Nagan Johnson to open garden for the NGS Yellow Book

Deborah Nagan & Michael Johnson are keeping their fingers crossed for a sunny day on Saturday August 8th, because their garden at 225a Brixton Road, will be open to the public for the National Garden Scheme.

The front garden, turns out not to be about veg’ at all. Working at the front of the house has meant that we have met our neighbours, writes Deborah Nagan.

Whilst watering or digging we have the time to stand and chat. They have helped lift tonnes of soil and share our delight in rows of tulips followed by rows of poppies. They wait, hopefully, for a share of the crop!

Our little boy is waiting for the potatoes that he put in to be ready, and watching for the tomatoes to ripen. He knows the names of the flowers and tells me to water them to make them grow tall.

Passers-by have stopped and stared and we are surprised at how interested, and amazed they are. Regular bus users have watched the garden take shape and some have even contacted us to wish us well. We have made our postman smile and our local councillor has put us in touch with other community gardening enthusiasts.

At the back is a quieter, more private space with a terrace for breakfast sun, plenty of cooking herbs and happy goldfish in the basement pond. Tender, eat-off-the-bush crops are still in the back garden including raspberries which fall off directly onto our cereal, and cut-and-come-again salads.

We are trying, unsuccessfully, to limit the variety of species and stick to the rusty colour/texture theme. But a yearly visit to Cornwall sees the addition of something new each year. Agapanthus, for example, clearly defying the colour scheme will slowly be moved out.

As well as being a ‘modern’ garden with its metal raised beds, it is also a back-to-front garden with a vegetable patch (in its infancy) at the front, and a flower garden to the rear.

The front garden was started this spring and timber raised beds were placed on a weedy old lawn, atop builders’ rubble. Bean frames and one bed are painted London Bus red and there are galvanised tubs for flowers (first tulips, then poppies, now coreopsis).

New soil has turned out to be poor & sandy and it will take some years to get the organic content up, so the first crops have been ‘experimental’.

So far – broad beans, potatoes, French beans, courgettes and some pathetic turnips & onions have struggled to life, and there are tomatoes, leeks and green beans to follow. Broccoli and mange-tout will be planted out soon.

To one side, woody shrubs, long past flowering have been replaced with long term crops of asparagus, horseradish and a bed of Jerusalem artichokes. There are also a pair of apple trees and a (very optimistic) peach – for height. But the apple count is currently 13 with the russet winning out over the cox.

Some of my favourites are so fleeting – there is a trycyrtis (tiger lily) flowering this morning, but rain-battered, it will be gone by the end of the day. Flowers I should be enjoying now were killed by the winter snow, or smaller – Cannas I though had died are simply tiny. The olive is slow.

But the plants are starting to make our modern garden a bit too cottagey – under the leaves there is a neat rill (an RSJ) bringing water cascading over a metal wall to the basement pond where a snow-surviving tree fern flourishes. Bees and butterflies are busy in the Echinacea and Hemerocallis.

There used to be a sharpness to the metal beds, but everything is softer now, despite the bent re-bars which give support and height. And perhaps that is why it looks so good against the glass and timber modernity of the architecture.

There will be an exhibition of some of our projects, including the recently opened garden at the International Garden Festival in Métis, Quebec.

The garden is open from 2pm to 8pm. Home-made afternoon tea will be available, and later visitors may stay for wine.

Directions: 225a | Brixton Road | London | SW9 6LW - Google Map

Buses: 133, 59, 159, 3 (Stop – Groveway)
Tube: Oval or Brixton

Deborah Nagan and Michael Johnson - http://www.naganjohnson.co.uk/