Wharf House Gardener

We’re Matthew and Gareth and we’re making the garden at Wharf House.

We moved here in Autumn 2012 and have been working hard on the garden ever since.

The garden we inherited had some excellent basic structure: established yew hedges, some lovely brick courtyards and a large formal pond. The planting had become very overgrown however. Most beds were infested with perennial weeds and the over-abundance of mature shrubs and trees had led to the garden feeling rather gloomy.

The first stage of renovation was therefore gardening by chain-saw. we took out literally hundreds of conifers, for example. We also began to tackle the weed problem.

Then began the creative, construction phase. We put in long double borders, lined with hedges. We made a new White Garden. We reshaped existing beds and dug new beds to create our Bright Garden. We replanted the Spring Garden with hellebores, bulbs and early flowering shrubs. We re-claimed the muddy island in the stream and made it into a new seating area, surrounded by marginal plants. We built a new covered outdoor eating space and planted a bed of heavily scented plants in front of it. We dug a new vegetable garden in the orchard and started to replace old fruit trees with new. And perhaps most importantly, we built a ‘working area’ with a greenhouse, polytunnel, fruit cage, nursery bed, cutting bed and a space for potting up and pricking out.

The garden is still very much a work in progress and some areas are obviously rather immature. We hope you have a chance to come and visit us one day.