A much longed for dream of a beautiful garden on the Suffolk coast has come true for Sue Pearson thanks to the inspirational work of Sue Townsend, whose design flair and colourful, drought-tolerant planting links the space to the seaside charms of the wider landscape
WORDS VIVIENNE HAMBLY PHOTOGRAPHS RICHARD BLOOM
The Suffolk coast has a particular charm. With its big skies, empty pebble beaches, reeded floodplains, and adjacent patches of heathland where nightingales sing, it is beloved of musicians, writers, artists – and anyone in search of a quieter, gentler life, including Sue Pearson. “We’d had family holidays in Aldeburgh since I was very young,” explains Sue, “so it was a dream come true when we finally moved here in 2019.”
Sue’s home is not the classic pink-washed thatched cottage you might at first envisage for this sleepy part of the world. Rather it’s a 1970s bungalow and, when she moved in, she found that her one third of an acre garden comprised a few quite specific things: a lot of lawn, a clump of conifers, a silver birch and an island bed of heather. “It was all so uninspiring,” recalls garden designer Sue Townsend, whom the other Sue had approached for assistance. “It didn’t really offer anything for wildlife and it was overlooked by the neighbours.”
Compounding matters were three elements neither designer nor client could do anything about. Just a mile inland from the sea, the garden is buffeted by drying onshore breezes and, in winter, a bitter north-easterly wind. This part of Suffolk is a patchwork of clay and sand and being close to the sea, Sue’s garden lies on sand. This makes it unstable and water quickly drains away. Meanwhile, Suffolk has some of the lowest rainfall in the country. All of these conspire to create a challenging climate to work with. You could amend the soil at great cost and effort, and commit to regular watering, but Sue Townsend’s approach is to be much more in step with available conditions and to grow what will suit the site.
Fortunately, she had in her new client a plantswoman and gardener for whom Beth Chatto’s Garden, RHS Hyde Hall and East Ruston Old Vicarage are major influences. La Mortella Gardens developed by Lady Susana Walton with Russell Page on the Italian island of Ischia are also a favourite.
“Choosing Sue was one of our best decisions,” says Sue Pearson. She saw the garden as a blank slate and a “once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to start a new garden from
