Early summer haze and blaze

Steffie Shields explores Home Farm garden opening for the National Garden Scheme.

June is a glorious month to open a private garden for charity. This time last year, I was fortunate to be invited to photograph a superb English landscape garden in all its early summer splendour.

Home Farm is situated on the Rutland border, a five-minute drive north-east of Stamford, nestling between the outskirts of Ryhall and Little Casterton, and a stone’s throw from Tolethorpe Hall and Open Air Theatre.

Although the postal address is strictly speaking just into Rutland, Karen and Steve Bourne’s beautiful and extensive garden will open again, for the sixth year, on behalf of the Lincolnshire branch of the National Garden Scheme.

On moving into the post-WWII farmhouse 17 years ago, other than a few inherited shrub borders, a virtually clear canvas awaited the Bournes’ creativity. They gardened at first with chainsaw and pickaxe and brought in tonnes of topsoil.

Favouring the naturalistic, open space and flowing style of the celebrated ‘Capability’ Brown (1716-1783), they introduced colour and fragrance to attract wildlife, planting to enhance the views according to soil conditions.

Steve, an animal nutritionist, determined the first job was to filter north-east winds by planting a shelter belt of 800 native trees. A dry spring meant Karen and the three children had to hand water them for a month or two to encourage establishment.

Next followed a striking wild-bird cherry avenue, leading the eye towards the new woodland shelter belt. Double-flowered Prunus serrulata ‘Pink Perfection’ with the Tibetan Prunus ‘Tai-haku’, the single-flowered, great white cherry, are underplanted with Lavandula x intermedia ‘Gros Bleu’, a larger, robust lavender with broad leaves.

As the romantic mix of pink and white blossom fades in May, the lavender corridor starts growing in time for June’s garden visitors, flowering on through summer months.

Planting combinations
Above the cherry avenue, an east-facing, brick ha-ha separates the wilder part of the garden from the more formal. Here attractive wide beds are home to an unusual combination of spring bulbs and vegetables, including ferny asparagus, a touching nod to Steve’s grandfather, who was an asparagus-grower in the Vale of Evesham. Along with copious supplies of rhubarb, vegetables planted in a random fashion provide early crops thanks to the warmth of the bricks. The ever-practical ‘Capability’ Brown would approve!

An expanse of lawn is interrupted by a favourite tree which unfortunately lost half of its branches in a recent tornado. After careful pruning, this multi-stemmed pussy willow has now regained its architectural attractiveness, on the edge of a magnificent, oval island flowerbed. This has been purposefully densely planted to suppress weeds, packed with a select palette of blues, pinks and purples in assorted dreamy delphinium spires, hardy geraniums, roses, salvias and much more.

A tasteful array of iron supports (Lincolnshire Plant Supports) keeps everything ‘upstanding’.

A curving, stage-like, terrace takes full advantage of far-reaching and panoramic views south-east over unspoilt countryside, the ideal site for an outdoor dining area as also for open garden teas. In the foreground, lacing the curvaceous terrace edge is another particularly fragrant lavender, Lavandula ‘Abrialii’, a variety widely used for making pot-pourri. The resulting, rewarding haze of mid-purple flowers and grey green foliage attract a humming multitude of bees, and the family dogs which love to lie nearby on the lawn, content to survey their domain.

Anyone for tennis?
Talking of sounds of summer, this Wimbledon-born visitor, noticing the tennis court beyond the sweeping lawn, was immediately transported back in time by precious childhood memories. Just as the home of lawn tennis is celebrated within a theatrical, beautifully maintained setting of roses and hydrangeas, here this tennis court is equally loved, and much enjoyed by Karen and Steve’s three sporting children, all of whom have taken their tennis careers beyond school lessons.

As years passed, they have successfully garlanded the court in every colour of the rainbow. Their gardener, Kevin Saunders, estimates their rose collection at more than 120. Many have been sourced from the celebrated rose grower David Austin, those highly versatile roses in alluring shades, shrub roses, as well as climbers and standard roses. Great attention to detail in pruning and training these ensures an ever-increasingly attractive display year-on-year. Pink lollipops of Rosa ‘Harlow Carr’ look stunning, set in Italian-style box hedge beds, and a more recently introduced driveway of Ragusa roses, replacing a leylandii hedge, ensures each ‘corner’ of this garden holds some attraction.

Challenging the pair to name their favourite roses, Steve did not hesitate, declaring ‘Jubilee Celebration’ as definitely his most loved. Its elegant arching stems are laden with gorgeous, multi-petalled roses in tones of coral and pink, releasing a strong fruity perfume. This healthy, repeat-flowering shrub rose is now on my ‘bucket list’ – as is Karen’s choice, a climbing rose ‘Leaping Salmon’.

Natural haven
Lately, developing the nearest field beyond the brick ha-ha into a wild-flower meadow, no easy task, the family has been thrilled to spot rare species of butterflies and insects flitting in amongst what must be pure heaven for pollinators. Here too a fine pin oak, Quercus palustris purchased from Majestic Trees, makes the perfect eye-catcher. Also known as swamp oak, or Spanish oak, this large deciduous, open wetland tree features a dense crown of lush, lime-green leaves in early summer, that, come autumn, delight the eye by turning reddish-brown to bright crimson.

Visitors of all ages have remarked to the couple on the feeling of privilege of being able to “just sit and enjoy the view” from the terrace. Others may wish to stride out along the maturing woodland trail beyond the ha-ha, explore the bounds, or else tackle the wildflower meadow circuit, following a mown walk round and perhaps inspect the fruit cage and vegetable garden, positioned in front of solar panels.

Steve and Karen’s environmental focus for the garden and house is impressive. An irrigation system is long gone. Instead, with the help of garden designer Slaine Short, who worked with the couple on the oval bed design, more recent plantings are comprised of drought-tolerant species. A Mediterranean bed now thrives in a particularly dry, hot spot in the garden, in front of a west-facing wall.

Following an eye-catching display of iris in late spring, Rosemary, Russian sage (Perovskia atriplicifolia, now reclassified as Salvia yangii), Cistus, a Smoke bush (Cotinus) and blue and purple varieties of Tulbaghia flourish through summer. While they select plant species able to withstand more extreme conditions, the garden continues to evolve.

As the dates for Home Farm’s Open Gardens 2025 approach, visitors are sure to appreciate, as I did, an amazing variety of specimen plants and wildflowers, all suited to aspect and location, and making havens for a wide array of wildlife.

Above all, lingering long in the memory, the heady mix of English roses and lavender perfume in the air, will offer a refreshing, heart-warming and welcoming ‘Wimbledon fortnight’ feel!

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