A visit to Julie and Tim Wise’s garden at Rustling End in Hertfordshire is like a ramble through the English countryside. The gardening is led by nature itself, keeping the meadows and woodland, old roses and wildflowers, looking fresh year after year
WORDS ZIA ALLAWAY PHOTOGRAPHS ANNA OMIOTEK-TOTT
The garden at Rustling End, tucked deep within the Hertfordshire countryside, has been a labour of love for owners Julie and Tim Wise, who have spent more than 30 years building, planting, and tending it. “Like any garden it evolves from year to year, and one of my chief joys is seeing wild plants parachute in and take their place alongside those I’ve planted,” says Julie. “We also love watching the bees, butterflies, bats and birds that find food and shelter here.”
When the couple bought their small 18th-century cottage with its three-quarters of an acre of land, Julie relished the prospect of transforming the scruffy field and hedgerows into the garden she’d been dreaming of. Inspired by the likes of Rosemary Verey and Penelope Hobhouse, not to mention the manor house gardens she’d visited with her mother, Julie chose to divide the plot into a series of garden rooms divided by walls of yew hedging. “Each area has its own theme, and I started with a formal rose garden and perennial flower borders together with spaces set aside for more naturalistic planting,” she explains.
As the garden took shape, it began to play an increasingly important role in Julie’s life, eventually opening up a new career for her. She’d worked as long-haul cabin crew for British Airways for 32 years, but after retiring in 2009 she became a garden designer. The garden became an outdoor classroom where she could study plants, their habitats and the wildlife that’s integral to her design work.
The garden is always in a state of flux in response to natural evolution and as new ideas develop.
“While much of it looks similar to when Tim and I first created it, I’ve loosened the design and lowered the hedges to open up the views and let in more light,” says Julie. “The smaller hedges are also easier to maintain, which is a consideration as we get older. We’ve also built a new extension, which has given me a chance to redesign the area around the back of the house.”
A tour of the garden begins at the rustic front gate flanked by cloud-pruned yew hedges,
