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Garden Guide
Hornbeam Tunnel, Veddw. © Charles Hawes.
"My favourite NGS gardens include the Charles Jenks 'Garden of Cosmic Speculation' and the 'yew wave' garden at Veddw House in Wales."Jane Owen in The Financial Times 22nd March 2008
"If I were a garden designer I would be a bit miffed by the fact that every list of iconic or outstanding contemporary gardens comprises special places which have, in most cases, been created by people who are not professional garden designers. Jarman, Jencks, Finlay, Strong/Oman at The Laskett and Wareham/Hawes at Veddw - all of these have been made by individuals who have come to gardens or landscape relatively late in life via other artistic disciplines or interests."
Tim Richardson in the Garden Design Journal April 2008
Most of our best-known, most-visited gardens are merely pretty, or, worse, picturesque. The efforts of gardeners such as Sara Maitland and Anne Wareham to raise our consciousness beyond merely oohing and aahing about dazzling mixed borders or crediting splashing water with promoting relaxation have so far had little effect.
When, at Veddw in Monmouthshire, Wareham replants the lines of vanished hedgerows with box and fills the enclosed spaces with grasses and hardy perennials, she is linking the land-use of the past with the aesthetic of the lordly parterre. By giving expression to contemporary sensibility about conservation, she invites intellectual engagement. Gardening can be - should be - conceptual, which is simply a way of saying that gardens should have ideas in them and the ideas should be perceptible."
Germaine Greer in The Guardian 4th June 2007
North GardensFront garden
Front Garden with genista aetnensis, clipped osmarea burkwoodii and crocosnia 'Lucifer' © Charles Hawes This is our view, every day, so really has to work all year. Originally I was in thrall to the cottage garden notion and planted things here in the traditional random mess. And regretted it. So I added the clipped box and osmanthus to give some order and peace to the eye, and began repeating some plants in pattern, for the same reason. (ligularia dentata 'Desdemona' & 'Othello', for example, one to a bed). The variegated ground elder runs freely and helps to bring the garden together. I cut it down, with the lysimachia ciliata 'Firecracker' in early summer, to keep them tidy, and to have a repeat sighting of their foliage coming up mixed.
Lysimachia ciliata 'Firecracker' and aegopodium podagraria Variegatum, Veddw. © Charles Hawes The colour in the flowering season is bright: reds, yellows, white, orange. (though I don't call it a 'hot' garden as the term for some reason irritates me)(it's become a cliché.) One of my helpful and best garden critics (Stephen Anderton) pointed out that the fence in front of the hornbeam arch detracted from the view of the arch, which was absolutely right, so the fence has been shortened to free the lines of the arch.
View through Hornbeam Tunnel, Veddw, Spring 2006. © Anne Wareham Another critic rightly said that the cherry tree had reached its sell by date. It then flowered properly for the first time in 14 years. So I have added a clematis montana to give some point to it and disguise its shortcomings, and accept that one day both may have to go. Later in the year clematis rehderiana takes the tree over. How long can the poor tree last? This is a bit of a fudge, to deal with a rather awkward corner. The viburnum plicatum 'Mariesii' is a star. We have snowdrops spreading here, which makes the weeding problematic, so often I prefer to ignore this bit. Next for reworking, I think.
campanula lactiflora and crocosmia 'Solfatare', Veddw.© Charles Hawes The backbone here was a row of philadelphus 'Belle Etoile', planted for scent and which began to look very ropey. So they have just been removed and this border now needs renaming. Watch this space... I'm still struggling with the front of this border, but I cut down the Campanula lactiflora as they come up to flower, so that they flower later and shorter, in August, with the crocosmia 'Solfaterre' and aster x frikartii 'Monch.' Then I almost seem to be winning. See above: it's great! (a picture of it even got into 'The Garden' uncredited and unexplained. Hope there weren't too many people who imitated it without having been told you need to cut the campanula down.) Grey borders are not clever in the wet west, but some things have survived to give that colour slant to this garden. The mass of rosa 'Felicia' backed by eucalyptus and buddleia x fallowiana "Lochinch" is good in summer. When the rose repeats in September I feel a bit bored and that the rose time has past. I've recently added cardoons at the front, as they are grey, I love them and they provide a relief from the old bittiness. They are becoming one of the gardens' theme plants. Behind-the-grey-border
elaeagnus angustifolia 'Caspia Group', with purple salvia.© Charles Hawes I love this bit, though no-one else does, much. It's all about purple and grey foliage. In late summer japanese anemones flower in it and add a touch of deep pink and I go to look at it a lot. Charles' domain, and getting harder and harder for him to maintain as the photography work grows. So he is growing less vegetables and more permanent plantings, so the garden becomes more ornamental and less worthy. There are standard hollies in formal beds, (the standard roses have gone: ceased to look right - rather old fashioned?) underplanted with nasturtiums, heuchera and cardoons. Loads of clematis,- including a seedling of our own - a rose border, and, opposite, an herbaceous border.
