Garden TOUR
Renowned horticulturists have all helped to influence the design of this beautiful country garden in Essex
Sue Coates describes the style of the plot at Fairwinds as a country garden with a rich variety of planting styles, some influenced by such gardening luminaries as Beth Chatto, Penelope Hobhouse, Christopher Lloyd and Piet Oudolf. The latter influenced Sue’s fabulous drift planting, for example.
“I don’t overly like plants that need a lot of TLC, preferring those needing minimal maintenance. I very much adhere with Beth Chatto’s ‘right plant, right place’ philosophy so that plants grow well and don’t need much looking after,” says Sue. “I’ll keep the seed heads on sedums and phlomis over winter and don’t cut them down until spring. The alliums stay in place until their seedheads are taken into the house or fall apart where they’re growing.” She also cuts stems of the corkscrew hazel (Corylus avellana ‘Contorta’) to reuse as plant supports or brings them indoors for displays. And some of her planting schemes contain jarring colour combinations in homage to Christopher Lloyd.
The garden is divided into three main areas, each partly hidden from the next, which become visible as you move into each.
The top area is a spacious flower garden, with large mixed borders and an ornamental greenhouse containing a well-trained ‘Black Hamburg’ grapevine, as well as chillies, peppers and aubergines in summer, surrounding the lawn with a large wildflower meadow in the centre.
“I decided on ameadow because I’m very keen on encouraging wildlife into the garden.
