Remarkable garden against odds

Over one thousand feet above sea level in one of the remotest parts of rural Shropshire, on the edge of the Stiperstones and against all odds, a remarkable garden has been created over the last 20 years on heavy acid boulder clay soil.

Scroll through our gallery below to view the garden.

Stuart and Carol Buxton of Marehay farm took third place in the 2007 Garden of the Year Competition, sponsored by the Shropshire Star in association with Percy Thrower’s Gardening and Leisure.

The one-and-a-half acre garden, which has four water courses running through, is a woodland and water garden with two large pools and planted with moisture-loving plants such as primulas, hostas and iris.

Throughout the early half of the summer Primula florindae are spectacular with their creamy yellow flowers and Primula candelabra make a colourful display with their whorls of pink-red flowers.

Outside the back of the house the first stream gushes down from the Stiperstones and is a delight to see and hear. Beyond this a herbaceous border flourishes and the lawn beyond is always a lush green in the moisture-rich soil.

“With 40 inches of rain and intermittent shade it never dries out, even in the driest summer,” Stuart remarked. The lower pool is at the top of this lawn with a rock garden in front. Iris, rushes and giant skunk cabbage enjoy the water’s edge.

A steep bank with a beech hedge on top of it separates the lower and upper pools and it is in the upper one where hostas and primulas really dominate.

Borders up the left side are planted with many rhododendrons and azaleas and a lovely Cornus mas. A chalet - style summerhouse is a focal point between garden and woodland and an ideal place to relax and admire the pool. The garden gradually mingles into woodland of beech, oak and birch.

Recently Stuart and Carol have created a circuit with bridges over the streams through the woods back round to the bottom end of the garden.

In this area they have been sowing bluebells to restore it to its former glory and planting a greater variety of trees. “We wanted some with more colour through the year,” Carol explained.

Brightly coloured willow stems, blazing during the winter sunshine, are already established and white-stemmed birch, a red-twigged lime and Acers have been planted for the future.

Planting is a mammoth task with massive boulders to remove before the trees can go in. “The garden is 80 per cent rock and only 20 per cent soil,” Stuart remarked.

Marehay Farm will be open for the National Gardens Scheme on May 18 and June 8 from 11am to 6pm. Visitors are also welcome by appointment from mid-May until mid-July.

See the Yellow Book or the Shropshire NGS Leaflet, available from tourist offices and some garden centres, for details and directions.

GROUND RULES

• Lift and divide overcrowded groups of snowdrops whilst still in the greenhouse
• Mark any large clumps of Narcissus that need dividing, particularly any with few flowers. Lift when the foliage has died down and store dry during the summer
• Plant summer bulbs in between other plants to increase flowering potential of borders
• When soil conditions are suitable, start sowing early vegetable varieties outside under clothes or polythene
• Continue to buy plug plants of summer bedding, basket or patio plants and grow on in a frost-free greenhouse

By Martin Ford