Veg plot Veddw.© Clive Nichols Cotoneasters and hollies, with rambler roses and clematis growing into them. Ends with another wild bit and a joke: buttercups, bluebells and poppies (oriental) in spring. Followed by daisies - what else? Elymus Bed Full of this best of all grey grasses. Beware - a spreader if not confined.
Leymus arenarius, Veddw .© Charles Hawes Orchard We only have one really fruitful apple tree - 'Acme'. The rest are old varieties, such as we encouraged to plant, but I wonder if they are losing their vigour? Still, one good one with a few extra apples for variety, suits us. We're thinking about removing the rest.
Meadow in summmer. Veddw. © Charles Hawes Very fashionable. In this case, original, ie, here when we came, and for 200 years beofre that. All we have done is mow this every year in August and take the cuttings off (makes great mulch elsewhere). Not as difficult as many writers suggest, though the mower doesn't like it. It is full of bulbs in spring, when it is the star part of the garden. Then, after the camassias, the grass and a scattering of wild flowers takes over. It makes an essential quiet open space in the garden. Wild flowers are nice, but not as spectacular as some of their fans would have us think: lots of them are the weeds we remove from beds and borders. The trees down the middle are corylus colurna, clipped to make small standards. One of these looks poorly - what to do if it dies!? We call the walk down the middle "Elizabeth's Walk" in memory of Elizabeth Evans, who lived here through much of the 19th century. The 1880 census says that she is an 'agricultural labourer's widow and keeps a cow' - the cow shed being the building at the far end of the house. Her mother in law lived in the cottage below (now gone) and a track is marked between the properties on one map. The name also reminds us of a favourite place in London: Queen Elizabeth Walk. I want to include the people who worked this land in the past in the garden, to remember them and to try to imagine a little of what their world was like. This gate displays some quotations about the people who lived here in the 19th century, written in the first half of the nineteenth century on one side. On the other is an extract from the Survey of the Manor of Chepstow August 15th 1687, identifying the Veddw at that time as 'Waste', which was similar to a Common.
'That population' gate, Veddw. © Charles Hawes
Coppice at Veddw. © Charles Hawes I cannot be sure how the boulders that are lying all over the far corner of this small piece of land came to be here, but my best guess is that they were removed from the fields above with the help of mules, so that the fields could be ploughed. Nearly all this land was ploughed in the early part of the 19th century, but not since. Every year this area beautifies itself, first with grasses and then with ferns. We have recently added mist. This cottage was built and inhabited sometime between 1842 and 1910. By 1910 it was definitely abandoned, and has not been lived in since. When we came we too were squatters, as this part of the land was not owned by anyone. Last year we obtained ownership and since then Charles has rebuilt it as a place to sit and a place to see the view over the garden.
Ruin - new wall, work in progress © Anne Wareham
Hosta sieboldiana var elegans and hosta 'Halcyon', Veddw.© Charles Hawes Hosta sieboldiana var 'elegans' and 'Halcyon', with symphytum 'Hidcote Blue' and nectaroscordum bulgaricum. These last are the flowers that hostas really ought to have, and hostas have the leaves that the nectaroscordum ought to have, so they suit each other nicely. I like this quiet massing, but I understand from a nearby nursery person that many people find a border without lots of different varieties boring (not half as boring as I find these obsessive plant collectors...)
Reflecting Pool, Veddw. © Charles Hawes. For reflection, and the best bit of the garden for us, since it's usually possible to sit here and not have to contemplate some neglected work. The seat is shaped to echo the Monmouthshire low, rounded hills, and the same shape is emerging in the clipped box in the Hedge Garden. (they need to grow another couple of years to complete the effect) The view is of the pool, the formal shapes of the hedge garden and then the coppice, forest trees and sky beyond - and their reflections in the pool.
Reflecting Pool seat. Veddw.© Clive Nichols Magnolia Walk and Wild Garden
Wild Garden.Veddw. © Anne Wareham Wild Garden and Headstones This is dictated by spring, when naturalised wood anemones and violets flower in the grass below the Magnolia Walk. So the white of the anemones is complemented by white daffodils, scented white viburnums and the magnolias. Of course the daffodils have a hint of lemon, which doesn't quite hit the spot with the deep pink in the viburnum and magnolia flowers, but I seem to mind less each year. We don't let people in in the spring anyway, ever since we were told they want COLOUR. They didn't mean the kind of colour I've just described, but the five million screaming tulips offered by places like the Abbey Gardens, Malmsbury. (some people also like neat and tidy, but that's another story....best not let them in until the garden fills out though.) In the summer this area has a variety of tough hardy perennials which have been planted directly into the turf, so as to disturb the naturalised wild flowers as little as possible, and also as an experiment to see if such a scheme can be aesthetic. Most people avert their eyes, but I think it's beginning to work, especially in late summer, with crocosmia and solidago (stunning combination of orange and yellow) all over the place. The headstones (see picture above) commemorate variations of local names: of a nearby settlement (The Cot), a local spring (Earl's Well) and the local river (The Angiddy). In my research of old papers I've found lots of different versions of names, some of which are now recorded in stone. Magnolia Walk In summer the feature of the magnolia walk is those magnolia flowers which finally decide to come out, and the rambler roses growing in the trees.
