The damp garden

A naturally wet garden near Salisbury has met its match in Barry and Jackie Candler, who have found ways to celebrate this moist environment, says Sue Bradley

- Sue Bradley

LOVE at first sight may seem an extreme way to describe Jackie Candler’s reaction to an exuberant giant rhubarb, but she’s adamant that it was the clincher when she was looking to buy a new home in Wiltshire.

Neither Jackie nor her husband Barry were perturbed by the thought that the presence of a Gunnera manicata indicated that they were taking on a garden that was prone to dampness, and in the years since they’ve made a virtue of the natural conditions within the rectangular plot behind their mid-1960’s detached property in Landford.

“The ground slopes slightly and we get all the rain coming off the hill, which sits on the clay cap under the soil,” Jackie explains.

“The previous owners planted a Gunnera at the bottom of the garden and I loved it when I first saw it: it’s the reason I wanted to buy the house.”

Eighteen years on, the supersized rhubarb continues to thrive and is now admired throughout the year from the safety of an attractive curved wooden boardwalk installed to improve access to the far reaches of the plot during the wet winter months.

At the same time, Barry and Jackie have introduced other measures to corral watery excesses, including French drains that feed the fish pond at the bottom of the garden, woodchip paths and moisture-loving trees, including willow and bamboo.

Different ways to solve dampness

“We put in the French drains a couple of years ago and they’ve made such a difference to the lawn, which used to be prone to puddles of water,” says Barry.