HISTORY OF THE GARDEN

We moved to 9 Tannsfield Drive in April 1983. Initially the lawn was cut and edged just to keep things tidy whilst ideas were formulated and the odd plan was scribbled down. I found that an initial plan/drawing was quite a useful tool but as I always altered the “plan” when actually doing the changes on the ground I must confess to not using written plans/drawings now. I just imagine how I want the area to be worked on to look and then set about the alterations.

The garden development started by removing a large weeping willow (apparently there is more of a weeping willow below ground than above which could become dangerous to house foundations) and forming the slope, from right to left at the end of the garden, into two flat areas linked with a couple of steps.

The shed was moved from the right to the left of the garden for a while and then moved to its present position on the right of the garden. I bought a pergola thinking that placing it over the “main” path it would make a nice entrance to the garden. Unfortunately it felt a bit claustrophobic to me so I had to move it, but where? I realised the easiest thing to do was move it to the right of the path. There was just enough room in front of the shed and I could utilise two of the long spikes already holding the main uprights. So with only two spikes to reposition this seemed a good idea. I only realised some time later that actually it was a very good way of “disguising” the shed; how lucky was that?

Evolvement/development continued by cutting out poor pieces of grass and then gradually expanding and shaping the areas cut out into island beds. Eventually I cut out so much “lawn” I was left with a thin “arch” of the original and as Gaynor insisted on a bit of green I laid a new small rectangular lawn (nearly 14 feet long by just under 6 feet wide) edged with bricks. As you would probably guess I found that boring so cut out sections to form three touching circles with green slate in the areas of grass removed. This worked reasonably well but something wasn’t quite right. Thanks to a suggestion from Julie Wise (County Organiser for NGS Hertfordshire at the time) I replaced the slate with gravel. This worked much better as it continued the “flow” of gravel from paths and planting areas around the garden. The three “touching circles” were replaced with 3 “touching octagonals” because I found that where the “circle” of grass touched the edging bricks it was transferring the moss, that I wanted on the edging bricks, to the lawn. 2015 saw yet another change in the shape of the lawn to what can now be best described as a wide grass path. Although I am not a great fan of grass (it must be the most time consuming plant in the garden with all the cutting, edging, raking, weeding and feeding) I find the space created by the lawn a bonus.

To continue with the history of the garden:

I think in the late 1990’s, early 2000’s, with my now late mother’s words “You should never be able to see a garden in one look.” ringing in my ears, I decided I wanted a garden that was:

1. Easily maintained. I didn’t want lots of hard work to do, as for me, that would spoil the enjoyment of gardening.

2. Interesting. I didn’t want to just walk up and down the garden or round in a circle. I decided every path I made should “split” to give me a choice of ways to walk the garden; thereby discovering different views of the garden and making it a more interesting “journey”.

3. Restful and relaxing. I wanted to hear the sound of water wherever I was in the garden, not necessarily see it but hear it.

With these three (four if you include mum) “rules” in mind I started the slow transition to making every plant in the garden “winter hardy” not just “frost hardy”. I was learning by trial and error “frost hardy” is not tough enough for the Hemel Hempstead area. Apart from “easy maintenance” I was hoping eventually I would need to buy fewer and fewer plants each year thus saving money by not having to continually replace “annuals” or “non-hardy” plants. In addition I wouldn’t be rushing in and out to fleece and un-fleece plants each winter. This “scheme” should also save me a lot of hard work in the garden, which it does until I decide a bit of plant moving is required. However part of the theory is just starting to work, with it now being very difficult to find a space for a new plant in the garden without removing an old one (although the odd “winter demise” helps).

I also set to work to ensure every path split, to always give me a choice of direction to take when wandering round the garden. Roughly at the same time all this was going on I created 4 small water features to ensure the sound of water could be heard throughout the garden.

Certainly by 2007 I thought the garden was coming along nicely, but I still wanted to improve the quality of the garden even more and felt I needed a standard by which any improvement could be judged, so I contacted the National Garden Scheme for advice. They asked when the garden was at its best. Having always tried for a year round garden I didn’t have a clue (still don’t) but it was May, the garden looked OK to me so I suggested a preliminary visit right away and a few days later Edwina Robarts (NGS Hertfordshire County Organiser at the time) and a fellow County Volunteer duly turned up. Imagine my surprise/shock/panic when, after they had viewed the garden, I was told “Cut back a bit of ivy from the end water feature (all the ivy has gone now), remove the many untidy plant labels that flap about and you can open next year.” After all, I was only expecting some advice on how to meet the NGS “standards” and hadn’t seriously considered opening that soon, if at all. I honestly thought there would be so much to do to reach an appropriate level it would be 3 or 4 years before I would be able to ask the NGS round to “judge” the garden with a view to opening.

