NGS : Upper Farm Garden open this weekend for charity, in the shadow of the Wrekin.

Shropshire Star

See what you can create in just four years as Upper Farm garden Opens this weekend for the National Garden Scheme.

Transcript

00:00We're here at Upper Farm, Rushton, just in the shadows of the reek in there.

00:05Gents, introduce yourselves.

00:07Hello, I'm Paul.

00:09And I'm Pete.

00:10How are you doing guys? You're a fantastic garden.

00:13We're just having a tour around and we'll bring up some little clips to show the viewers.

00:18You're opening for the NGS?

00:20Yep, this weekend.

00:22The 4th, no, the 5th and 6th.

00:26So you're in the thick of it at the minute then.

00:28It's a lot of work, isn't it, when you open for the NGS?

00:31Yes, preparing everything, especially with this weather.

00:34Yeah, it's thrown its extra challenges I dare say.

00:37That's right, I mean we've been lucky on previous openings with good weather.

00:40But that's not good for this weekend.

00:42Well, let's hope it's wrong, because they often are.

00:45So you've opened, this has been your first year for the NGS?

00:49Yes, it has.

00:51And what's your experience so far then? Enjoyable?

00:54Fantastic, we've really enjoyed it, haven't we?

00:56The best one was the last one, which was in August time.

00:59And we had over 200 visitors on the two days.

01:03That's good going, isn't it?

01:04It really was good.

01:05It's nice because you put the hard work in.

01:07I should imagine it's quite nice just to stand back and listen to people as they go and go.

01:11And we've raised nearly £5,000 for the charity.

01:17With the cake money and the teas and the cake shops.

01:20So it hasn't scared you off, do you think it'll become an annual fixture then?

01:24I think so, yeah.

01:26So just tell us a little bit about how long you've lived here

01:29and how long it's taken you to create the garden then.

01:31Yeah, sure. We moved here about seven years ago,

01:36but we didn't get started on the garden straight away.

01:39This was actually just an open meadow.

01:41I was cutting the grass every weekend.

01:44And we always meant to do something really constructed with it.

01:49And then Covid came along and we thought, right, this is the opportunity.

01:53And we drew some plans out and got on with it really

01:58with a bit of help from a local contractor who was prepared to work through Covid.

02:02Doing some of the hard work with us.

02:04Because it was outdoors, he could do it.

02:06He could do it because it was outdoors.

02:07So most of what you see, well, everything that you see here

02:10has only been there for, this is its fourth summer really.

02:14I can't get my head around that, do you know what I mean?

02:16Yeah, I feel amazed and frustrated at my own garden

02:20when I know you've done this in four years.

02:22Who'd have thought it, you know what I mean?

02:24I bet you didn't think at the time, did you, in four years it's going to be like this.

02:28No, I didn't. I mean, it's come on in leaps and bounds.

02:31We're really pleased with it, for sure.

02:33So you've got some gardening knowledge between the two of you.

02:36That was your background back in the day, wasn't it?

02:38Originally, yeah, when I left school, I went into horticulture

02:41and I worked for about eight or nine years in the Parks Department in Birmingham.

02:49So I did some training there.

02:52But it's become a hobby.

02:55Yeah, we both enjoy it.

02:57And if anybody recognises your faces, you used to run, what's the place you used to run it?

03:02We used to run the Old Orlerton.

03:04Pete and Paul from the Old Orlerton.

03:06Older people might remember Oliver's Vegetarian Bistro in Ironbridge.

03:11We were 16 years before that.

03:13Fantastic.

03:14They'd have to be really old to remember.

03:16They were not really old.

03:18Well, when you're in those kind of industries, there's not really much time aside,

03:22spared for gardening, I should imagine, is there?

03:25No, no, exactly. No, no, that's right.

03:27So it's not until we retired we had the time to do it.

03:30Yeah.

03:31So this is a lovely little section we've got here then.

03:33And it's a bit of inspiration you've took from somewhere, is that right?

03:36Yes, we took our inspiration from Dungeness here, actually.

03:39I don't know whether you...

03:40I've never been. No, no.

03:42It's very atmospheric.

03:44You should have a look at that sometime.

03:46But it's basically a scree for miles and miles.

03:50And then there's just odd little things punctuating it.

03:54And that wood there, that feature, that was some old wood that you'd found in the house.

03:59And kind of, what can we do with it?

04:01And before you know it, it's chopped in four and looks like a perfect little sculpture.

04:04It's come out of the cellar.

04:05There were just some old timbers in the cellar rotting away.

04:08Yeah.

04:09Got them into some bits and Bob's your uncle.

04:13So if people haven't been to your garden before, how would you describe it to them?

04:18Well, it's a series of rooms really.

04:22There's lots of little separate areas with different ideas.

04:25Different themes.

04:26Different things going on.

04:27There's the sort of Port Merrin inspired Chet's set just behind us over the hatch there.

04:35And there's the layered scree garden in the far corner.

04:38And the fountain and the rose garden.

04:41My veg garden behind us.

04:43Greenhouses, etc.

04:45And then the front's more like a sort of cottage garden in the front, isn't it?

04:49Yeah.

04:50And there's that lovely terraced area.

04:52You were saying you almost decided upon that by accident.

04:55You were up doing the roof on the outbuilding.

04:57Yes, the viewing platform.

04:58Yeah.

04:59And while you were doing the roof you thought, hang on.

05:02We need to get people up here.

05:04Yeah.

05:05So there's a viewing platform with somewhere else to sit underneath.

05:09Plenty of places to sit.

05:10A good garden needs plenty of places to sit.

05:12Absolutely.

05:13Totally, totally.

05:14Well, thank you for inviting the shops to your start.

05:17And we look forward to sharing it with our viewers.

05:20And get yourselves down this weekend, guys.

05:22And if you don't make it this weekend, look out next year then.

05:25That's it indeed.

05:26Thank you very much indeed.

05:27All the best, gents.

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