Stephen Medley’s Marvellous Garden

 As we approached Stephen’s garden and saw the beautiful street border, we knew were were promised a good garden visit.

Stephen gave us a potted history of the development of his 2 acre plot with free draining sandy loam soil from a virtual field in 1994 to what we saw on our visit.In 1995 the hard landscaping was constructed a professional firm made the front garden with lawns and planted mainly shrubs in the shallow borders.Stephen then took on the challenge of transforming the garden to his taste tackling each bed in turn in a week of his holiday from work. The front garden today is a stunning area, influenced by Piet Oudelf, using matrix planting with grasses and other plants running through. The garden with its sustainable plants, many of which reseeding, and shrubs mostly looks after itself. This doesn’t stop Stephen being out in his garden every day.

We then went through to the back garden which wowed us even more! Five years ago, Stephen had used this area for a project on his RHS course with input from his daughter with her designer background.

 A lovely backdrop of the fields behind

We loved this garden with its plants of different shapes, colours and textures. We took away some ideas and our “plants to buy” lists doubled. Stephen patiently answered our many questions on the names and growing conditions of the plants.

We thanked Stephen for taking the time to show us around his stunning garden and the visit ended with tea and delicious homemade cake, which was kindly provided by a few of our members.

Next meeting: 15^th August – Presentation by Tracy Foster on Tulips