The white-themed garden

A white theme represents a different approach for award-winning gardener Marion Powell, making her Usk plot an especially calm space, says Sue Bradley

- Sue Bradley

MARION Powell has welcomed hundreds of people into her garden in Usk, Monmouthshire, over the years, including HM The Queen Consort, while Alan Titchmarsh described it as “a little land of wonder.”

Best Front Garden 

Wales in Bloom judges were so enamoured by her plot that they awarded her a ‘Best Front Garden’ accolade in 2014, admiring her multicoloured planting scheme that complemented the structural backbone created by mature trees and evergreens sculpted into a variety of shapes. And earlier the previous year, Marion’s creativity had earned her a feature in AG’s ‘Get the Look’ feature.

Something peaceful and calm 

After so much excitement it’s not surprising that Marion craved a period of calm – something that’s now reflected in her choice of white-themed planting, starting in her front garden in 2016 and continuing around the back of her home during the Covid lockdown of 2020.

“I got to the stage where I had really gone off having so much colour,” explains Marion, who has opened for the National Gardens Scheme and Usk Open Gardens. “I wanted something peaceful and calm.