Long thin gardens are normal in London, but the plot behind Mona Abboud’s house in Muswell Hill was unusually long, as visitors to her characterful, shrubby garden will know.
Now it has become even longer, thanks to her purchase of the end of her former neighbours Anne and Alan Dallman’s plot.
Their garden, open to visitors for years, always surprised people by its whole extra area at the bottom, derived from the 1930s when plans for another residential road below Wood Vale came to nothing.
Mona has now taken about half of this large piece on, with the rest remaining with her new neighbours.
It doesn’t take long for nature to take over. During the last few years before Anne and Alan moved to live with their daughter, the further reaches of their much-loved garden were beyond them, meaning that Mona took on a chaos of rampant trees, brambles, collapsing structures and soggy ground.
She tells the story of transforming this unpromising area into an extension of her already wonderful garden in her entertaining second book, Branching Out (her first book, Corokia – My Adventure, concerns her love for the New Zealand genus, for which she is the National Collection Holder).
Unsurprisingly, the renovation included plenty of setbacks, many of them to do with our increasingly ill-tempered weather.
But there were also unexpected delights, like some of Alan’s plants, long hidden from view, rising again, such as yellow flag irises and a Ginkgo biloba.
One of Mona’s aims throughout the project has been to recycle materials, not only making the most of all the waste trees for edging and bark chip but also using broken bricks and cement for drainage.
As with the whole garden, the choice of plants is remarkable and interesting – not only the corokias, but, just for example, there are 12 different varieties of Pseudopanax, 14 of Olearia, 13 of New Zealand myrtle.
There is also a great deal of careful pruning and thinking about vistas. Of the new garden, Mona says “I never wanted something more in my life, I just love it”.
It is very well worth seeing.
Visit Mona’s garden through London Open Gardens, Sat 8 June 10 until 1 and Sunday 9 June 11 until 15, See her website, monasgarden.co.uk for more details and to order her books.
THINGS TO DO
Mulching – spreading a thick layer of organic material like bark chip on bare earth between plants – helps keep moisture in and suppress weeds.
Time to plant out tender species, eg dahlias.
Enjoy other people’s gardens, from the street or by visiting through the National Gardens Scheme (ngs.org.uk). Local openings in June include 1a Primrose Gardens NW3 4UJ 2 – 5.30pm, 2/6/24, Marie Curie Hospice, 11 Lyndhurst Gardens NW3 5NS 2 – pm, 9/6/24, 39 Park Village East, NW1 7PZ, 2 – 6pm 9/6/24.
Saturday 8th June, 2-5pm, both Highgate Horticultural Society will be at Fair in the Square, Highgate, N6 and Hampstead Garden Suburb Horticultural Society Summer Flower Show will be at the Summer Fair in Central Square, NW11.
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