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We meet the owner/ creator of garden: Sunningdale in Wem, ahead of it opening for the National Garden Scheme this Sunday.
Transcript
00:00So we're here in Wem and we're here with Sue at the lovely Sunningdale garden.
00:04Hello Sue. Hello there, hi. So you're about to open this weekend this
00:08Sunday for the National Garden Scheme. Yeah, that's right. And I've been doing so for 10 years.
00:13Yeah. Good going isn't it? Yes, yeah, yeah. But I'm amazed you've only been here 11 years
00:19you know created this magical oasis so it must have looked very different on year one.
00:24Yeah, it did. When people first came round the borders were pretty new and the plants were
00:30rather small but you could see lots of the features more sort of like the archways
00:37and also the fence that had been made especially for me. Anna, so this is your world isn't it? It's
00:46your passion gardening. You've got a big big bell that you can hear. Because if people come along
00:53you'll more than likely be found in the garden than in the ags. Absolutely, yeah. So there's
00:56a great big brass bell there and I can hear that anywhere over the garden. What is it you love
01:01about gardening so much? Has it been something you've kind of had it up for all your life?
01:05Yeah, I think so. Yeah, passion for flowers, just to get things growing really. I mean really I think
01:14trees, topiary, you know, things like that. My passion has changed with time so definitely I count topiary
01:24as one of the things that I really enjoy doing. Yeah. And if people haven't been to your garden before
01:29kind of describe it if you can for us. What are they going to find? Well, let's see. We've got lots of
01:38different structures here so I like to think that it's quite artistic. So we've got a pond with koi in
01:46it, rockeries, we've got some really unusual climbers and yeah I just hope they enjoy walking around.
01:58Yeah, I love quite a few different structures really which I particularly like like the big
02:03gazebo where you said you could sit and have your tea in the evening and then you've got a nice little
02:08entertainment area which I love with the old Victorian mirror. Yeah. And so any particular
02:14spots that are your favourite in the garden or is it just as a whole? I quite like being underneath
02:19the veranda of the house because then I can look out on quite a big part of the garden. Yeah.
02:27Perhaps sitting down by the pond and throughout the day it's sort of sunny or cool depending on what you
02:34want in different areas of the garden. And it's deceptively big plot isn't it? When you when you
02:39look at the front you don't imagine really it's going to have this scale behind it. No you don't. I
02:45mean lots of people say to me that you know they're really really surprised when they walk through the
02:51garden and it just opens out further and further in front of them. Yeah and it's been a it's been a very
02:58very dry I mean didn't they say the the dry spring in the last hundred years or since records started.
03:03Yeah. How's that been in gardening terms then? Been tricky? It's been disastrous really. Yeah.
03:10So anyone who I don't use annuals but anyone who's been putting in bedding plants I mean I should
03:16imagine most of those have curled up their toes. Yeah. But even here I had one particular shrub
03:23and just overnight it dropped every single leaf. Yeah. Just from the stress of the dryness. Yeah
03:29just under stress and the the blooms I've noticed are much smaller than normal and they don't last
03:35for anywhere near as long. Yeah. Yeah you were pointing that out you said normally the flowers on
03:41this plant they're there but normally they'd be much bigger. Yeah usually about double the size on the
03:45flocks uh plants that I've got so um and they're quite meager.
04:15Now I love the idea that you've come up with of how to decorate a tree that you're chopping down.
04:37You've you came up with the idea of adding a fern a metal fern top on it so you commissioned a
04:42metal worker. Yeah. It looks fantastic doesn't it? You must be mega pleased with that. Yeah yeah it took
04:49four chaps to carry that across the lawn because it was made on his premises and then brought here.
04:56So they carried it and at the time I had a Ukrainian family living here and the young lad he was one of
05:04the four that helped carry it across and then lifting it up to go on top of that stump.
05:09Um yeah I always like tree ferns. I can't grow them up here it's too cold and um so that was the next best thing.
05:17Cool well it's it's truly magical so anyone who makes the makes the trip over this Sunday is going
05:24to be definitely be in for a treat. Thank you for letting us have a look around sir. Yeah thank you for coming.
05:37Yeah.
05:39Yeah.
05:41Yeah.
05:43Yeah.
05:45Yeah.
05:47Yeah.
05:49Yeah.

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