This Valentine’s Day, we decided to ask some of horticulture’s top duos what it’s like to garden together
Gardening has always attracted duos, perhaps because creating and maintaining a garden is a lot of work for one, or maybe because it is simply a nice way to spend time together.
From Vita Sackville-West and Harold Nicolson at Sissinghurst to Margery Fish and her husband Walter at East Lambrook Manor, many remarkable gardens have been created by couples over the years.
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For Valentine’s Day, we decided to ask some of horticulture’s top couples what it’s like to garden together.
Steve and Louise from No Name Nursery
Steve and Louise started No Name Nursery in 2019 after purchasing three acres of land in Kent. The nursery is founded on the idea of being gardeners first and growers second, and knowing how to grow plants together so that they’re happy and healthy. We asked them what makes them tick in the garden and how they manage their workload together.
How did you start gardening together?
Louise: “We started gardening together in 2008 when I got an apprenticeship at The Salutation Garden where Steve was head gardener. Funny thing is, I didn’t even like him at first; he gradually grew on me (pun intended).”
Steve: “Although Louise and I gardened together when she was my student, I don’t think we started gardening together as peers until a few years later, when her raw talent was tempered a bit, and she began to really challenge my ideas. The dynamic changed again when we became romantically involved. It can be tricky to speak your truth but not hurt someone’s feelings.”
“Funny thing is, I didn’t even like him at first, he gradually grew on me (pun intended)”
What is the most annoying thing your partner does in the garden?
Louise: “Whenever I clear any space on the nursery, polytunnel or potting bench, as soon as I turn my back he fills it with something that doesn’t necessarily belong there.”
Are there any plants or jobs in the garden that you love but your partner hates?
Louise: “Fortunately we both have the same plant hates. We tease each other about our National Plant Collections: he says my Pseudopanax look like dead things, and I say how many red or yellow-flowered dark-leaved dahlias can you need, as they all look the same.”
Steve: “I don’t have any job hates, I love all things about being a gardener, although it hasn’t gone unnoticed that Louise seems to duck off when there is mulching to be done. I think she secretly hates barrowing compost.”
“Louise seems to duck off when there is mulching to be done. I think she secretly hates barrowing compost.”
What makes your partner good to work with?
Steve: “Lou is incredibly good at organisation and keeping her focus, for which I will be forever grateful. I am a little erratic, lots of ideas bowling around, so she grounds me. I am always trying to get Lou to enjoy the moment instead of planning three steps ahead all the time.”
Louise: “When there is a lot to do in the garden and we are busy with private clients, plant fairs etc, I can find it quite overwhelming. He is very good at keeping calm and telling me it will all be ok.”
Isabel and Julian Bannerman
Julian and Isabel Bannerman have been designing gardens and garden buildings together since 1983, including Highgrove, the gardens of King Charles III. You can listen to Isabel talking about their work and gardening life on the Gardens Illustrated podcast. Here we find out how they’ve gardened together over the years.
How did you start gardening together?
Isabel: “We met a very long time ago when Julian had a bar in Edinburgh and I was a student – it was a very cool bar, but actually what Julian wanted to do was make landscapes and gardens. Those were his passions along with houses and architecture, which were my passions, so we sort of started together.”
What is your favourite gardening job to do together?
Isabel: “We fight a lot in the garden, but we like planting bulbs even though its so hard – there is so much promise in such a small insignificant looking thing as a bulb, especially snowdrops.”
“We always end up laughing even when we have been close to murder.”
Are there any jobs that you hate but your partner loves?
Isabel: “Mowing! I never have anything to do with mowing – I think Julian loves it but he might say ‘someone has to do it.'”
What do you like to receive as a Valentine’s Day gift?
Isabel: “Give me a bunch of snowdrops instead of some imported horror flower from Colombia!”
What makes your partner good or difficult to work with?
