The Stables: This Family Garden Has Been Transformed With 20,000 Planted Trees

At the beginning of April, I visited a private garden in Durham to uncover the story of a family who have transformed five acres of land into a flourishing garden retreat.

Since settling on the property in 2013, the Little family have devoted themselves to sculpting this expanse into a garden that perfectly suits their needs.

Over the span of just 11 years, they’ve meticulously divided the space into multiple garden areas and have planted an impressive twenty-thousand trees.

Joined by John, Claire, and their children, I had the privilege of touring their 5 acre garden.

Watch the video below or keep reading to find out what they’ve done with this vast amount of space!

Planting 20,000 Trees

“We’ve planted thousands of trees over the past 11 years here at The Stables,” shares John Little.

“There’s some larger specimen trees that we’ve bought in, including a giant redwood, some eucalyptus and over 50 fruit trees down in the orchard.

“We’ve also got some red willows at the bottom of the paddock, which look nice from the house. They’re not quite as bright at the moment as they can be, but in the winter when there’s nothing else of colour in the garden, we can see them from the house shooting up like flames.

“We’ve also planted a range of native trees in a mixture of hedges and woodland areas.”

Exploring The Garden

“Our two herbaceous borders, known as the bog border and the Wendy border, were put in in 2020 during the pandemic,” explains John.

“It was all done no dig, so we put some cardboard down and covered it in chip and grass cuttings then planted it up in autumn.

“There’s all sorts of plants in here. We let stuff fight it out, that’s kind of the way we work. If it doesn’t survive, then it doesn’t survive and we don’t plant it again.”

“Our mounded area was developed with some trees from the Woodland Trust,” he continues.

“Before we transformed this space, it was overgrown with nettles and brambles, so we used lots of elbow grease and cleared it all off. The trees are now doing all the hard work for us, as they shade the ground off in summer to prevent grass from running wild.

“We put in more interesting shade-tolerant plants, such as ferns, ivy and comfrey and then decided we were going to build this bridge through, so we tunnelled out underneath to make a six-foot gap so you can walk underneath it.

“Some people really love the train bed we have in our garden that features a little model railway running through it.

“We’ve tried to develop it with lots of small plants so there’s a backdrop to the toy train and we’re now extending it with a second bed over to the other side.

“We’re also going to put a pond in at the front here with a stream coming through the gap between the two.”

Opening The Garden Via The NGS

“My parents opened their garden for the NGS just after I left university actually, so they’ve been open for 20 odd years now,” explains John.

“With our garden, we had the opportunity as it got to a suitable state to also open for the NGS so it just seemed a natural thing to do.

“We love showing people around the garden, we love having people come in and see the space. The feedback you get from people about how much they enjoy the garden is very rewarding.”

The Stables is open through the National Garden Scheme on the 23rd June 2024.