Amateur gardener Sarah Pajwani has transformed a neglected two-acre field into a spectacular family garden for every Season, discovers Rosalind Sack. Here, she shares her tips…
ST TIMOTHEE GARDEN IN BERKSHIRE BOASTS SHAPE, COLOUR AND INTEREST IN ALL SEASONS. IMAGES: SARAH PAJWANI
When Sarah Pajwani and her family moved to St Timothee in Pinkneys Green, Berkshire, in 2006, they were met with dilapidated fences, rundown outbuildings and a hungry rabbit population. The only redeeming feature was a backdrop of mature trees – Silver Birches, Red Oak, Poplars and Willows – that framed the otherwise empty, colourless space.
With a masterplan by Acres Wild landscape designers, Sarah got to work. “I wanted to do it myself, but two acres is a lot,” she admits. “Having an expert define the layout allowed us to take our time, choosing plants and building it up bit by bit.”
The result is a soft, natural garden with hardy perennials, a circular lawn bordered by flowers, a wildlife pond under a Willow, wild grass areas, a rose terrace and a charming parterre. Most impressive is its year-round appeal. “With the garden wrapping around the house, the views are always there. Ensuring they look beautiful in every season has been my priority.”
Here, Sarah shares her tips for creating a garden for all seasons…
ST TIMOTHEE GARDEN THROUGH THE SEASONS. IMAGES: SARAH PAJWANI
Start with Winter
This is when the garden is at its most bare and the permanent backdrop is revealed. Creating beautiful backdrops is the single most important thing. It pays back not just in Winter but right across the year. I think of it as creating the stage on which the seasonal flowers will then perform.
Trees and shrubs are crucial and we have added many smaller trees to disguise, break and frame views. In the Fire borders (pictured), there were already several evergreen trees and shrubs. So to add a lower layer of interest, we planted a river of Cornus Mid Winter Fire – a shrub that’s one of the very best for adding colour in Winter with spectacular bare stems of yellow, orange and red.
Cut back in Spring as bulbs take over the colour theme, it goes on to form a recessive, soft green hedge for the seasonal flowers of Summer, before turning a rich butter yellow in Autumn. It really is the perfect shrub for all seasons.
SHRUBS PROVIDE LONG-LASTING, EASY INTEREST THROUGH THE YEAR. IMAGES: SARAH PAJWANI
Choose shrubs for colour contrast
Shrubs with different coloured foliage can really set off your flowers and offer long lasting, easy interest. The purple foliage of Cotinus Coggygria Royal Purple is one of my favourites. It works well with so many colour combinations, from soft pinks and blues in one border to oranges, reds and yellows in another.
Perhaps most excitingly, it is one of the last shrubs to lose its leaves in Autumn, turning a dramatic fiery red in November and into December and catching the eye from the far end of the garden.
GRASSES BRING BOTH SOFTNESS AND DRAMA YEAR-ROUND. IMAGES: SARAH PAJWANI
Use Grasses to bring light
Grasses lighten plantings in many ways. They bring softness in Summer and are at their best in Autumn and Winter, turning a mellow straw that glows in the lower light, capturing the richness of Autumn and becoming a soft, textural foil to Winter evergreens.
My first grass was the graceful fountain grass, Stipa Gigantea. I planted eight of these around the sunny side of my first border, before experimenting with other grasses in later borders including four dramatic Pampas as part of a mid-level backdrop to our pond.
SPRING BULBS PROVIDE LARGE DRIFTS OF COLOUR. IMAGES: SARAH PAJWANI
Go large with Spring bulbs
Bulbs are a great way to add colour and excitement in Spring. They are easy to plant in long grass areas as well as in borders around summer flowers, where many will return year after year and even multiply to form big drifts of colour.
Daffodils kick things off in our Big Circle border, while early tulips get things going on the front terrace which looks out to a sea of paler Thalia daffodils planted into the grass. Each Autumn I’ve added a new area, usually planting in singles to allow the bulbs to steadily multiply over time.
PRIORITISE LONG-TERM PERFORMANCE AT THE FRONT OF THE BORDERS. IMAGES: SARAH PAJWANI
Prioritise the front edge
Long-term performance is always a good thing but nowhere is this more important than the very front edge, which is the most visible part of a border. Here, I look for long flowering plants that die well and have interesting foliage.
In the Big Circle border the wonderfully full front edge combines Heuchera Plum Pudding, the silver foliage of Stachys Byzantina, long flowering Geranium Dreamland as well as mounds of Geranium Sanguineum Striatum whose foliage looks good even when the flowers are finished. Further back, there are gaps and holes which will be filled by later flowers but, at this time of year, they are happily obscured by the flowers towards the front.
In other borders I use different colour Heuchera along with Bergenia, some of the smaller evergreen grasses such as Carex and Festuca, as well as long flowering Erigeron Karvinskianus and Rozanne.
SUMMER DINING SURROUNDED BY OX-EYE DAISIES AND A SPRING SEATING AREA UNDER THE APPLE BLOSSOM. IMAGES: SARAH PAJWANI
Vary places for eating and sitting
These give you more reasons to get out and enjoy relaxing in your garden. In Summer, we enjoy meals at tables set within one of our long grass areas surrounded by Ox-Eye daisies and wildflowers while the small Pond Terrace is home for the sunloungers.
By September, the long grass is cut, the sunloungers put away and meals move down to the more intimate pond terrace complete with fire-pit and surrounded by the fading straw of ornamental grasses and Winter seedheads.
Other spots with benches encourage us to enjoy different views in the garden. One favourite is behind the pond, accessed by a stepping stone path and sheltered by the Magnolia. There is something about the journey around the water that makes me feel I’ve really got away from everything.
A new seating spot is just outside the kitchen under an Apple tree. The table and bench we’ve surrounded with three Hornbeam balls and, this Summer, we allowed the grass to grow long. It’s the perfect spot for morning coffee and it’s equally good to look out over in Winter, helping to break up a large and rather boring expanse of lawn.
Sarah’s garden at St Timothee in Berkshire opens regularly for the National Garden Scheme and offers a variety of ‘Talk and Walk’ events across the year, including on 14th and 16th January 2025. More information and booking details can be found here.
