Small gardens: with wonderful vistas ana planting, you'd hardly believe this garden used to be covered in bramble as Kevin Smith discovers

摘要

When Christina and Nigel Gates bought their derelict coach house, Fovant Hut, near Salisbury in 1991, they didn't know whether to tackle the bramble-ridden garden or the wreck of a building first. Christina, a garden designer who trained with John Brookes and at the Chelsea Physic Garden, laughs, "It was ridiculous really - I began planting before the house was even connected to the electricity supply." Christina knew she'd not have the patience to wait until the house was totally renovated to transform the half-acre garden, so was quick to tackle the area directly outside her front door. She surrounded the small square with a yew hedge (which she planted before the electricity was connected), and this was to become a sheltered flower garden. Christina explains, "The area is south-facing and I wanted it to be enclosed and private -somewhere to escape while the rest of the garden wasn't up to scratch." Completed in just a few months, and planted with grasses and herbaceous favourites, today the flower garden is just as it was when she first created it 15 years ago.