The joys of spring have seldom been more in evidence than at Patricia Elkington’s naturalistic garden at Little Court in Hampshire, where bulbs and wildflowers combine to lift the spirits and raise a smile
WORDS CONSTANCE CRAIG SMITH PHOTOGRAPHS ANNA OMIOTEK-TOTT
When she was a child, Patricia Elkington helped her mother plant a packet of ten crocus bulbs in their apple orchard. In the decades since then, these crocuses have multiplied to such an extent that they are now “almost an embarrassment”, carpeting the garden and even popping up unexpectedly through cracks in the paths and paving.
If you want to see a truly dazzling display of spring flowers, then Patricia’s garden at Little Court in Hampshire is the place to go. From January, when the first winter aconites and snowdrops appear, through to May, when the last of the fire-red Tulipa sprengeri start to fade, Little Court is a hymn to the beauties of spring.
The house, parts of which date back to the 18th century, has been in Patricia’s family since the early 1950s when her father spotted that it was up for auction and decided to attend the sale, assuring his wife he was only going so he could see what price the house fetched. He returned having bought the house, along with a cottage in its grounds that had previously been the village laundry.
Patricia was brought up here before leaving home to train as a nurse. “I later married Andrew, who was a wonderful man and a much-loved ophthalmologist, and we had four sons. In 1976, after my father died, my mother moved to the cottage in the garden and I moved with Andrew and the children into the house,” she explains.
The two-acre garden – there is also a one-acre meadow, notable for its wildflowers in summer – is divided into seven areas by lovely flint walls of varying heights. The only truly enclosed part is the kitchen garden. Apart from the walls, the garden was in good shape when Patricia and Andrew took it over and once her boys had stopped playing football in the garden, and Patricia had stopped playing golf, she began collecting plants.
She is entirely self-taught but she learned from her mistakes and before long she was invited to open her garden for the National Garden Scheme; she has now been welcoming visitors to her garden to raise money for charity for over 40 years. “It has made so much for the Scheme’s charities, and the excell
