Garden 6

This garden is behind one of the older houses along Oakley Road and has probably been established for about 150 years. Any digging yields shards of Victorian pottery and assorted old nails and iron hasps. The land slopes gently down from Oakley Road to the allotments and the bottom half of the garden was, like the other houses along Oakley Road and so many in Chinnor, an orchard. There are still two old and twisted apples trees with fantastic mistletoe in them, a damson and two plums, but thirty years ago there were more apple trees and a definite feeling of shady orchard. There is also a walnut tree, which is another Chinnor feature.

The slope of the garden has now been terraced and stepped to provide a series of areas with lawns and flower beds, divided by hedges and field-railings. Paths around the garden are cobbled and flinted, with all of the flints being local, many dug up from the garden itself, reflecting the 19th century brick-and-flint construction of the house.

The planting is traditional, with an aim to give an 'English garden' feel, with an emphasis on perennials and roses and a lean towards pink and blue. Despite the house being on one of the village's main roads, there is a secluded and restful feel to the garden. Nearest the kitchen window is a white garden, particularly successful with clouds of snowdrops in February, then aromatic wild garlic in April.  There are some fruit and vegetable areas where we used to have hens before the fox came round, and a collapsing shed.