Inspired by the Dutch plantings of Piet Oudolf, Elizabeth Salvesen has replanted the walled garden with perennials and grasses to create a fine backdrop to her sculpture collection
WHEN Elizabeth Salvesen and her husband, Alastair, moved to Whitburgh House, Midlothian, in 1992, the one-acre walled garden contained little save a few shrubs, grass and a network of paths inherited from the days when fruit and vegetables were grown for the house. It was the perfect site in which to create a new garden.
It might seem counterintuitive, but there can be disadvantages to an open aspect and rich soil. In a normal year—if there is still such a thing—the rainfall at Whitburgh is only about 26in per annum. Likewise, being on a hill 750ft above sea level may allow for huge skies and wonderful long views of rolling farmland from the 19th-century house, but, when it came to the herbaceous borders in the walled garden that Mrs Salvesen and her gardener Vincent Dudley planted with tra- ditional country-garden favourites, even the shelterbelt of mature trees that form a frame around the sandstone walls offered little protection. ‘It is very exposed,’ says Mrs Salvesen. ‘Everything grew so well that, come the July winds, they blew over and we got rather bored with that.’ It was time for a rethink.
Denne historien er fra August 21, 2024-utgaven av Country Life UK.
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Denne historien er fra August 21, 2024-utgaven av Country Life UK.
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Tales as old as time
By appointing writers-in-residence to landscape locations, the National Trust is hoping to spark in us a new engagement with our ancient surroundings, finds Richard Smyth
Do the active farmer test
Farming is a profession, not a lifestyle choice’ and, therefore, the Budget is unfair
Night Thoughts by Howard Hodgkin
Charlotte Mullins comments on Moght Thoughts
SOS: save our wild salmon
Jane Wheatley examines the dire situation facing the king of fish
Into the deep
Beneath the crystal-clear, alien world of water lie the great piscean survivors of the Ice Age. The Lake District is a fish-spotter's paradise, reports John Lewis-Stempel
It's alive!
Living, burping and bubbling fermented masses of flour, yeast and water that spawn countless loaves—Emma Hughes charts the rise and rise) of sourdough starters
There's orange gold in them thar fields
A kitchen staple that is easily taken for granted, the carrot is actually an incredibly tricky customer to cultivate that could reduce a grown man to tears, says Sarah Todd
True blues
I HAVE been planting English bluebells. They grow in their millions in the beechwoods that surround us—but not in our own garden. They are, however, a protected species. The law is clear and uncompromising: ‘It is illegal to dig up bluebells or their bulbs from the wild, or to trade or sell wild bluebell bulbs and seeds.’ I have, therefore, had to buy them from a respectable bulb-merchant.
Oh so hip
Stay the hand that itches to deadhead spent roses and you can enjoy their glittering fruits instead, writes John Hoyland
A best kept secret
Oft-forgotten Rutland, England's smallest county, is a 'Notswold' haven deserving of more attention, finds Nicola Venning
