THE first thing you notice about Penny Spink’s garden at Midsummer House is its ebullience. As do many of the best gardens, it reflects the character of its owner and celebrates plants in a joyous, artistic manner. It also demonstrates the enjoyment that can come from the centuriesold tradition of naming plants after people. As you walk around, Mrs Spink will point and remark: ‘Look at “Phyllis Bide” next to Princess Margareta of Denmark, she’s pretty but very prickly… I love “Corning”, she’s so delicate’ and other such asides. The second thing you notice is how immediately the garden wraps around the house like a secure embrace.
But Midsummer House is not only about plants. It has a stupendous view. It is great good fortune to create a garden with a view to one of England’s most famous sights; to be able to create two gardens with that view is a blessing. In the 1970s, Mrs Spink and her late husband, the distinguished and much loved art dealer Anthony, bought the Mill House in the tiny village of Woolstone, which nestles beneath the rolling chalk upland of White Horse Hill. They created the garden of their new home around the view up to the magical, prehistoric figure of the Uffington White Horse, etched into the chalk some 3,000 years ago, a vision captured memorably by the artist Eric Ravilious, whom Anthony so admired.
Denne historien er fra April 10, 2024-utgaven av Country Life UK.
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Denne historien er fra April 10, 2024-utgaven av Country Life UK.
Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.
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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
