|
The Team at Winsford Walled Garden.
 Most people express surprise that only three people have taken on this project, and they express even greater surprise at our achievement so far. A most unlikely group perhaps, we certainly never intended to do this!
Back in February 1999 we were not even looking for a new home. Aileen was on a landscape painting course at nearby RHS Rosemoor garden, but when she saw the original Victorian garden walls it was all we could do to stop her moving before the previous owners had left!
During that cold, fateful February we said 'yes' to an overgrown, dilapidated and unwanted walled garden in North Devon. A genuine Victorian walled garden is every gardener's dream it seems, (although Mike & Tanya didn't know it back then). It wasn't until we were on the way home after saying 'yes' that we realised our home wasn't even on the market to pay for it!
On the 23 June 1999 we moved to Winsford Walled Garden. The rest, they say, is history.
The present garden is the result of the combined efforts of just the three of us. Aileen, son Michael ('muddywellies') and his wife Tanya, have each been gardeners from a very early age. With just a hint of her Siberian roots, Tanya declares, “I've been gardening since I could pick up a potato”. All three work with any plant, anywhere in the garden. Although each has their own preferred area of interest within the garden. Part of the great enjoyment of gardening for all three, is to discuss plants and bounce ideas off each other and share them with the many visitors who delight in what they are doing.
 Michael tends to come up with the design ideas for the landscaping and planting. He does all the garden building and planting himself. He also designed and maintains the website.
He writes gardening-related articles and recently returned from Russia with Tanya after lecturing to garden designers in St Petersburg. He will happily design a garden scheme if approached.
Aileen unfortunately, is not as mobile as she would like to be, but her enthusiasm for all things gardening never wanes, while Tanya enthusiastically helps out whenever she can. Both women provide the 'reality check' to some of Michael's more ambitious ideas. All in all, Winsford Walled Garden is a family labour of love.
The upper photograph shows Aileen working on the second greenhouse restoration, while Tanya is pictured below in early May admiring the Fuchsia baskets above Winsford's enviable Hosta collection. Looking at the picture of Mike excavating some of the garden frames during the early years it is no wonder why he uses the handle 'muddywellies' on the internet.
  Garden Visitor Testimonials
|
