Exploring Birkhead’s Secret Garden In The North East With Owner Christine Liddell

Birkhead’s Secret Garden and Nursery features 14 individual garden rooms that are designed to inspire growers in the North East, as they demonstrate the diversity of the plants that can be grown there.

The grounds were left damaged after years of being a site for coal mining, so the owners, Christine and Mike Liddell, have spent years transforming this once derelict site into a thriving horticultural masterpiece.

I visited Birkhead’s Secret Gardens and spoke with Christine about the garden’s rich history.

About Birkhead’s Secret Garden

“We came here in 1978 and we started with the idea of self-sufficiency and keeping two toddlers amused,” jokes Christine.

“We started with the garden closest to the house. One of the interesting features in the garden is the fact that there’s a pear tree espaliered on the side of the house.

“That was put in when the house was built instead of a damp course, as they didn’t exist in those days.

“After a while, we started to think that we needed a bigger garden and we didn’t want to move, so we approached our local farmer and we managed to take on some extra land.

“The garden started off as an experimental garden to show what I could do and to try out my designing ideas.

“My main idea was to have a garden that had something of interest every day of the year.”

The Main Features

The avenue was put in about 1995 and it started off mainly silver, blue and purple,” explains Christine.

“I started this garden as a way of directing the water off the hillside and taking it down through to the woodland.

“I raised the beds at the side and put in lots of gravel, mixed it in with the soil and now we’re growing things that like dry soil and well-drained conditions.

“There’s delphiniums, lavender, rosemary and lots of eryngiums, which the bees absolutely love.

“We then go into the woodland garden. We had to start this garden by putting trees and hedges right around it, because we’re 650 feet above sea level, so the site is exposed.

“We’ve planted a wildflower meadow under the trees so there’s currently Michaelmas daisies growing in there too, which look lovely.”

Christine’s Favourite Garden Rooms

“We’ve got a slate garden, which we made into a bee and butterfly garden so all of the plants in there are scented,” she shares.

“There’s Lilacs, Philadelphus and Deutzias – lots of things that will attract pollinating insects. I love this garden the most I think.

“The meditation garden is also wonderful. It started off with a pond because we needed to do something with all the water coming into the garden.

“The main feature of the meditation garden is the Acers. There are also a group of wild orchids growing at the moment which look great.

“Also in here is a Trachycarpus, which should not be growing in a North East garden, but it’s surviving and it’s even got flowers on it.”

Visiting The Secret Garden

“The atmosphere of peace, quiet and tranquillity is what most people remark on,” says Christine.

“It’s never a busy garden and we have time to talk to people who visit.

“They know that they’re not being rushed around and there aren’t crowds of people here at any one time, so it’s a real treat.”

To visit Birkhead’s Secret Garden or to find out more information, head over to their website.