Isabel: “Julian is good to work with because he is funny and we always end up laughing even when we have been close to murder. He is difficult because he always thinks he’s right and I am difficult because I always think I’m right too…”
Rob and Rosy from Hardy’s Cottage Garden Plants
Rosy and Rob are stalwart members of the nursery scene, having established their independent nursery Hardy’s Cottage Garden Plants in 1988 and won 24 RHS Chelsea Flower Show gold medals since then. We find out how they met and how they’ve gone about working together for so many years.
How did you start in horticulture together?
Robert: “We met at 9.45am on 6 September 1985. Rosy was working in a vegetable packing shed and I was there to train staff on a new packing machine. To Rosy’s annoyance, I always remember the date and time. After a few years of having no back garden in Surrey, we moved to a walled garden in the Test Valley. We had a new baby and a new business. I’d given up my job and joined Rosy full time. We started off combining contract landscaping and growing plants. I encouraged Rosy to do her first floral display at RHS Chelsea and 24 RHS Gold Medals later, I think I was right to encourage her.”
Rosy: “After a couple of years together, I was at a boot sale and saw homegrown plants being sold, so I came home and dug up the garden. It was from this our business, Hardy’s Cottage Garden Plants, was born. My background is commercial horticulture. We started specialising in herbaceous perennials as I saw that this was what people were asking for and buying.”
“I encouraged Rosy to do her first floral display at RHS Chelsea and 24 RHS Gold Medals later, I think I was right to encourage her.”
What is your favourite gardening job to do together?
Rosy: “At home, I’m the main gardener and do all the maintaining of our gravel and other garden areas. Robert loves power tools, and is incredibly happy when using them. He is the chainsaw and strimmer man under close supervision. I do have to go and tidy up behind him.”
Robert: “I do love a power tool! I leave it to Rosy to design and care for our garden at home. She’s the plantswoman!”
Are there any plants that you hate but your partner loves?
Robert: “I love Anemone ‘Frilly Knickers’ which is a plant that Rosy named. I love a double entendre and I frequently joke that ‘Rosy’s knicker drawer is nearly empty, do buy a pair’.”
Rosy: “I don’t really have favourite plants as there are star plants all the way through the season. I dislike yellow spotted variegation on plants, whereas Robert tends to like all plants, spotted or not.”
What makes your partner good to work with?
Rosy: “Robert is very patient and puts up with me.”
Robert: “Rosy is so talented, artistic, really knowledgeable about plants. I learn from her every day. I call Rosy Mary Poppins as she’s perfect in every way.”
Rosy: “And I call him Scarlett Pimpernel, as I seek him here, there and everywhere. He’s always disappearing at shows!”
“Rosy is so talented, artistic, really knowledgeable about plants. I learn from her every day.”
Abi and Tom from Abi and Tom’s Garden Plants
Abi and Tom’s Garden Plants was founded in 2011 on the site of the original plant nursery at Halecat in the South Lakes. In 2020, Abi and Tom purchased the Grange Plant Centre where they stock a diverse range of hardy plants. We find out what they love about gardening with each other.
How did you start gardening together?
Abi and Tom: “When we bought our first house together and transformed our little back yard into a garden.”
What is the most frustrating thing your partner does in the garden?
Tom: “Abi will keep me waiting for lunch until the job we’re doing is finished!”
“Abi will keep me waiting for lunch until the job we’re doing is finished!”
Do you garden the same space or do you have your own plots?
Tom: “I work throughout the garden spaces both public and private, and deal with all the hedge cutting and topiary work in the autumn.”
Abi: “I tend to our private family garden especially the vegetable and salad beds that feed us all throughout the summer and autumn, but also organise the bulb planting in the many planters and containers that can be found all over the site.”
What makes your partner good to work with?
Tom: “The best thing about working together is we share the same work ethic and are always striving to make everything we do as good as we possibly can and not being afraid to make mistakes.”
“The best thing about working together is we share the same work ethic”
Do you have the same or different tastes?
Tom: “Taste wise we’re very similar. I will perhaps nudge the exotic, brightly coloured foliage arena to the limits of what I can get away with when it comes to the most exuberant planted borders and containers.”
Abi: “I love grouping colours and matching them in subtler more harmonious combinations, from the tulip displays that change annually to the perennial planting in the borders.”