English Garden in DERBYSHIRE

English Garden

On a difficult slope in the Peak District, this tiny end-of terrace cottage garden proves that it is possible to create floral paradise with privacy, whatever size the plot

Deceptively large - an overused description of gardens (mainly by estate agents). However, in

the case of Creamery Cottage in the Derbyshire village of Parwich, it is absolutely spot on. Approaching via a steeply climbing narrow lane, it is hard to believe this end-of-terrace cottage has any garden at all. It fronts the street in the way many stone-built village houses do and it is bounded

on three sides by roads.

So, where is the cottage garden? ‘It’s all back and sides,’ says Kevin Slater, who, with his partner Mike Atkinson, fell in love with this cottage nine years ago and feel it is absolutely their home. The English garden wasn't quite as straight forward. ‘The house had already been renovated and it

was perfect for us,’ says Kevin, ‘but the cottage garden just felt ‘awkward’. It had a steep slope at the back and a large snowberry hedge that made it feel ‘pinched’ and closed in.’

Even though neither Kevin nor Mike were gardeners, with such a small L-shaped garden area to deal with, Kevin was convinced he could make a seating area and redesign the outside space.

‘Every weekend, I stood outside with my cup of tea trying to solve the problem of the slope.

Finally, I went to the library and got every book I could find on garden design’.

Those books led him to think that maybe an English garden designer could help. He trawled the

internet and found the website of David Stevens. Liking what he saw, he picked up the phone to

David - with no idea he was contacting one of the top designers in the business. ‘When the

penny dropped I ran back to the design books and realised they were mostly written by David.

And he was also the first Professor of Garden Design in the country!’

David, however, was delighted that someone had come to him because of his garden designs rather

than his fame, and payed two or three visits to Parwich to discuss the design. ‘We thought we wanted something edgy - contemporary,’ says Kevin, ‘and to be really honest, when I saw David’s design I was a bit disappointed - it looked quite simple and traditional. Yet when I looked closer at how he had dealt with the difficult spaces, and the levels in particular, I knew that we were in the

hands of a master.’

Cottage garden

From then on, Kevin and Mike left every detail of the layout and planting to David. Work began

in March 2003 and the English garden was completed within a month, on time and on budget, by

landscapersAdam Frost and his team. There was very little to keep from the original layout - just

a couple of ‘Rambling Rector’ roses - and every stone, plant, piece of paving and timber was

carefully chosen specifically for the setting. The narrow slope at the back was transformed

into three levels, the top one with a bench to catch the morning sun, for reading the papers.

Wide sleeper cottage garden steps lead down to a flagst one terrace for dining and then on to a lower rectangular lawn. The ‘L’shape English garden running around the side of the cottage has a long lawn to enhance the sense of space. Linking the two areas is a simple, unpainted wooden pergola.

The use of three dimensional garden space is garden design masterful ‘Your eye just keeps floating on from one area to another, effortlessly and without end. That’s why cottage garden feels and looks larger than it is.’ In a small space, every cottage garden design element has to work hard and the attention to detail is what singles out an ordinary garden design from something truly great. The walls within the English garden were rebuilt by Frost and his team using local stone and a method of dry-stone walling that is unique to Derbyshire. They conside red using York stone for the paving, but decided that, expense aside, it would be inapprop riate for a cottage in this part of the Peaks, so instead selected a reconstitute d paving that matches the garden walls beautifully. The reclaimed cottage garden sleeper steps were chosen because they had never been treated with

tar, so don’t have that heavy, black look - which again would have been wrong for the setting.

In terms of planting, David used the old climbing roses for height, and then built the plants up in layers beneath. The English garden has a soft colour palette of blues, whites and pinks, but with a variety of textures, foliage colours and leaf shape. ‘It’s amazing how the planting develops through the year,’ Kevin says. ‘David has thought of everything.’ Mounds of soft geraniums start low and then burst into a ‘hedge’ that screens the seating area in summer. ‘In a small garden you can’t just let everything do its own thing. There has to be a lot of control with snipping, preening and pruning, but I am beginning to like that,’ he says.

The finishing cottage garden touch was the addition of a tall sculpture by Helen Sinclair called Still

Sitting, which Kevin and Mike decided to place under the pergola. ‘She adds the contemporary

note we were looking for, and is the focal point from every angle.’

Having the English garden designed and built was a big investmentfor them, but Kevin says, without hesitation, that ‘it was simply the best thing I have ever done, and the best money I have ever spent. It was a joy from start to finish and it continues to be a joy five, six, 10 years on. We

could have done a lot of other things in the cottage garden with the money, but I doubt that anything would have given us this much pleasure.’

It is pleasure that can be shared by many, as Parwich, being a go-ahead village, now has its own website and gardens open to all.

English Cottage Garden Info:

Creamery Cottage in Parwich, Derbyshire is open as part of the Parwich Gardens Open Day on

Sunday 21 June. For more information on the event and self-catering accomodation in the village, go to the community’s website parwich.org. 

PHOTOGRAPHS JERRY HARPUR WORDS JACKIE BENNETT