Garden News - July Digital Sampler

Garden
OF THE
WEEK
Gardeners Alison and
Godfrey Young
Location The Fold, High Wooley,
Stanley Crook, County Durham
DL15 9AP
Size of garden Around ½ acre
Soil Very thin, acidic
Aspect South-facing
Been in garden 25 years
Open July 8, for the NGS, from
1.30-4.30pm. Entry £4. Open to
groups through the summer,
by appointment.
More info www.ngs.org.uk
Coping with
extremes
Meet a couple from County Durham who have battled the elements
on an exposed, south-facing site to create a colourful piece of paradise
Words Geoff Hodge
Photos Neil Hepworth
With its splendid views
over the surrounding
picturesque
countryside, The Fold looks
like a delightful gardeners’
paradise. And it is, but it
belies the fact that it sits at an
altitude of 210m (700ft) on an
exposed, south-facing site.
“No-one with any sense
would have attempted to create
a garden here. It’s windswept
and the soil’s thin and bare as
20 Garden News / July 1 2017
the area had been extensively
mined,” says owner, Alison
Young. “Added to that, when we
moved here, it was just a field!”
Now it boasts a wide range
of spring-flowering ericaceous
and summer-flowering shrubs,
superb herbaceous borders,
alpine and island beds, ponds,
numerous mature trees and even
a small roof garden. It contains
a wide range of plants, mostly
perennials, with the emphasis
on colour, harmony and texture
to create all-year round interest.
And most of these need to be
as tough as the proverbial old
boots to survive the conditions.
When Alison started
developing the garden, she made
plans to landscape the site using
the natural slopes and developed
two main areas. “I called one
‘the upper Alps’ and the other
‘the lower Alps’, which were
mainly for growing alpines,” she
said. The rest of the garden was
to be in an arboretum style.
To get the areas cleared for
development and planting, she
used Roundup, which she calls
‘the lazy gardener’s friend’ and
this is now used for keeping
paths and the car park weed free.
A formal lawn was laid in front
of the house, which Godfrey
is in charge of mowing. “A
major part of my grand plan
was four ‘blobs’, which were
excavated by a JCB and created
by importing 20 tons of topsoil.”
Alison then took advice from
a local nursery as to what would
grow in the garden’s climate. “I
did look at what other gardens in
the area were growing, but there
was nothing. This has changed
over the years, as the area is
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