English country garden in Suffolk

English country garden

When we moved to our Suffolk home it had been a working farm for nearly 600 years. The two acres of the garden in England had a few hyacinths round the front lawn and grass everywhere else. Farmers don't do flowers. Today, there are flowers in profusionin our English country garden. The thatched English farmhouse, its walls pargetted and limewashed in Suffolk pink, which fades gently in the sun, is the perfect foil for a traditional English garden at its best in early summer. Roses and clematis scramble up every available tree, sweet peas and jasmine scent the air and the ancient meadow is awash with cow parsley.

Several existing elements of the English country garden in Suffolk, however, shaped the formation of the plot. Eight-foot-high native hedges, probably as old as the site itself, provide shelter from
the fields Icyond, while two streams run into the pond in front of the house, used for swimming practice by the annual arrival of ducklings. The English country garden itself is on several levels, formed not by mechanical diggers but the natural geography of the land, creating distinct areas each with its own individual character.

There was never any kind of grand plan for the English garden. Instead, the country garden has grown organically in every sense, helped by generous heaps of manure from a neighbouring
farmer. Planting schemes have always been along the lines of, "Must have that, now where can it go?" though I am becoming more disciplined. Many plants in the English garden including aquilegias, cranesbill geraniums, fennel and alchemilla arc self-seeded and left to flourish, providing useful ground cover and a beautiful assortment of colors, shapes and scents.

It has taken 20 years to learn which plants like the conditions. The sturdy, familiar ones that thrive on the tough love of healthy neglect have been repeated throughout using restricted color palettes to give a feeling of rhythm and unity. The soft grey of lavenders, common sage and lamb's ear lighten the plantings, while the deep reds and strong purple of sedums and alliums provide solidity.

Paintwork in the country garden is another linking theme. Trellis, frames and wooden seats are painted a grey-blue that looks dramatic against the pink walls of the house and sets off foliage and flowers.

The 1950s concrete around the house was replaced with gravel and soon invaded by swathes of plants: the garden path to the front door is now lined with self-seeded euphorbia and the end  wall of the house is bordered with common valerian and harebells intertwined with the perpetual sweet pea 'White Pearl'. Alliums, purple sages, catmint and lavenders create a purple and blue border garden overlooking the large pond dug out to provide clay to build the house. Waterlilies thrive in this English garden, as does a relentlessly advancing variegated reed, but marginal planting has been paddled into oblivion by the dozen or so wild ducks who visit every summer.

At the back of the house in Suffolk, a sitting area is sheltered by a scented fence of pots planted with purple 'Matucana' sweet peas with jasmine flanking the bench. Outside the back door, a pink and blue bed, where the balance of color changes through the summer, contains delphiniums, sages, penstemons and an array of aquilegias. Trellis surrounding the formal herb country cottage garden is hung with passionflowers, and the rose 'Bobby James' keeps company with 'Mme Alfred
Carriere' and clematis 'Mrs Cholmondeley'.

The ambitiously named potager is my husband Tim's kingdom, divided into 20 raised beds where he grows vegetables to admire (picking them spoils the pattern) and essentials including garlic and year-round parsley. Wigwams, with flying pennants like medieval pavilions, support borlotti and French beans, and champagne rhubarb lurks beneath forcing pots in the garden.

The real glory of the country cottage garden, however, is its one-acre meadow which is as old as the house. Early in the year cowslips dot the growing grass like tiny jewels, followed by foaming cow parsley, then a changing pattern of oxeye daisies, poppies and, occasionally, a solitary slipper orchid. Winding English country garden paths lead through the meadow to a wrought-iron arbor  framed in a semi-circular hedge of vermilion Rosa hansa. As a contrast to the rest of the English garden, I've turned the former cow byre area behind the tithe barn into a contemporary secret space. It's now graveled and enclosed with a six-foot black wooden fence, the perfect garden background for climbing roses and clematis.

In the spring, red tulips and mauve alliums glow against the far boundary in our English country garden, followed by Stipagigan tea, its golden plumes lit by the evening sun, and Verbena bonariemis. In the centre of the country garden are three giant metal cow parsley flowers made by the local blacksmith and interplanted with grey-green grasses - echoing the meadow which can
be glimpsed through a window in the fence. The English garden has seen more changes in the last two decades than in the past 400 years - but its timelessness readily complements new plantings and absorbs fresh ideas.

THE ENGLISH GARDEN

Style: A mixture of traditional, contemporary and quirky
Season of interest: April to September
Size: 2 acres
Garden owner: Widget Finn
Open: Sunday 10 June. 11am- 5pm for NGS; Monday 11 June.
6-9pm for Gedding Church.
Visitors welcome at other times by appointment. Call 01449 736358

English country garden in Suffolk


PHOTOGRAPHS MARIANNE MAJERUS WORDS BY WIDGET FINN