Deep in the heart of Glasgow...

The garden. Image: Ray Cox Antoinette Galbraith visits a garden gem hidden away between Glasgow's Victorian tenements.

Debbie Hindle and Ken Ross. Image: Ray Cox Debbie Hindle and Ken Ross’s beautiful walled tenement garden is sandwiched between an office car park and another walled garden in the angle of two rows of Victorian tenements. To reach it, the couple go out the front door of their flat, overlooking Kelvingrove Park in the centre of Glasgow, and turn left at the end of the block where a short walk down a lane leads to a footpath and then to the garden gate.

Shortly after the couple bought their flat they found out they had shared ownership of a garden while studying the deeds. The site took some time to locate as it was well hidden in the undergrowth behind piles of debris, including dumped furniture. Having secured the permission of their co-owners they set to work, clearing the space of rubbish, overgrown hedges and trees. American-born Debbie says; "When we’d finished we were left with a featureless rectangular plot with two dominant structures - an electricity substation and our small brick garage! Ironically, the presence of the substation may have saved the garden from being converted into car-parking spaces like other neighbouring gardens."

At this point, in September 2002, Debbie, a professional in the field of mental health, attended an Open Doors Day run by the Coach House Trust, an organisation supported by Glasgow City Council for their work in the field of mental health, environmental and social justice. The Trust’s mission is to create occupational, educational and employment opportunities for people from disadvantaged backgrounds including mental health problems, learning disabilities, and alcohol and drug rehabilitation. Gardening and landscaping are just one of two of the skills used to encourage individuals to discover their talents and train for a job suited to their capabilities and temperaments.

Seating area. Image: Ray Cox "I visited gardens that the Trust had developed in several 'gap sites' in the centre of Glasgow, which had been virtual waste grounds, blighted by fly-tipping, etcetera," Debbie says. "The similarities with the area we had just cleared was striking and the results were inspiring." She invited Poppy Gibson, then the Trust’s Head Gardener, to view the plot and explained the brief: the garden had to be available for multiple usages for all owners - with plenty of sitting areas - and needed to be low maintenance.

Imaginative design

After just one viewing, Poppy developed an imaginative herringbone design of lawns, paths and decking that altered the rectangle creating an impression of width. A dry river bed laid with grey pebbles, set on the diagonal, entices you into the garden while drawing your eye away from the electricity substation. The sharp angles of the brick-edged beds, lawns and decking flow seamless together uniting the space, with height coming from bamboos and a collection of small trees and large shrubs. These include a red-leaved Photinia davidiana ‘Red Robin’ underplanted with maroon-leaved Heuchera ‘Palace Purple’ close to an Acer palmatum in a wooden container.

But perhaps the greatest impact is created by Poppy’s choice of a rich palette of warm Scottish paint colours: oregano for the substation and the pergola and heather for the wooden box that surrounds the trees and the trellises on the walls. Both colours complement the green and plum tones in the slate while contrasting with the grey skies and introducing a soft note of calm.

With just one Fuchsia magellanica remaining from the original planting, Debbie and Poppy used the paint colours as a departure for the planting scheme. The season starts with ‘an explosion of colour,’ when the oregano-painted walls are covered with waves of Ceanothus ‘Blue Mound’ and audacious splashes of red Cytisus ‘Dorothy Walpole’. The background beds feature repeat plantings of evergreen shrubs such as white-flowering Choisya ternata and camellia complemented by grey-blue hostas chosen because of their ability to blend successfully with the heather-painted wooden containers.

The design also included a woodland area where a creamy-barked Betula utilis var. jacquemontii ‘Jermyns’ contrasts with late-flowering, dark purple Buddleja davidii ‘Black Knight’ combined with groundcovering pulmonaria, ferns and epimedium.

Different species of birds visit regularly, some making their home in the garden. A bold, local fox is much in evidence, and the only problem is the presence of grey squirrels who tend to dig up newly planted bulbs. The Coach House Trust also built three compost bins, the contents of which are used as a summer, moisture-retaining and weed-suppressant mulch and to enrich the free-draining soil.

Rose garden

Well mulched, the garden proved surprisingly fertile and the couple struggled from the first year with problems created by overplanting. Cuttings and plants given by friends soon thickened and it was not long before the low-maintenance concept was abandoned and structural plants were removed to make way for herbaceous plants, roses and clematis in romantic combinations in a range of pinks, purples and blues. These further soften the hard landscaping of the garage and the substation.

Dactylorhiza elata and geraniums. Image: Ray Cox Best use was made of vertical space with Rosa ‘Veilchenblau’ covering the deep-green fence, with swathes of R. ‘Blush Rambler’ disguising the garage. Curtains of fragrant magenta R. ‘William Lobb’ combine with purple Clematis ‘The President’ to festoon the walls and form a background to spikes of pink Digitalis (see picture above). More colour comes from the chunky orchid Dactylorhiza elata sitting in a sea of pink and purple geraniums (left) while the golden leaves of Spiraea japonica 'Gold Mound' are contrasted with fat-leaved hostas in a wooden planter made by Ken.