Rosa 'Belvedere' at Veddw.© Charles Hawes (and occaisionally blowing out of them in gales.) There is also a rampaging 'Kiftsgate' disguising/burying the garage block. My mother in law planted one of these over an arch in a small back garden. And then, a couple of years later, sold the house…….
Calamagrostis x acutiflora 'Karl Foester', Cornfield Garden.Veddw.© Charles Hawes This is a small garden which originally had cornfield weeds and corn grown in small, boxed edged formal gardens between brick paths: another reference to our landscape. I have now given up and am making a permanent planting on the same theme. (How this will please those who complain about our 'poor cultivation..- weeds were very hard to grow, being annuals, and therefore needed growing from seed each year. When it works it's super, but you can't count on it, especially with a plague of mice around.) The formality, with the hedges, handmade brick paths and sound and sight of trickling water from steel tubes, helps it over the humps. And I think the new scheme will give a long season. Shall I remove the standard hollies? (I did) In process of being made.
View towards Grasses Parterre. Veddw.© Charles Hawes Grasses Parterre I used the local Tithe Map of 1841 as the basis for a pattern of hedges in box on one slope of this valley. This created miniature fields which we've filled with ornamental grasses - in tribute to both the history of the landscape and to the present views of farmland beyond the garden. It is also, of course, a new kind of parterre - and ornamental grasses are an ideal filling for any parterre, as many of them look their best in blocks. It also has the essential virtue of being a low, flat planting, so it doesn't obscure the view over the Veddw valley.
Grasses Parterre, Veddw. © Anne Wareham
Windfall Garden. Veddw.© Charles Hawes The original funding for this garden was one of those wonderful building society windfalls. The alternative name for it is the froth garden, as the planting is intended to create a froth of flowers. Of course, as soon as it did that I realised it needed a little contrast to the froth, so I'm now growing hostas as well. The plants are roses, geraniums, heuchera and small hydrangeas. And shrubs with purple (ish) leaves.
Crescent Border.Veddw .© Anne Wareham From early summer to late autumn, when we close the conservatory and cosy up to the fire, this border is in our face. So I have worked on trying to get it to flower all season for many years. I thought I was getting there, but never felt quite satisfied. One of the visitors I asked to give me garden criticism offered that it needed contrast to the bitty leaves. (of course! How could I have missed it? ….by focusing on flowers, of course) so I'm working on that now: hence the buzzards. They are another local reference too and are frequently to be seen drifting overhead - or perched ominously on telegraph poles….. They are also the feature that has been most criticised by visitors when we ask what they would change. We are attached to them, however, and so they have remained for the moment.
Pool by house.Veddw.© Charles Hawes. Our first major construction built by Charles and enjoyed by frogs, newts, dragonflies and water lilies. Great to have, wouldn't be without it. But the blanket weed is an utter pain.
Conservatory, Veddw.© Clive Nichols
Cannas in conservatory © Charles Hawes I used to grow lots of tender things in here, just because I could. Then I realised that just as borders full of random plantings are a bit of an eyesore and not much pleasure to live with, so is a conservatory with random plantings. Then we got pests I couldn't get rid of, even with expensive predators. So now I have dramatic plants, repeated, have painted the walls black to show them off. Some are hardy, so I can put them outside if I want to swop things around and add seasonal plants. Fun. Better. And controls the pests. (I didn't say kills them...)
Apollo in wood. Veddw. © Charles Hawes. Bought, by Charles, from the Forestry Commission, a couple of years after our arrival. Our intention is to add a small amount of beauty and interest to the wood without losing its character. So, no colourful flowers or rhododendrons. The trees and shrubs that we've added are chosen for not looking exotic or out of place. Because the rabbits and squirrels have so far let them thrive, we have sizable plantings of erythonium 'Pagoda' in spring, followed by increasing spreads of bluebells. A corner of the wood planted with several cherry trees for spring blossom. These are showing all the problems that cherries can offer: disease, dieback, sudden death, feebleness…..Avoid cherries is my advice. This seat was created by Charles with a chain saw from the base of a tree that we cut down. An area of regenerating native birch. Most other trees and shrubs have been removed from this area to give maximum effect to the coloured trunks of the birches. They are just at the size now where squirrels are likely to attack and generally deform and destroy them. If they don't kill them the deer try to. A variety of sorbus with an underplanting of very young viburnum plicatum 'Mariesii' - future white froth in late spring, I hope. Fingers crossed. With a stray oak and a lizard and seats for a coven.
Lizard on tree © Charles Hawes Not lots of different holly, just lots of holly, as we found it but with a path cut through. Just a pile of stones, but there on the Tithe Map - at that time (1849) an agricultural building in a field. END.
Campanula lactiflora in Wild Garden. Veddw. © Charles Hawes |
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