Interview with Fiona Cumberpatch

My parents and grandparents were good gardeners, growing their own fruit, vegetables and flowers in fairly limited spaces, so gardening is something that has always been with me. Having said that, it’s only in the last ten years that I’ve been growing things more confidently, and becoming more ambitious with my plans. 

I’ve also started painting my garden. I love to paint the plants that I’m growing or ones that I would like to raise. I’ve turned the designs into a popular range of tea towels and cards that I sell via my Instagram account @fionacumberpatch.

My two sons, who are in their twenties, are getting quite interested in gardening, and they love spending time in our garden. They really seem to appreciate what I’ve done here. Like many young people, they only have access to tiny spaces. Although as I am always telling them, you only need a few pots and plants to make something lovely!

I’ve always followed my own path.

I’ve been in my current garden for six years, but it’s only in the last two that I’ve turned it into the space I wanted. We had a kitchen extension built with large bifold doors, and as we are in the middle of a town and have no view, I had to get on and make one out of the tiny 12x5m paved courtyard area outside! It was quite a good incentive to get cracking.

In summer, I like the little seating area outside my mini tall wall greenhouse. I can pause there in the late afternoon sun, and have a cup of tea, surrounded by all the flowers that I’ve grown. If I look up, I see my ripening Tumbling Toms tomato plant surrounded by colourful geraniums in a huge wall planter. Every space is packed, as I have such a small garden. My favourite feature in the garden is the reclaimed brick path which winds down the middle. My husband and I spent ages moving a hose pipe around to get just the right curves on it before the bricks were laid, and it has worked really well.

It was all challenging. After our builder dug the foundations for our kitchen extension, he gave me some bad news. He explained that we don’t have any soil here, there is just rubble and concrete, extending down over many layers. So I have had to rethink all my plans and make a garden of containers and raised beds. It’s a different way of gardening, and you do have to adapt to it.

I love the garden at Charleston Farmhouse in Sussex. I like all walled gardens, large and small. If I could choose any type of garden, I think I’d have one surrounded by old brick walls which I could cover with roses, honeysuckle and clematis. Preferably with a glasshouse, too, so I could grow loads of pelargoniums and sit in there with them during the winter.

What three pieces of advice would you give to a gardener starting out?
1. Visit as many gardens as you can to find your style. The National Garden Scheme is a brilliant way to do this. Look at the details and talk to the owners about what they are growing and why.
2. Make a rough plan of what you’d like your garden to look like. It really helps you to focus on what you’ve got and what might be possible.
3. Don’t be too impatient – gardens do take time to create and they’re always changing.

I have some past gardening heroes, from Cedric Morris to Margery Fish and Beth Chatto. Also the late Derek Jarman for his reimagining of a coastal garden. I like the way that Sarah Raven has helped to change the colour palette of British gardens, and Arthur Parkinson for his championing of exuberant gardening in tiny spaces.