Temptation at Generous Gardener sales

It’s hard to know what I like best: visiting a garden or buying plants from knowledgeable growers. Here, in the Cotswolds, we’re lucky enough to be able to do both with The Generous Gardener sales at The Coach House in Ampney Crucis.

Set in Mel and Nicholas Tanner’s varied garden, they bring together top nurseries from across the country in four seasonal events.

Among the regulars are Hardy’s Cottage Garden Plants, Cotswold Garden Flowers and Tortworth Plants. Entry to the sale not only gives you the chance to stock up on plants, it also gives you access to the garden, while the entry money goes to Gloucester charity The James Hopkins Trust, which cares for severely disabled children.

Mel is now into her eighth year of running the Generous Gardener sales, thanks to a chance remark by the previous organiser, garden designer Katie Lukas, who told her she was looking for someone to take over.

“I drove away thinking ‘Why not?’,” says Mel. “I’d always wanted to do something with the garden and I felt it had got to a level where it could be used for something.”

Even so, I sense she’s somewhat surprised at how things have turned out with lectures, workshops and group visits now run at the garden, which also opens for the National Garden Scheme.

The garden’s been developed over the past 30 years from an empty site. The house – the former stables and coach house for the nearby Ampney Park – had been partly re-developed but the land around it was untouched beyond some grass and a drive that swept across to the house.

With the help of her brother, a landscape designer, Mel and Nicholas introduced terraced levels to what was a sloping lawn, planted yew hedges and constructed Cotswold stone walls to divide the space into smaller ‘rooms’.

What made the task more difficult was not knowing what was going to happen to land alongside, which was the subject of several planning applications. Eventually, the couple were able to buy it and extend the garden to its current one-and-a-half acres.

The design, she says, was determined by the site: “We divided it up to give more interest. It doesn’t have any views so it has to be an inward-looking garden.”

There are carefully thought out vistas: along a line of yew blocks, down a pleached lime allée, with standard shrubs, or planted urns framing views.

Each of the areas has a different feel. Near the house, spring flowers – Arum italicum, hellebores, hamamelis, snowdrops – are close enough to be visible from inside. There’s a woodland area planted for spring and autumn, mixed borders either side of the main lawn for summer colour, a gravel area of Mediterranean plants, and a rose garden at the highest point of the garden, giving views over the rest.

Vegetables are tucked away behind hedges where obelisks, standard gooseberries and flowers for cutting add colour and interest in the summer.

The loss of a conifer has given the space needed for a greenhouse and potting shed with a bed in front that will be used for decorative salads.

“I’m just trying to create different areas, different kinds of planting and a different atmosphere.”

Of course, a plant sale is a temptation for any gardener and I suggest that hosting the Generous Gardener sales must be even more difficult.

“It is tempting,” Mel admits. “At the end of every sale there’s a big pile of plants in the back porch waiting to be planted.”

But she understands the risks of buying one or two of every plant that tempts her: “You can have so many plants it looks a bit disjointed and I do try to avoid that.”

And she has no regrets about taking on the sales: “It’s really busy but it’s great fun.”

The Generous Gardener sales raise money for The James Hopkins Trust, which celebrates its 30^th anniversary this year. The first sale is on Friday March 8. Visit the website for details and further dates.

To read about more Cotswold gardens, do follow this blog.