The discovery of crumbling 19th-century walls at ten-acre Old Hall Farmhouse in Norfolk, inspired textile artist Jane-Ann Walton to weave a colour-filled garden along the lines of her favourite book by Frances Hodgson Burnett
WORDS BARBARA SEGALL PHOTOGRAPHS RICHARD BLOOM
Plantswoman and textile artist Jane-Ann Walton has gardened at Old Hall Farmhouse in the village of Swanton Novers, Norfolk, for the past quarter of a century, but she has been enthralled by plants and the outdoors since childhood. Homeschooled for much of what she describes as “a solitary time”, Jane-Ann recalls how she would help the gardeners and enjoy lessons with her governess outdoors. “I’ve always loved mixing compost and potting up plants. My first plants were succulents and cacti – it was difficult to kill them off, so those early successes boosted my enthusiasm!” she notes.
Her ten-acre garden sweeps around the property, which is believed to have once been a medieval moated manor house. The garden then rolls down towards the plant-filled walled garden that Jane-Ann has created. “Frances Hodgson Burnett’s The Secret Garden was my favourite book, so finding that there were walls, even though some were crumbling, made me determined to create a garden within them.”
At first everywhere she tried to make a flowerbed turned out to be filled with the rubble of a collapsed structure, which had to be removed along with nettles and brambles. But once the walls were restored or rebuilt, on either side of them she was able to create long, deep borders that now are filled with flowing streams of flowers and shrubs.
Like many gardeners in East Anglia, Jane-Ann credits Beth Chatto for inspiration. “I went down to her nursery with a friend. I had never seen anything like it. She was so much ahead of her time. She had such unusual plants and grew them in a different, more naturalistic way, which chimed with me.”
Jane-Ann welcomes most wildlife into the garden, planting for pollinators and leaving spent forget-me-not flowers for the greenfinches. But muntjac deer, squirrels and badgers are less welcome. Being on the edge of the 400-acre Swanton Novers woodlands means that the garden is a regular wildlife dining space. Incidentally, forget-me-nots are among the plants the muntjac leave alone. They spread themselves around alongside other self-seeders including honesties Lunaria annua ‘Corfu Blue�
