The Times - Travel section April 25th 2009

Alastair Sawday

Sallowfield Cottage, Wymondham, Norfolk

Drift (sighing if you like) from house to garden on sunny days, one crammed with prints, pictures and antique furniture, the other with hedged "rooms" and a jungle like pond. Caroline Musker, the owner, let's you be, unless you prefer a fuss.

www.timesonline.co.uk/wheretostay

Written by Alan Gray for the Eastern Daily Press, June 24th 2008

  The village of Wattlefield is not far from the area of Norfolk that was my childhood home.  There is not much pasture land around here today as most of the farming is arable – and it is here, though fields of oilseed rape, wheat and barley that I find myself turning into a somewhat anonymous driveway as directed by the owner of the garden I had come to see – Caroline Musker.

  Suddenly, there before me is a most charming cottage surrounded by a very well kept garden where I meet Caroline busily weeding away (after the recent rains we have experienced, weeds are growing apace in the warm sunshine). Being the perfect hostess, I am asked in for a delicious cup of coffee.

  Little do I realise I am about to receive such a huge surprise. Caroline’s house had once been a pair of semi-detached cottages and when she came to live here 14 or so years ago, she set about making them into a house that would please her.

  Entering the front door, I am welcomed into a generous hall that leads through to the large family kitchen. This, in turn, leads to a pair of glazed double doors that open onto what I can only describe as a sublime space, for at the back of the house is a large pond and Caroline has, very cleverly, made a jetty that extends outwards from the house that becomes an outside entertaining area.

  Here we sit, enjoying coffee together, being serenaded by melodious birdsong – what a surprise. The pond is large; being in such close proximity to the house it could easily have overwhelmed it, but installing the jetty so that one can look down on it makes the visitor feel at one with it.  What better place to sit and watch the ever changing panoply that water bring to a garden – fish, birds, insect life, it is all here for us to enjoy.  I ask Caroline how deep the pond is and am told it is chest deep but, because the bottom consists of a two feet layer of mud, wading is impossible.

  To one side of this pond is a venerable old willow tree that Caroline has “reduced” as it was leaning rather precariously. The trunk is beautifully gnarled and silvered as is the foliage. Seeing this, one is suddenly aware of the true value of the reflective qualities of water in the garden.

  From the jetty, we move off for a tour of the garden. The most obvious course for us to take is the path that meanders around the pond. In quite deep shade, I notice a holly that has lovely golden foliage, almost as if it lacks chlorophyll.  I suspect that the shade is its saviour, for in the sun this foliage would surely scorch. As the garden is in the middle of an arable landscape, it is enclosed by hedges and trees for shelter but there are tantalising glimpses to be had of the surrounding countryside.

  Suddenly, there before me is a view that was borrowed from the landscape – one of the two towers of Wymondham Abbey framed by tall trees is visible in the distance, reminding us of where we are.

  Back to the garden.  As one would expect there are lots of roses, both bush and climbing, for Peter Beales Roses is only a few miles distant. Clematis too feature here for Thorncroft Clematis is close by too. Caroline says “I try not to point my car in their direction for fear that I shall come home laden with yet more plants”. I can only sympathise with this remark!

  Whenever I visit a garden there is always a plant I do not know and this is no exception. Here I see an incredibly strange looking bay tree with long narrow somewhat twisted foliage – this is the willow leaved bay which is equally good for cooking with, but more attractive to look at; also a clematis called C.fusca that I think is a climbing dicentra, which has fern-like rather fleshy leaves and later on has flowers that are a strange shade of brownish-purple.

  Climbing roses proliferate in the garden, taking the eye upwards into some very good silver birches.

  The garden is subdivided into lots of different areas making it feel much larger than the acre it actually is; the hedges all well clipped and the lawns, weed-free and well cut, make an ideal framework for the planting that is contained therein.

  As a feature in one of the lawned areas, there is a central bed that contains a rather splendidly large rusty-coloured smelting pot.  This is planted with lavender stoechas, the French lavender that is displaying this mauve coloured pennants.

  As an under-planting around the base of the smelting pot, Caroline has used some violas with flowers of a similar shade which make a most satisfactory complementary combination. When I ask which variety they are, I am told they come from a well know do-it-yourself superstore – which just goes to prove that if you are selective in your choice of what is available the results can be astounding.

  A rose I haven’t encountered before is called ‘Attlebrough’ and yes, you’ve guessed, it comes from Peter Beales.  This is a climber with very double, deep red, cup shaped flowers that catch my attention and is definitely on the list of roses I shall grow.  Next to it is another delightful climbing shrub called Indegofera Heteranthe.  This is covered in delightful little upright racemes of pink blossom. 

  In fact, everywhere I look there is colour and interest; I was extremely glad to see some old fashioned zonal pelargoniums in pots. These eventually attain a tree-like look not dissimilar to that of a bonsai specimen which I think give the whole plant enormous character.

  Caroline earns huge respect when I learn that she did all of the jobs in this rather exceptional garden herself; the only help she enjoys is the occasional bit of tree felling from a son with a chainsaw who she tells me is very tidy.  I couldn’t help thinking that here is a dedicated plants woman, determined to do her best with what she has, and it shows.

  Although she purports not to like vegetable gardening, I espy a small plot that to me looks very prosperous; I also note that there are pots of lilies and agapanthus that no doubt take their respective places in the garden when they are at their best. This is a gardener that has contingency plans, which is something I understand perfectly well.

  Throughout this garden there are many interesting and unusual plants, including an architectural, large leafed Loquat growing together with a productive fig tree.

  I also love this idea of suddenly finding very large, perfectly clipped box balls, a strong note of formality in an informal border, very clever!

  While touring the garden with Caroline she bends down to pull up the odd weed, as do we all. “I’ll win in the end”, she says, personally I that she already has!