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David had the haha built and backfilled with large quantities of imported soil, thenthe land each side of the drive was planted with the trees which we enjoy today.
All the major shrubs were also planted at this time, And the garden gradually matured over the years.
We arrived in May 1993 from Kent, where we had opened for the NGS for a good few years, by this time Fernhill was very overgrown, but we were now retired and with all the time in the world, restoring and enhancing the garden was a very pleasureable task which we tackled with gusto.
The first project was the water garden, this was started in the Autumn of '93, and the finishing touches such as installing the pump and waterfalls were carried out during the winter of '94/'95.
As we had our sights set on opening for the NGS we realised that our small area of woodland would be ideal for use as a parking area we organised working weekends for some of our family when they visited, clearing undergrowth, old stumps end dead trees to give a clear area each side of the drive, a good few Spruce trees were also removed to allow hardwoods such as Beech and Red Oaks to get more light. One other major feature was built in '98, this was the Pergola, The style of our garden, and the sloping nature of the site precluded a "tunnel" type construction, so an octagonal shape was decided upon, it was back to school geometry to work out all the anglesrequired, a lorry delivered the timber, another lorry delivered the bricks, and many trailer loads of soil were excavated (by hand) to make way for our new feature.
It was well worth the trouble, the finished Pergola enhances the garden, and many is the siesta enjoyed under it's canopy of Clematis and Hop!!
In the winter of 2004/2005 two very overgrown and oppressive conifers were removedbetween the Pergola and the grass feature, both of which suffered from lack of light,this resulted in the reshaping and extensive re-planting of the immediate area, and now the grassesand the Pergola border are united into one quite large feature.What we now call the shrubbery was also rescued by removing a third overgrown coniferand pruning back an enormous Camellia down to 1.5 metres (it has since rejuvinated) andremoving low quality shrubs, this area has been replanted with some quite good plants and shrubs.
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A brief history of the garden
David had the haha built and backfilled with large quantities of imported soil, thenthe land each side of the drive was planted with the trees which we enjoy today.
All the major shrubs were also planted at this time, And the garden gradually matured over the years.
We arrived in May 1993 from Kent, where we had opened for the NGS for a good few years, by this time Fernhill was very overgrown, but we were now retired and with all the time in the world, restoring and enhancing the garden was a very pleasureable task which we tackled with gusto.
The first project was the water garden, this was started in the Autumn of '93, and the finishing touches such as installing the pump and waterfalls were carried out during the winter of '94/'95.
As we had our sights set on opening for the NGS we realised that our small area of woodland would be ideal for use as a parking area we organised working weekends for some of our family when they visited, clearing undergrowth, old stumps end dead trees to give a clear area each side of the drive, a good few Spruce trees were also removed to allow hardwoods such as Beech and Red Oaks to get more light. One other major feature was built in '98, this was the Pergola, The style of our garden, and the sloping nature of the site precluded a "tunnel" type construction, so an octagonal shape was decided upon, it was back to school geometry to work out all the anglesrequired, a lorry delivered the timber, another lorry delivered the bricks, and many trailer loads of soil were excavated (by hand) to make way for our new feature.
It was well worth the trouble, the finished Pergola enhances the garden, and many is the siesta enjoyed under it's canopy of Clematis and Hop!!
In the winter of 2004/2005 two very overgrown and oppressive conifers were removedbetween the Pergola and the grass feature, both of which suffered from lack of light,this resulted in the reshaping and extensive re-planting of the immediate area, and now the grassesand the Pergola border are united into one quite large feature.What we now call the shrubbery was also rescued by removing a third overgrown coniferand pruning back an enormous Camellia down to 1.5 metres (it has since rejuvinated) andremoving low quality shrubs, this area has been replanted with some quite good plants and shrubs.