A GLORIOUS GATHERING

Barney and Victoria Martin have filled their garden with flowers for cutting, realising a dream of working with nature and living off the land

- JACKY HOBBS

Sheltered within the brick walls at Stokesay, masses of flowers bloom into autumn, including dense spikes of white snapdragons and clusters of slender-stemmed Verbena bonariensis

Each row of flowers grown for cutting is neatly planted with one type, with stakes and mesh used to support the stems and flower heads

IN THE GARDEN WITH…

Growers Victoria and Barney Martin created Stokesay Flowers in a Victorian walled garden in Shropshire. Collie-cross Ned and four Barbu d’Uccle chickens help with the digging! Garden features One-acre, south-facing, sloping Victorian walled cut-flower garden with rich clay soil and a loose grid layout with multiple beds, central pergola, flower workshop, eco-loo and mini chicken house.

Distanced from the everyday, Stokesay Court nestles at the heart of a sprawling country estate in rural Shropshire. The ‘High Victorian’ mansion house, used as the setting for the film Atonement, is enveloped by acres of rolling pasture and fringed by mature parkland trees. Beyond, unseen from the house, on a south-facing slope, lies a perfectly pitched former Victorian kitchen garden. ‘Built in the golden age of walled gardens’, tilted to face the sun, with high walls and rich, well-worked soil, it is a dream space.