GARDENS


Above: Four compact ponds lead to a Lutyens- style bench. Top right: The Golden Terrace with its box and yew. Below right: Ian hard at work.


packed with a succession of daffodils, Chion- odoxa, Snakes’s Head fritillary and cowslips, culminating in late May with rich pools of blue Camassia Leichtlinii Caerulea. Turn right and the grass path rises gently


FIELD


FACTS Ian and Susan McKellar, Parkhead, Rosneath, Helensburgh G84 0QR. The


garden is open daily by arrangement, preferably by email. Tel: 01436 831448 imckellaris@ gmail.com www.scotlands gardens.org


past a bright yellow bench towards the Golden Terrace. Running the full length of the east-fac- ing wall this spectacular, sunny scheme is laid out with golden box, Buxus sempervirens ‘Lati- folia Maculata’ in a simple, symmetrical Art Deco-influenced design. Height comes from individual columns of


Golden Yew established in raised, brick boxes outlined with stone setts and tall, tiered varie- gated, golden holly, Ilex aquifolium ‘Madame Briot’. For summer contrast the border is planted with a palate of blue Geranium magnificum, Salvia patens and lobelia. The design is kept fresh and golden with contain- ers of Tulipa ‘Spring Green’ followed by yellow dahlias and, for autumn, golden Crocosmia. The opposite, east side of the space features


a dramatic row of hornbeam cones, box balls and ovals set in grass. Here, as on the west, are


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two trios of silver birch, Betula jacquemontii, their freshly-washed bark gleaming in the sun. Even with Susan painstakingly weeding the


paths by hand it is difficult to believe Ian tends this garden alone. The hardest part, he says, is catching the time to cut the grass when it is dry: ‘Clipping is a discipline but very satisfying’. First to be clipped is the grey leaved Pittosporum tenuifolium at the side of the house and last is the Prunus Lusitanica ‘Myrtifolia’ at the end of August. The box is cut from around Derby Day at the beginning of June and the careful raking up of clippings helps to avoid the threat of box blight. Shapes are established by allowing plants


to grow taller than desired and then clipping them using one of five sets of power tools. ‘Once you have established the shape, you have to hold your nerve and stick to the outline,’ he says. ‘You learn as you go along. If you make mistakes you have to live with them.’ Working alone it took many years for the


garden to establish, which is probably why it remained a secret for so long.


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