October 2024 Talk: Tim Ingram on Copton Ash Garden

We welcomed back Tim Ingram who has a passion for alpines, and is a member of the Alpine Garden Society. He gave us a talk on the evolution of Copton Ash, his garden in Faversham, Kent where he also has a specialist nursery. He also brought with him a selection of alpine and perennial plants for sale. He illustrated his talk with a series of photographs showing the development of his garden over the years and seasons.

Tim’s garden is a large and mature family-run garden, about one and a half acres in size, which has been in existence for nearly fifty years. He comes from a family of avid gardeners and so was brought up with a keen interest in plants and gardening. His father worked at Brogdale (home of the National Fruit Collection): his mother too a keen gardener: his grandfather was into market gardening. Tim first worked in academic science in London, specialising in plant hormones. He and his wife returned full time to Copton Ash in the late 1980s when they soon started a nursery.

The family bought the property in 1976 and started to develop it in 1978. Copton Ash is an interesting garden; its evolution reflects changes in gardening fashion, the long term effects of an early planting design on a garden, and the effects of climate change, of dryer summers.

Tim said prior to buying the house, the garden had been a cherry orchard. Initially the family designed it in a traditional style with trees, a large lawn (his dad being keen on lawns) and borders. In the late 1980s an alpine bed was also created in the front side garden. Conifers and heathers were in vogue in the 1980s and they began to plant trees such as conifers. This  design has had a dramatic long term effect on the garden. As the trees have matured some of them have become very large resulting in them overshadowing the plants below. Much of the garden has become a wilder, less well kept woodland garden – a style that has become increasingly fashionable.  In early Spring it is covered with a variety of snowdrops, such as Galanthus Cicely Hall and Galatea. He has also planted a range of plants such as Hellebores, Brunnera, Fritillaria and Winter Aconites.

This now involves  a lot of work in Autumn; clearing under the trees, pruning, and coppicing, which generates a good 20 tons of compost – which they use. The change to a woodland garden has had environmental value in that it has changed the character of the habitat and it has become a haven for wildlife, for birds and butterflies.

Tim has over the years planted a very wide range of perennial and alpine plants which have made it both attractive and of interest; including a Betula Pendula (birch) which is now covered in Virginia Creeper and a range of other climbers.

His garden provides inspiration and ideas for anyone with a large garden. And lessons to be learned. His changing garden demonstrates that we need to take into account what we plant: plants and especially trees will grow, we hope: but what effect will they have in later years. He has opened his garden under the National Open Gardens Scheme for many years, and the photographs that he used to illustrate his talk show it is worth a visit when it is again open.

Angela B