GARDEN
Deborah Baker tells GILL HEAVENS how she discovered the photographic joys of her coastal Cornwall garden
It is useful to have more than one string to your bow. Deborah Baker, who lives at Buckshead House on the Lizard peninsula, is blessed with two fine strands. Firstly, she is an accomplished photographer, retired lecturer and art exhibitor. Secondly, she is a knowledgeable, brave and inventive gardener. When these two disciplines converged a little piece of magic was made.
Buckshead House was built around 1840, constructed from back-bending granite blocks, effectively protecting its inhabitants from exposure to the elements. It is situated a short walk from the village of Constantine and just five miles from Falmouth Bay. This handsome property is Grade II listed, the walls softened by wisteria and climbing hydrangea, and cradled in the arms of lush gardens. Deborah has lived here since 2003 but, then again, Deborah has lived here since 2019. All will make sense, I promise you!
Her first passion was photography, which she studied at Trent University. In her second year of study, she travelled to America as part of an exchange scheme. Impressed by her work, the distinguished American photographer Ralph Gibson offered her a job in New York. It was whilst working in the United States that she met and worked with many notable photographers of the age. However, she soon realised the spark was missing. It was time to return home.
Once back in the UK, Deborah embarked on a diverse career in the photographic world including launching a gallery in Cardiff, picture editing and teaching in both Sheffield and London. Then a teaching post came up in Birmingham. Deborah moved to a house with a garden and her second passion was ignited and was quick to burn. When she was not teaching, she was consuming gardening encyclopedias, eager to learn more. Before long she was on the move again. A job came up at Falmouth University and a barely affordable, but totally irresistible, Buckshead House was purchased. And it was time to rethink her gardening style.
Deborah had an ace up her sleeve. Mary Payne MBE, Chelsea Gold Medal winner and Master of Horticulture, is her mother’s goddaughter. The first, and possibly most important piece of advice from Mary, was to plant a shelter belt to protect the garden from the south westerlies that sweep across the moor unhindered.
Deborah began by planting Eleagnus ebbingii and Grisilinia litoralis around the area to the front of the house; both coastal stalwarts, tough and forgiving. Once these were in place, less robust specimens could be safely planted and she begun to fashion a garden which had a chance of survival in these exposed conditions.
A few years passed and a suggestion was made which would change everything. Acknowledging Deborah’s thirst to expand, a neighbour proposed that she ask the farmer if he would sell
