This delightful garden in Lincolnshire is separated into lots of exciting spaces, with surprises around every corner
Garden TOUR
The romance and charm of the varied growing and entertaining spaces at Abbots Barn contain all the hallmarks of a classic English garden. A charming succession of billowing herbaceous borders around the sweeping lawns, resplendent with a rich variety of colourful summer flowers, often repeated in blocks. Planted in informal swathes, swirls of salvias, penstemons, geraniums, poppies and delphiniums sprinkled with acid-green euphorbias and alchemilla parade around key structural elements, including clipped topiary cubes and balls, elegant shrubs and cypress trees. Roses scramble up the walls and over arches framing the walkways. A stroll through the garden in summer is a chance to drink deeply of the joys of the season. There is a feeling of freedom and abundance but it is also clear that the garden is being steered by knowing hands.
When you arrive at the garden, there’s a cottage garden classic to greet you, in full flower in August; red valerian (Centranthus ruber). “It’s a bomb-proof, drought-tolerant perennial that produces its large spires of pinky coloured, nectar-rich flowers right into October. It has spread around our parking area and everyone comments on it when they arrive,” explains Vanessa.
Protected within a boundary of hedges and distinctive local limestone walls – the same type of local stone used to build both Ely and Peterborough Cathedral – Vanessa and Carl Brown’s garden in Stamford, Lincolnshire, encircles their Georgian barn conversion house. There are a wide-range of different growing areas, that take advantage of the stony nature of the soil. “The couple who converted the barn had started work on the garden, but we wanted it to have more clearly defined areas,” says Vanessa. “Garden designer Adam Frost lives nearby and we asked him for his ideas, which we loved, so he designed two areas for us.” A large courtyard containing a croquet lawn
