Living with nature in a Magical Woodland Garden

A woodland walk is a relaxing thing, you probably already know the path it's become familiar, you already know the scene; the collection of trees changing with the seasons, every walk provides different interests and discoveries.

My meditations usually start in a woodland, I walk down a well-trodden path, the sunlight glinting through the overhanging branches and leaves, and carefully tread between the old tree roots crossing my way. It's always a beautiful calm sunny day and I can smell the sweet scents as I brush against the vegetation.

I saw in my mind the possibility of a woodland at the top of my own garden. It wouldn’t need to be manicured and the wildflowers could be left to display their beauty and live in harmony with the trees and the wildlife.

As we age, it's impossible to find the stamina we once enjoyed in our younger days, and rather than feel defeated by the enormity of the tasks, we can re-invent our homes and gardens.

Its become quite a trend to have wildflowers and meadows — I guess many of my generation are still ‘Hippies’ at heart

The first thing in my Masterplan was to create an opening in the Leylandii hedge at the top of the garden so that I could see the water meadow behind and ‘borrow’ the landscape.

The area was covered with nettles, but surprisingly easy to pull out because the roots run just under the surface of the soil. Anything with attractive leaves or flowers were left undisturbed.

There’s a track opposite my house where ‘fly-tipping’ provides lots of ‘treasures’. I find old bricks, with aged patina covered in moss, old York Stone, and Cotswold stone boulders. As the fashionable rockeries from the 1960s are getting discarded, they are lovely to use in a woodland setting.

Gnarled tree trunks laying discarded seem to find their way home with me, although I leave all the woodland plants alone. The birds bring me these on a regular basis in their droppings.

Underplanting around the base of the trees means there’s no lawn to mow, and provided the unwanted wildflowers don’t become too prolific, the area becomes almost maintenance-free.

Under the walnut tree creamy Hellebores (Christmas Roses) and pale primroses compete for attention blending their colours in a natural setting.

Succession Planting for an easy garden

But the biggest Coup-d’etat is the succession planting — in January the snowdrops appear:

When the snowdrops stop flowering, daffodils push through the soil, their leaves covering the fading snowdrop flowers and foliage. Daffodils are such a wonderful uplifting sight in early spring.

….and then just as the daffodils are finishing, the mottled leaves of Pulmonaria with their pink and lavender flowers start to burst forth and cover the daffodils as the flowers and leaves die down. I can leave the daffodils undisturbed to finish their cycle of growth and return to hibernation for next year.

Pulmonaria is a very useful plant in a woodland garden, it looks very much ‘at home’.

At the end of the year in late October, or early November, the leaves of pulmonaria are cleared, I usually raise the height of the lawnmower and run over the whole area to cut them back, covering with a layer of garden compost and let it all ‘sleep’ until January.

Any broken terracotta pots are laid on their sides, planted with ivy or a fern randomly growing out, making it into a ‘spill pot’. They fit in well and look very effective, a hint to the abandoned faded glory of times long past.

Instead of buying ‘new’ in a woodland garden, it's possible to use existing materials, rusty old garden machinery that looks good, broken pots, or any moss-covered stonework.

Now, if I can just find some more solutions for the rest of the garden…….I’ll have cracked it!

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