Of course I later realised they were looking for quality of design, quality of plants, quality of planting and the amount of interest in the garden; not necessarily perfect lawns, perfect landscaping and they were not overly worried that my shed was a bit rickety.

Having been selected to open for the NGS, for some reason, I felt a great need to improve the garden further and ensure it was “interesting”, even perhaps more than “beautiful”. I was aware with such a “small patch” I needed to find ways to hold visitors’ attention. Hopefully visitors think I have achieved a bit of both. Of course the need for change and improvement continues to this day; I often wonder whether I would get bored if the garden looked the same year after year.

Winter 2008-2009 Feature In 50+ Fresh Horizons (Magazine for NatWest/RBS Group Pensioners).

27th July 2010 Garden Featured in Garden News.

About 2010/11 with all garden plants “winter hardy” (except for two small tree ferns and a miniature fuchsia) I realised I was probably spending £50 or £60 each year on the hanging baskets in the front garden alone. It seemed logical and less expensive to make all hanging baskets hardy perennials as well. So to this day I am still experimenting with hardy perennials in hanging baskets (really the whole garden is an experiment). I have had particular success with ground cover campanula, trailing bamboo and sedum (for a long and very narrow wall basket). I mainly work on the theory if you put a ground cover plant in a hanging basket it should flop over the sides; seems to work.

September 2011 Garden featured in Hertfordshire Life.

Finally, about 2012/2013, I decided I wanted the feel of being able to walk through flower beds rather than around the outside and similarly the seating areas should feel as though they are in a flower bed rather than on the outside of one, so a few more little “tweaks” have been made.

April 2013 Small article in Hertfordshire Life.

Saturday 16th August 2014, early evening. Great excitement all round as Gay and I rushed back from celebrating Gay’s father’s 90th birthday to greet Monty Don and a film crew who wanted to use our garden as part of Monty Don’s The Secret History of The British Garden due for screening on BBC 2 late 2015. Because it was early evening the film crew were running out of natural light which resulted in everything, including a totally unscripted chat with Monty, being very rushed. So much so we didn’t think to get photos or autographs. Unfortunately we failed to make the final cut (except for a 1 second overhead shot at the beginning of each episode and maybe a 2 seconds overhead shot during the last programme), so no real record of the occasion but, it was an enjoyable interesting experience nonetheless.

Autumn 2016, with the usual September/October session of “change the position of pots and plants” having taken place ready for next year and with our very old garden shed now replaced, I realised that whilst the old shed was literally falling apart it must have had have some influence in holding up the pergola in front of it. The pergola with two very heavy hanging baskets on it was now starting to “lean” at an ever increasing angle. Fortunately, by moving a very heavy pot to “support” an upright, re-siting one of the hanging baskets and wedging a support against one of the uprights, the pergola is now almost upright and ready for the new season. Not an ideal solution but it seems to work and has, initially, saved further expenditure on the garden for plants.

Winter 2016/2017 Feature In 50+ Fresh Horizons (Magazine for NatWest/RBS Group Pensioners).

May 2020. After many years of heartache trying to keep the small lawn in good condition, Peter has finally accepted failure and replaced it with a gravel area planted with grasses and with paving stones added for ease of access.

It was realised that a small lawn became compacted very quickly. Approximately a third of the lawn was in almost permanent shade and required over-seeding each Spring. Without doubt Peter considered grass was the most time-consuming plant in the garden to keep in good condition, with the need to cut and “edge” regularly, feed, rake and aerate.

Also, in May 2020 the pergola, that was in front of the shed and had to be taken down in 2018 before it fell down, was reconstructed further down the garden.

2020/2023. Changes to the garden continue with re-positioning of pots and the introduction of new plants.” Several large evergreen shrubs showed signs of damage after, what was in effect, a 50c degree change in temperature between Summer 2022 (+40c.) and Winter 2022 (-10c.). Very surprising after 3+ decades of very little winter damage but understandable in view of the huge change in temperature. By Summer 2023 after a fair bit of cutting back of dead wood the shrubs have almost recovered.

March 2023. The two metal arches, through which the middle section of the garden could be accessed, eventually succumbed to rust and had to be removed. Fortunately a local carpenter was able to replace the arches with two, fine looking wooden pergolas, which stretch from the patio to the central area of the garden. An excellent improvement to the garden.

March 2024. Having learnt that a replacement patio and side path would cost an arm and a leg because the side path is too narrow to accommodate a digger, I decided to contact a company that provides bonded gravel, a porous, resinous material placed on top of the old crazy paving. What a good decision. The side path and patio have been transformed from a bit of a dull uninteresting look to a bright, clean and even space at a fraction of the price I was quoted for a replacement patio. Very well worth the hard work involved in removing and then replacing all the pots and cobbles that inhabit the patio area.

September 2024. Starting quite a few changes to the end sections of the garden. Looking forward to seeing the outcome and visitors reaction in 2025.