over many years and is much more easily Fig. 1 Our garden is in a picturesque valley bottom immediately west of worked than that elsewhere. May Hill, at 860ft the highest point in Gloucestershire west of the River Severn. It’s half a mile up a single-track lane from the main road and our Behind the house was a 2-acre nearest neighbours are the original farming family who live across the plum, perry pear and cider lane in a modern bungalow near the farmyard. apple orchard and further 25 n acres of grazing with 7 large o s u g 150-year-old perry pear trees. r e F h We set about making a new t i e K garden of about an acre, first removing, with the aid of our © farming neighbours’ JCB, 20 old Blaisdon plum trees (the local Gloucestershire plum), many already fallen over. We applied glyphosate to an area of grass which was later ploughed to make a new vegetable plot and edged with And the front garden in September. an L-shaped 50ft x 50ft yew hedge raised from cuttings; The nettles and brambles across the lane, and got this hedge is now 8ft tall and and overgrown hazels lining planting. The second bed provides invaluable shelter the east bank of the stream (fig. 3), a little better drained (fig. 2). were cleared, and we hastily but still with some stones dug two beds on the flat land remaining, became the home above the stream to n o We double dug and s accommodate some of the u g r incorporated a lot of very e F shade plants we had brought h t i strawy manure, and heavily with us. The first was in deep, e K mulched with good leaf heavy clay, and the second © mould every autumn. This was even more of a challenge has broken down the clay as rubble and hard core had and given an excellent been dumped, presumably to improve the drainage. growing medium for Asian However, we double dug and and North American incorporated a lot of very Fig. 2 Yew hedges give invaluable woodland/shade plants. strawy manure, available in shelter to the New Garden abundance from the farm vegetable plot. Woodland/shade plants include: Polygonatum species & cvs Epimedium species & cvs Maianthemum racemosum Jeffersonia diphylla Leucojum aestivum ‘Gravetye Giant’ Vancouveria , epimediums Cardamine (Dentaria ) species Fritillaria meleagris Prosartes (syn. Disporum ) smithii Tulipa sprengeri Arisarum proboscideum Primula in variety Helleborus x hybridus & H. cyclophyllus Hosta cvs Erythronium californicum ‘White Beauty’, Tellima grandiflorum EE. ‘Pagoda’, revolutum and tuolumnense Tiarella cordifolia Trillium kurabayashii, TT. albidum, rugelii , Aruncus dioicus discolor , erectum and cuneatum Cimicifuga Convallaria cvs Galanthus cvs 26 n o s u g r e F h t i e K © Fig. 3 Shady border with Trillium kurabayashii & T. albidum , and Fritillaria meleagris . for our woodland/shade new herbaceous border in the March when it was relatively plants including our then very grass adjacent to an existing dry, and plenty of well-rotted modest collection of border but separated by one manure worked in, and here snowdrops, erythroniums, of the two concrete paths. The we planted many of the hardy trilliums and doronicums. All herbaceous plants including have flourished and been Double-dug clay enriched our good clone of Veratrum added to. The species Crocus with well-rotted manure nigrum, VV. album ‘Lorna’s we’d brought were devoured also suits many hardy Green’ and album ‘Auvergne by endless numbers of field herbaceous plants White’. The veratrums thrived mice and voles which are still including : and have been divided and are a problem. Crocus Anthemis now a feature throughout the tommasinianus escaped the Phloxes garden. rodents’ attention and has Heleniums A delight of this part of seeded itself widely in the Aconitums Gloucestershire is the wild grass and even out into the Oriental poppies daffodils ( Narcissus orchard. The two beds are cut Asters pseudonarcissus ). Some were down every autumn and Veratrums scattered in the orchard and heavily mulched with good Ligularias pasture along with clumps of leaf mould which has given an Podophyllums cultivars planted by the excellent growing medium for Arisaemas previous owners. In our first Asian