The winner of the 2017 Gardenista Considered Design Awards Best UK Amateur Garden is Bev Horsley for An Artist’s Farmhouse Country Garden in Shrewsbury, England.
“This photograph encapsulates some of my garden: studio and potager with insect hotel, quirky detail, and pretty planting.”
“Rusty metal sheep—the view from my studio.” A: I live in an 1850s brick farmhouse set in 1.8 acres in rural Shropshire, surrounded by fields of cows and sheep.
Q: What were your practical goals for the project? At the top of my wish list was a potager/vegetable garden and pond, but above all I needed to make the garden as low-maintenance as possible as I have no help (apart from a willing husband!).
“Beautiful soft pink rose grows through a Pyrus salicifolia on the patio.” I find large, unformed spaces hard to deal with, so raised beds in the vegetable garden—together with box hedging around the potager beds—have divided the space, making planning and rotation of crops much simpler.
“Mexican daisy covers the patio in summer.” I also love the view from my studio of two large metal sheep in a circle of wild grass under the cherry tree, with the more formal box-edged potager to the side.
“Experimental black tomatoes in the greenhouse.” I like to garden organically so laying weed-suppressing membrane to plant through has become my way of coping with weeds.
“Flowers its heart out for months on a trellis between the drive and the patio garden.” I particularly love to paint vibrant, often quirky portraits of animals and birds—domestic, farm, and occasionally wild—paying a lot of attention to the details that give my subjects life and character.
“View from kitchen window looking out of the lawn with old chimney pot underneath a prolific flowering ornamental cherry.” Q: Where do you get your design inspiration?
“The blue painted seat is a lovely relaxing place to sit to watch the birds dipping in the pond.” A: I would like to enclose the potager/vegetable garden to protect it from wind.
“The pond seen from the raised deck. An absolute haven for wildlife.” Other favorites include Piet Oudolf, Gertrude Jekyll, Sarah Raven, and Vita Sackville-West.