Every day, rain or shine, Canadian ex-pat Pamela Macauley walks out to her garden in Cheshire, England, at 5 a.m. You might picture her contemplating life on a misty morning stroll, but you'd be wrong. For Pamela, keeping this cottage garden at its beautiful best involves more than cutting the occasional tabletop bouquet while hired landscapers weed, dig and prune. For Pamela, nurturing her plants is a personal labour of love, down to taking on all the not-so-pleasant tasks by herself. "I go slug hunting first thing," she confesses, "with rubber gloves and a bucket. Then I feed the slugs to the chickens for breakfast."
It's not until 8 a.m., in fact, that Pamela is enjoying her cup of tea in the garden (after sowing and watering), and even then she's deadheading as she walks. During the past 10 years or so, the routine has been the same at this circa 1750s house in the village of Dunham Massey, near Manchester. "My inspiration was Monet's garden at Giverny," notes Pamela, who you may recognize as Canadian Home & Country's inventive DIY expert. "I love those soft pinks, purples, greens and whites." With game plan in hand, Pamela set about coaxing what was once a flat, undefined space used as a bowling green into an enchanted half acre set out with four prolific plots.
Spreading out from the back of the home Pamela shares with her husband, Iain, and children Ben and Charlotte, a vegetable garden, herb garden, white garden and a cutting garden fill the plot's four corners, offering produce and posies throughout the year. "We have fresh salads every day in the summer, and the house is always filled with fresh-cut flowers," Pamela adds.
For the rest, a tiny greenhouse and comfortable benches dot the borders under arches of trailing blooms, while hedgehogs and birds mingle with the Macauley family's four chickens, who have free rein in the autumn and winter to turn over the soil.
"The garden is mostly planted up now," states Pamela. "I've filled the beds with tons of antique roses from [esteemed grower and purveyor] David Austin, and every spring I try to add more plants." That goal is accomplished with a heady mixture of allium, phlox, chamomile, money plant, and more.
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