The Story of Our Garden

John and I bought Stillingfleet Lodge in 1975; it was an unloved farmhouse that had been empty for over a year. There was very little garden, mainly a vegetable plot with no shrubs or trees. The remaining three acres was grassland.

Our aim then was to live "the Good Life," by going organic and self-sufficient. I had read Rachel Carson's "Silent Spring" and we wanted to do our bit to change the way food was produced. For 10 years the land produced our own meat, cheese, yoghurt, butter, cream and vegetables. Our family grew too, with two of our children being born here.

With all the developments in the garden, we have always had a central ethos of sustainability in the garden - a message which even more important today. We aim to inspire a new generation of organic gardeners and show that a garden can be both beautiful and environmentally friendly.

You can read more about how the nursery, garden and tea room have developed over the years here.

Stillingfleet Lodge in 1975
Stillingfleet Lodge in 1975

Peace and Tranquility

Most of the comments we get from visitors is how peaceful and tranquil the garden is. They love hearing the bird song and the bees buzzing or just relaxing on one of the many seats dotted around the garden.  Throughout the garden you are likely to catch a glimpse of the birds and insects that we encourage into our garden. Our wide selection of trees and shrubs provide food and cover as well as year round interest in the garden. No wildlife friendly garden should be without a pond and ours is home to many native species. Our wildflower meadow is now well established and well worth a visit to see just how full of life a true lowland meadow should be.

Although  most of the garden is informal, we added the very formal rill garden ten years ago. This is a beautiful place to relax and listen to the running water.

Wildlife Pond

Trees and Shrubs

Wildflower Meadow

Wildlife Gardening

If you want to learn more about how to encourage wildlife in your garden I would highly recommend you either join us on one of our workshops or visit us with the family on the wildlife day. Our plant nursery is full of beautiful herbaceous plants that are perfect for encouraging insects to your garden; have a chat with one of us on your visit to find out the perfect plant for your garden. When you visit you can't miss the poultry that roam freely in the garden. Not only do they provide us with eggs, but they are an important part of our environmentally friendly garden management.

Gardening

for Wildlife

Workshops and Events

Plant Nursery

Testimonials

"Thank you for opening up your garden for the general public to visit. I thoroughly enjoyed my visit and read your folder of information. I am so pleased and re-assured to fine a garden that is run on such high principles, with not just wildlife being a key, but local employments, and use of local resources being used within the cafe and within the nursery. I wish that there were more gardens run with such passion and enthusiasm." Louanna, September 2023

"Enjoyed meeting the guide/hearing dogs. My son is disabled and uses a power chair. Accessibility was good for the style of garden. Staff were helpful. We've had a lovely afternoon, thank you." Suzanne, Aug 2023

"It is wonderful to see such a wide range of plants in a very homely setting! I would rank this with Great Dexter, Beth Chatto's and Ashwood Nurseries, wonderful that it is situated in the north so we don't have to travel so far! Keep it up." Theresa, Aug 2023

"I am absolutely spellbound by the whole garden and full of admiration of all the work that has been put into making such a dream garden, The Rill is my favourite: peace and tranquility, love the Avenue also." June W, August 2023

"Absolutely loved the entire experience, could not rate it highly enough - will enthuse about it to friends and family and am definitely coming back myself. Fantastic!" Nicola, August 2023

"Really enjoyed our first trip to an amazing garden. Loved all the different areas and seat to sit and enjoy." Sally, August 2023

"An amazing array of habitats to see in a small area - showcasing a great selection of plants - encouraging to see lots of butterflies and insects. Look forward to returning throughout the seasons." Sarah, July 2023

"Greatly enjoyed the informality of the gardens." Alison, July 2023

"How lovely to visit a 'proper' wildlife garden, not too manicured. Information about the individual gardens and habitats was good. We had a lovely relaxing and interesting afternoon. Also gave me ideas about how to make my garden more wildlife friendly." Sue, June 2023

"Our 3rd visit here but our 1st in spring. Didn't expect as much colour and was pleasantly surprised. Our daughter loves the wildlife and the play area. Don't think the gardens can be improved in any way - perfect! Worth the journey."  Rebecca, April 2023

"Excellent! I only found out about this little, delightful treasure a day ago. Large grassy car park. £6 entry fee for adult to gardens. No dogs except guide dogs. Wheelchair parking and access. Loo. Café. Nursery. Kid's playing area with hopscotch, climbing frame, quoits and swings. Social distancing in operation and hand sanitiser at entrance. Really peaceful gardens. A trio of lovely white doves. Lots of sculptures, many made from chicken wire. Map provided, very easy to follow. It's a much loved organic garden consisting of many varied different areas or rooms which are linked by arches and merge via meandering paths. Really enjoyed the visit here. Was not my intention to buy plants (ha!) but came away with six beauties, well established and healthy looking plants. If it's busy and a nice day, you may struggle to find a seat for your cuppa. The café sells delicious lemon drizzle cake; a yum apricot and almond cake and a lovely tempting array of reasonably priced cards. Also cold drinks, brownies, ice creams. Card machine in café was having a hissy fit so paid at entrance when paid for plants. I would revisit this cherished place as I really enjoyed my trip. Very photogenic."  Cath August 2020

"I just wanted to say what a wonderful place you have created .We came for the first time last year bringing my parents-in-law with us as they had moved into a local care home .They had been very keen gardeners. Stillingfleet was a perfect and tranquil environment for them providing a safe space for my mother-in-law ,who has dementia, to wander and for my father-in-law to relax ,given that he couldn’t walk very far. We have returned this year but sadly not with my father-in-law as he passed away in March. It did them both the world of good to visit your gardens and we took great pleasure in taking them there.

