Our expert looks back over a decade of work to enrich and revive a barren plot…
WORDS: SUSIE WHITE; WWW.SUSIE-WHITE.CO.UK, @COTTAGEGARDENER.
I have a book being published this week and I’m really excited about it! My previous books have been about herbs, design or other people’s gardens, but this is a more personal one.
It’s about making Susie’s garden, my own private patch that I’ve been describing to readers for the past 10 years.
I hope what I’ve written will inspire others to create a garden from scratch as we have done. When David and I moved here, this was a bare, bulldozed plot, so the first thing we needed to get right was the soil. It was so compacted and dead that there were no worms!
Our priority was to build compost heaps, packing in anything we could find from grass clippings to spent hops from the local brewery.
How quickly nature returns. Within a short time, there was life in the soil and invertebrates for birds to eat.
A healthy soil means healthy, colourful plants. This is above all a wildlife garden, and it is that combination of nature and gardening that is celebrated in my book.
The place is now truly alive and teeming with wildlife: owls and blackbirds, bats and mice, butterflies and bees, all attracted here by pollen-rich flowers, meadows and lots of nesting sites too.
Basic building materials were foraged from around us in the valley. Stone for walling, steps, and paths. Wood for plant supports and weaving hurdles. We re-used and recycled so that everything was as sustainable as possible. My book is full of tips for making a resilient garden and a place that truly enables wildlife to thrive.
With only a small budget, we grew a lot of plants from seed or divided and multiplied what I had brought from my last garden. With patience, I gradually formed beautiful topiary from yew seedlings that I found or cuttings that I took of box hedging. Watching a garden mature is a great joy.
We couldn’t have done it alone; we had help from family and friends. It’s lovely when they come back and see how things have changed or when my grandchildren help pick the vegetables or run around the paths. What we have made is a haven for wildlife but also for ourselves, a place to relax and appreciate the natural world.
