The reclaimed garden

Preparation has been key for Steve and Marion Harrison as they set about tackling their Dorset garden a small section at a time

- Sue Bradley

DETERMINED gardeners Steve and Marion Harrison’s colourful garden is proof that there is life after conifers. Their hard work has enabled them to prevail over the dense, 6ft (1.8m)-high hedges that once obscured the view and sucked the life out of the soil behind their cottage in the Dorset village of Iwerne Minster. At the same time a corridor of conifers had combined with green laurel to smother many of the more interesting shrubs that lay beneath and create a foreboding dark and oppressive atmosphere.

Fortunately, Steve and Marion were more than a match for this uninspiring planting and set about clearing the site before putting their own stamp on it.

“It had been a very dark, enclosed garden before, and the lawn, the only really flat area, was full of daisies and dandelions,” says Marion.

“Our first impressions were that there was nothing of any merit in the planting here, although once we had cleared the garden we found that there were some really nice plants struggling under the conifers, along with terracing that had been put in by a previous owner to make the slope more manageable.”