I wanted to thank you so very much for allowing us to share such a special place." July 2020

"A most enjoyable experience, lots to see and of course lots of lovely pulmonarias. Very nice coffee shop and cakes. Everything is well labelled and of course many things available to buy. " Jackie April 2023

"The garden is wonderful. The different areas so well thought out. We need to come back to see the summer garden. It is so in tune with the environment, so natural and tranquil. It great place to spend a couple of hours. The trees are fantastic in blossom. Love the sculptures and so grateful for the many seats. So nice to sit and enjoy." Jenny and Melanie, spring 2022

"You have made a great garden, we enjoyed the lovely peaceful entrance with the water feature. Didn’t use cafe, but looks very good. It’s a lovely courtyard. Signage of autumn plants to look for was excellent. Not sure about the rill in context of the garden as a whole……Thankyou for the seating everywhere……" Judi and Roy, September 2022

"Delightful gardens and enjoyed tea, coffee and cakes in tearooms and nice to get advice on plants."  May 2023

"The gardens were fantastic, with lots of plants we hadn't seen before as well as the more usual ones. Jean at reception was very welcoming and helpful and it was great to have a map, though we weren't sure where to bgin and so a few directional arrows would be useful. P.S. the gluten-free chocolate brownie was the best ever!" Helen, July 2023

"Small but perfectly formed, lots of hidden corners. An amazing array of plants, sculptures and everywhere smells wonderful. Really relaxing listening to water and bird song." September 2023

"Positively charming and thoroughly enjoyable to walk round and soak up the tranquil atmosphere. Thoughtful planting and a good selection of usual and unusual tress, shrubs and plants." Julie, September 2023

"My children loved completing their garden explorer sheets, each part of the garden was a wonderful surprise as they walked around. The sculptures were a great hit, as was the play area." Katherine, Sept. 2023

More of our story

Cow in the snow
Our cow in what is now The Avenue 1985

There were no trees when we arrived and we were very exposed to the south west gales. We planted a shelter belt of mainly native tree, this has been essential, allowing us to grow a wider range of plants.

To begin with the only part of the garden we developed was the Front Garden. This was surrounded by a hawthorn hedge and had at sometime been the farmhouse garden. After our fourth child was born in 1980 we extended this to develop the areas that are now the Pear Tree Garden and the Wattle Garden

When our youngest child started nursery school I went to Askham Bryan College. I started propagating, put up a poly tunnel and used to open a few weekends a year to sell plants. After taking redundancy, a Government Enterprise scheme supported me for a year allowing us to open the plant nursery on a regular basis. We bought two second-hand poly tunnels and even produced a small catalogue!

Stock beds became the border

The first of the borders in the Avenue was dug and planted up as a stock bed with the second border planted the following year. We never planned to have long double borders; they started out as a way of having more stock plants to propagate from.

As the children were growing up and leaving home, we no longer needed the livestock: our lives were changing.

We had always been interested in making the garden as wildlife friendly as possible. By now we had well established trees, shrubs and undergrowth for wildlife but no water in the garden. We asked the Farm and Wildlife Advisory Group for help, they took soil cores and found two suitable sites to locate a pond without using a plastic liner. Read more about our pond here

They also told us that where we had sheep was ancient lowland meadow and we ought to look after it. Read more about the meadow here.

Original stock beds in the avenue
Original stock beds in what is now The Avenue
Converting the barn into the tea room
Converting the barn into the tea room

Into the 21st Century

We removed the original poly tunnel near the house which gave us a rectangular space with hedges on either side. Here I decided to make a completely different garden and in 2007 the Rill Garden was the result. Read about the Rill Garden here.

We were asked where we grew our vegetables and so the Vegetable Garden was opened in 2011. It is a family garden so we only grow what we like to eat and there will be gaps and spaces where we have removed vegetables to eat,

The tea room was developed in the barn in the winter of 2007 after the wet summer had meant visitors having a miserable time with nowhere to shelter. We no longer needed the barn for livestock, so it made the ideal place to shelter and enjoy refreshments. Read more about the tea room here.

 

Playing Area

The Playing Area is an area of lawn with swings and games suitable for small children; my grandchildren have races and play badminton there. It is also where we have most of the activities on our Annual Wildlife Day as shown above.

Pulmonaria Stillingfleet Meg

For fifteen years I held the National Collection of Pulmonaria. There are still many unusual and rare varieties in the garden including P. 'Stillingfleet Meg' pictured. They make excellent spring flowers and can be bought in the nursery. Read our full list of Pulmonarias here.

Ongoing maintenance

Whilst we are not planning to develop anymore areas the garden is continually evolving. Each year we remove trees and shrubs that have outgrown their space and add more plants to the borders. The general maintenance of the garden is an all round job too.