Westwood design to print

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The long borders are punctuated by the evergreen
strap-like leaves of the New Zealand flax plant
(Phormium tenax) with their soaring seed heads.
Cornus ‘Midwinter Fire’ produces a burst of orange,
glowing in the winter sun, whilst the white stems of
Rubus thibetanus live up to their name as the ghost
bramble in the misty light.

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As the winter wears on, the silky plumes of the
Chinese silver grass (Miscanthus sinensis ‘Yakushima
Dwarf ’) become more threadbare, but still stand
and catch the frost. Early colour comes from the
acid yellow and green of the Mahonia aquifolium
with its lemon scent, and the Mediterranean spurge
(Euphorbia characias subsp. wulfenii).

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Morning mists clear and the grass regains its colour as
the sun creeps across the fields in the valley where the
shepherd’s hut nestles. By the stream, an old rickety
ladder leading to a hyde has withstood many winters
despite its frail appearance.

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SPRING

Usually the first signs of spring appear in sheltered pockets along the hedgerows, where
clusters of pale lemon coloured primroses peek out, brightening up a grey day.

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IN SOME YEARS, the earliest daffodils on the drive will begin to As well as the proliferation of bird song as the days lengthen, the
flower before their elected time of mid-March. But all these portents overriding sound around the landscape is of the lambs bleating in
of brighter mornings and new growth can provide false hope, for the fields. Agreements with the Gooding brothers, who farm the
many of the plants at Westwood are still dormant. The exposed land adjacent to Westwood, allow all of the fields to be managed
position and cold winds mean that spring is often up to three weeks and fully utilised. Whether it be for grazing, arable or pheasant
later here than in many other more protected places. cover, the patchwork of the land is always somewhat shifting in
colour and texture.
But in the vegetable garden, the Alitex greenhouse enables the
gardeners to steal a march on the weather, starting off seedlings As spring progresses, cowslips dot the fields and the woodlands
in the hot beds straight after Christmas. By early spring tomatoes, light up with the haze of the bluebells, followed by the clear white and
cucumbers and chilies are growing on inside. The nineteenth- vibrant green of the wild garlic. Extensive woodland management
century seed planting proverb “One for the mouse, one for the over the past fifteen years has resulted in a thinning of trees allowing
crow, one to rot, one to grow” is well heeded here, as the mice are more light to the woodland floor. This often allows the bulbs which
particularly voracious. have remained dormant for years, to spring to life again. Year on year,

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these have spread and colonised the woods, creating a tapestry carpet In April, the song of the chiff-chaff is one of the first of the rush of
of colour, particularly evident in Breach Wood. songbirds arriving from their winter destinations. Sir Edward Grey,
the Foreign Secretary between 1905 – 1916 and an amateur naturalist
A whole colony of House Martins take up residence in the described his song as “a symbol, a promise, an assurance of what is
courtyard garden each spring, tucking their nests tight up under the to come.”
eaves, where their young excitedly peer out waiting for a tasty treat.

Magnolia x loebneri ‘Merrill’ is a particularly hardy
specimen tree, which now peeps over the driveway
wall, producing many large scented flowers from
late March, before the leaves appear. It is particularly
suited to the cold of Westwood as the flowers are far
less prone to frost damage than other magnolias.

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On the lower lawn, the wild crab apples, Malus
toringoides unfurl their leaves, whilst the tangle of
russet buds of the Amelanchier lamarckii wait to
open. This multi-stemmed bush is also known as the
Serviceberry, Shadbush and Juneberry on account of
its black berries loved by blackbirds and which can be
substituted for sloes in gin.

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A range of daffodils was planted over the first five
years to provide a long flowering season, starting
with early Narcissus ‘Mount Hood’ and N. ‘Bestseller’
along the driveway verges. Other varieties in the
spring garden and on the grass slopes around the
Sequoiadendron trees include: N. ‘White Lion’,
N. ‘Golden Harvest’, N. ‘White Marvel’, N. ‘Obdam’
and a dwarf mix.

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Tulips have always been planted in the large
Italian terracotta pots for spring displays with
contrasting white and purple or pink tulips such as
T. ‘Snowstar’, T. ‘Albert Heijn’ and T. ‘Paul Scherer’.
Here, the early flowering T. ‘Exotic Emperor’
contrasts with the deep blue bracts of a Honeywort
(Cerinthe major ‘Purpurascens’).

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The vegetable garden is run on a crop rotation system
and by mid spring there are many vegetable seedlings
ready to plant out. Meanwhile, in the bothy, metal bins
house the previous year’s potato harvest. Still supplying
the house as late as March, favourite varieties are
Carlingford and Charlotte. Asparagus spears are ready
to be harvested by the beginning of April, and in the
greenhouse the peach tree (Prunus persica ‘Peregrine’)
planted in 2012, blossoms in preparation for an
abundant harvest of white-fleshed fruit.

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In the long grass of the East lawns, around 1000
tulips are planted each autumn. The tall stems of
T. ‘Apeldoorn’s Elite’ and T. ‘Beauty of Apeldoorn’ are
Darwin hybrids which hold traditionally-shaped cups
of colour. The meadow like a sweet shop filled with
red, orange and yellow bon-bons, which gently fade to
soft apricot.

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