I was once given a book called Paradise out of a common field which is about Victorian garden creation in stately homes - helpful for a project I was working on at the Chatsworth at the time. Although the book’s content isn’t so relevant now, I’ve thought about it’s title a lot whilst making gardens over the eight years since reading it.
Making a paradise out of a field, or any old patch of land for that matter, is what I think gardeners are really striving towards as they plan or tend to their plot of land. Whether it’s modest or flamboyant is hardly relevant, aren’t we all just trying to create a place outside that makes our soul sing? My favourite moments at Chatsworth were when I knew the cutting garden had worked it’s magic on a someone; you’d see them visibly relax or they’d sigh or something… I’d wonder about what makes a paradise and whether that was it, just for a short moment.
The title Paradise out of a common field has come to mind a lot whilst designing the farm here at Floret, mainly because this is one vast pancake-flat field. The primary purposes of the land are for cut-flower seed production, plant trials, selection and breeding, but beyond this what we’re trying to create is a little less tangible; it’s to do with taking wide open space and making it into a place that feels nourishing / beautiful / abundant / healthy / welcoming / comforting / exciting / full of life / safe... We’re probably trying to make a paradise, but who would dare admit that when they’re just getting started!?
Everything that Floret produces has beauty and quality at its centre, but Erin has felt that the missing element has been the land itself; how it feels and functions as a whole throughout the year. When a field of annuals or dahlias is in full bloom, the place is alive with magic. This has been the essence of Floret for years and is why I fell in love with the place, but when those flowers pass what remained was a heck of a lot of empty space expanding from one side of the property to the other.
So this is what we’re trying to improve.
Since writing my last journal entry, it has been all-go on the farm, hence the need to re-connect with the larger purpose behind what we’re working towards!
I previously wrote about planting hedges out in the main field. This work has continued since then in key areas including around a young orchard in the far back corner of the farm. We’ve used many different varieties of shrubs in the field hedges because part of this project is to trial and observe. We’ll share more about specific varieties in the future, but they include various species and forms of; Viburnum, Aronia, Honeyberry, Amelanchier, Lonicera, Lilac, Philadelphus, Physocarpus, Hawthorn, Snowberry, Spiraea, Weigela, Crabapples (Crabapples everywhere) & Forsythia, among many others.
With the majority of the field hedges planted, our focus then shifted to the front of the property, around the buildings which include a combination of homes, offices, a working barn and greenhouses. Even in this area, so much open space left us with an over-riding feeling of exposure to the elements (especially wind), and to the adjacent roads, paths and farms.
I wanted to make human-scale places to be / sit / work within / walk through. First we planted up an rough sprawling lawn with trees which, in time, will include mown path walkways and an underplanting of spring bulbs. The trees, which include flowering cherries, maples and crabapples soften the view of the buildings, enclose a staff car park, and even in their immature stage have started to bring bird life to where it was previously absent.
Everything we’d planted upto this point had been deciduous, but I felt that the space needed the comforting, nest-like quality that only evergreens provide. One of my favourite parts of this job so far has been working out how to divide up space to provide for privacy, flow of movement across the site, and settings for new gardens. Most of these divisions have been achieved using evergreen hedges (Prunus lusitanica and Prunus laurocerasus ‘Schipkaensis’) which we brought in as ‘instant’ hedging blocks, rather than individual shrubs.
For the private garden, however, (which was the original farm up until last November when the hoop houses were taken down), we needed much taller plants and a combination of shapes and textures and heights. We found the most spectacular mature plants from a local nursery called Wiggins, which was set up 30 years ago by the owner Terry. Many of the plants that they sell are propagated on site - I find it incredible to think that the six 9-12ft Viburnum rhytidophyllum now planted in the garden were propagated by his team 20 years ago! He’d started to think that they’d grown too big for anyone to want, so it feels like serendipity at it’s best as they couldn’t be more perfect for us at this moment in time. I’ve always loved walking under the large leathery leaves of the Viburnum rhytidophyllum at Chatsworth, whose arching stems you duck under to get along a path, so I’m over the moon to find these fabulous plants here. We combined the Viburnum with a few very tall bamboos and two 12 year old hollies to continue the evergreen screening.
We found a magnificent 30ft Hornbeam (Crategeus betula fastigiata, now known as Betty) for a key spot in the back garden, as well as three beautiful Cercidiphyllum or Katsura trees whose leaves will smell of burnt sugar in the autumn (another favourite from Chatsworth).
We’ve been bold in choosing to bring in such huge plants; the structure and privacy they provide feel like the most important element in the project, the part we want to establish quickly. The work has been rough and noisy, involving semi-trucks filled with hedging plants and huge trees and shrubs, which have required big machinery to get them in place. It’s been fun and interesting (if not slightly nerve-wracking on occasion), but a far cry from the peaceful, private gardens and farm that we’re ultimately trying to create.
There’s a shift in gears now; it’s time to take stock of what has been completed so far, and of what we still want to achieve. I’m going back to the drawing board this week to work on the gardens which we’ll make within these new green boundaries. The first will be a cutting garden. I’m excited. I’ll keep you posted!
