We have been involved in horticulture all our lives, initially selling vegetables and fruit as well as running a landscaping, design and consultancy business. After developing our self-taught skills in our own gardens and maintenance work in others’, we undertook more advanced training to further our knowledge and interest. Richard has a BSc in Biology and the RHS General Qualification in Horticulture, and Ellen has the RHS Diploma in Horticulture and Open College design qualifications. Ellen worked in the Cruickshank Botanic Garden for 5 years, and after that we began taking on more complex garden challenges and teaching horticulture at the local college.
The garden development is focused upon building a complex habitat to attract as much wildlife as possible, which goes hand in hand with our love of plants. Our approach has been to mirror the structure of woodland seen in nature, with different levels of vegetation. Not all visitors are totally welcome and Richard has had to deer and rabbit fence the garden and make regular repairs when the local badgers create shortcuts in their nightly forays. Many plants have been propagated by ourselves, other bought in, and many swaps have occurred with friends which has resulted in a large variety, many with labels to help us remember them in our dotage.
In spite of the numbers of plants the maintenance of the garden is becoming less time consuming, though the fact that we look after the vast majority of the area organically requires continuous inputs of organic matter which is currently kindly supplied by our neighbouring pony. Mulches are employed wherever possible to reduce growth of weeds and retain constant moisture to enhance plant growth. We both love to share our knowledge and experiences with fellow enthusiasts and encourage those who are starting out with gardens large or small.
The garden has collections of hostas (over 250 at last count) which are housed in a polytunnel, and many are also planted out for visitors to get ideas on how to grow them in different environments.
There are also rhododendrons (more than 200 different species and varieties) and large numbers of oaks, viburnums, sorbus, aesculus, rodgersias and ferns.
Several ponds give homes to frogs, toads, newts, occasional ducks and herons. Our bird counts stands at 102 species observed to date.