Garden TOUR
This Cheshire garden is based on organic, wildlife-friendly principles and proves that such a space can still look lovingly tended and beautiful
Milford House Farm is proof that you can have a beautiful outdoor space and garden organically. The lawn wraps around the house as you make your way through the garden. It’s cut a few times a year, around the edges only to make paths, and no feeds, mosskillers or weedkillers are used on it. The centre of the lawn is left to its own devices and contains lots of different common wildflowers. There’s also a lot of moss growing unabated. “It keeps the lawn nice and soft, and stays greener than the grass in dry weather,” Heather says. “A recent visitor commented how soft it felt, and I wasn’t sure whether to tell them that was because of the moss!”
One of Heather’s favourite features of the garden, and a delight for any plant lover as they wander, is the white and green island bed. Plants include a common jasmine that climbs a large frame, carnations, Stachys byzantina (lamb’s ear), white and green variegated hostas, Lamium maculatum ‘Beacon Silver’ (“although the purple flowers spoil the overall effect!”), lots of ferns, white foxgloves grown from seed, white-flowered honesty, white-flowered borage, white buddleja and pretty Exochorda macrantha ‘The Bride’, with its dainty white spring blossom. Other beds and borders in the garden are also coordinated with combinations of hot colours – oranges, reds and yellows – grown together, as well as combos of pinks, purples and blues. “I have to be strict with myself, but sometimes, for instance, some plants of the white-flowered borage in the island bed will come up blue, and I just haven’t got the heart to dig them up!”