and North American Clematis year we marked all the ‘wild’ woodland/shade plants which Rodgersias daffodils on our property and have thrived over the 18 Aralias replanted them in late years, Tulipa sprengeri and Alliums summer on an area of about Fritillaria seeding freely out 1/8 acre heavily shaded with into the grass. existing borders in the old native deciduous trees – ash, However, in 1996 we still garden were choked with the oak, alder and hazel – on had many of the 900 items ubiquitous Ground Elder of heavy, wet clay but with a that we had brought with us gardens of this age. It was layer of leaf mould from years to get into the ground before eventually eliminated by of leaf drop. The narcissus the summer season. We clearing and hand-digging and have multiplied and self- turned our attention back to -picking rhizomes. The new seeded freely and make a fine the Old Garden, making a border was double dug in late ‘wild daffodil meadow’ (fig. 4) 27 n o leaf mould and strawy s u g r manure. We’ve found we can e F h t grow Cardiocrinum with some i e K success and they are sheltered © from the wind by alders on the opposite farmland bank; CC. cathayanum , giganteum (cover) and cordatum have all produced flowers and we have now some dozens raised from seed and hope to get more than one or two flowering stems in a season. Chrysosplenium davidianum makes a good ground cover Fig. 4 Our ‘wild daffodil meadow’. and the cardiocrinums push n through. As the ground has o s u become more worked with g r e F leaf mould we find that h t i e trilliums flourish, as do K © astilbes, Disporum, Tellima, Tiarella, Aruncus dioicus and Cimicifuga species. Just recently Cypripedium formosanum has started to increase. We’ve found that a splendid plant for rich moisture-retentive clay is the eastern USA form of Trautvetteria carolinensis – that from eastern Asia, more Fig. 5 Rodgersia palmata , Actaea rubra and Ostrich Fern on the stream bank. common in the trade, is a n o to which we have added some miserable plant in s u g r clumps of deciduous native comparison. Candelabra e F h ferns for summer and autumn primulas self-sow and persist t i e K interest. Maintenance is and we have had seriously to © minimum, with one cutting a control the Ostrich Fern, year. The cultivated varieties Matteucia struthiopteris , which have been lined out as a seems to enjoy the wet clay. cutting border elsewhere. (Figs 5, 6 & 7) On the sloping Over the years, as we’ve stream banks we have a acquired new plants, we’ve number of spectacular species constructed two big borders of Ligularia including on ‘promontories’ into the LL . ’Zepter’ (fig. 8), vorobievii. stream and developed the japonica ‘Rising Sun’ and Fig. 6 Glaucidium palmatum – a stream banks where the soil fischeri . L. ‘Britt Marie choice woodlander. has been lightened with much Crawford’ is in one of the 28 n island beds of the New o s u g Garden and its striking purple r e F h foliage contrasts well with t i e K surrounding perennials. We have found them slug- © resistant and rabbit-proof. Rodgersia likewise, with R. pinnata ‘Crug Cardinal’ being an especially reliable flowerer. The different foliage shapes and colours of RR. pinnata, podophylla and aesculifolia provide interest throughout the summer. The North American woodland Diphylleia cymosa has made a Fig. 7 Rheum palmatum ‘Ferguson’s Red’ grows big in moist, heavy soil. splendid clump and its dark n blue berries on red pedicels of 2011. We’ve underplanted o s u g are very striking in autumn. them with snowdrops which r e F h Podophyllum peltatum is slowly delight in the heavy clay with t i e K creeping while its Asian a little modification. In an area cousins PP. hexandrum, of stream not shaded by trees © versipelle and P. v. ’Spotty we have established Iris Dotty’ have striking fruit. All pseudacorus crosses as for the Butcher’s Broom, Ruscus example var. ‘Bastardii’, ‘Roy species, have grown well but Davidson’, ‘Tiger Brother’, Iris our favourite R. aculeatus ensata cvs and here Veratrum hermaphrodite form is a californicum and some of the steady grower making some older varieties of tall astilbes, 4 x 3ft in 10 years.