The challenging garden

Gardening against the odds hasn’t stopped Norah Dunn from creating a beautiful and wildlife-friendly space close to the Wiltshire/Hampshire border, as Sue Bradley finds out

- Sue Bradley

THERE can’t be many gardens as seemingly ill-favored as Norah Dunn’s plot on the edge of the New Forest.

Poor sandy soil impregnated with honey fungus, a frost pocket married with a high water table in winter, and rampant ground elder are just some of the horticultural horrors she has to deal with. Not to mention large numbers of deer and rabbits on her doorstep.

Yet while such challenges may have led many to throw up their trowels in horror, Norah has battled on. She has stoically counted her blessings and patiently tried different plants in her quest to create an outside space that looks beautiful and is friendly to those types of wildlife that don’t eat her roses or her vulnerable lettuces

Essentially, she’s learned to live with the things she can’t change and find clever solutions to some of the nuisances that Mother Nature has put her way – not least robust fences to keep those deer and rabbits at bay.