Lordship Farm — the 1701 farmhouse glimpsed through summer planting

Hertfordshire · North Chalk Ridge

Lordship
Farm

A garden of seven rooms, four seasons, and a cast of thousands

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Gardening is 75% hoping for rain, 25% wishing it would stop — and 100% utter astonishment at the senses-spinning spectacle developing around you. This is Lordship Farm: an acre of Hertfordshire, tended without toxins and shared without reservation.

The Garden

Seven rooms.
One garden.

Each space has its own character, conditions and moment of glory. Together they make a garden that rewards a whole year of looking.

The White Garden
The White Garden
The White Garden
So white it glows
Top Lawn
Top Lawn
Top Lawn
Lawn, borders and the house beyond
Pond Garden
Pond Garden
Pond Garden
Water, stone and colour
Front Garden
Front Garden
Front Garden
Chalk gravel and blue agapanthus
Whitebeam Allee
Whitebeam Allée
Whitebeam Allée
Blue froth under five mop-heads
Kitchen Garden
Kitchen Garden
Kitchen Garden
Box hedging, roses and produce
Back Terrace
Back Terrace
Back Terrace
Where the alliums hold court
Winter
Winter
Snow, structure & silence
Spring
Spring
Seedlings, blossom & hope
Summer
Summer
In full, glorious voice
Autumn
Autumn
Harvest before the quiet
Rosa Kiftsgate cascading over the barn wall
Considered Planting

Nothing here
earns its place easily.

Plants are like children: you shouldn't have favourites. We do. Over the years a great many have been shown the door. Everything still standing — Rosa Kiftsgate, Iris Sibirica, Crambe Cordifolia, Aquilegia — has earned its keep spectacularly.

"We don’t spray toxins, so we have aphids, snails and voles — and these encourage the wildlife we’re lucky enough to share our garden with." — Mags & Terry Harrison, Lordship Farm
Wild Residents

The garden’s
other occupants.

No toxins means no shortage of life. Dragonflies, Great Crested Newts, Tawny Owls, Mallards — Lordship Farm has become an accidental nature reserve.

Four-spotted Chaser dragonfly
Four-spotted Chaser
Our pond produces over 60 dragonfly larval husks each season. This one preferred the iris buds.
Tawny owlets in nest box
Tawny Owlets
We’ve hosted breeding Tawny Owls for years. Two broods, one box. Owlets look like fluffy daleks — who knew?
Ten mallard ducklings
Ten Mallard Ducklings
The pond delivers an annual miracle. This brood set a personal record.
Great Crested Newt
Great Crested Newt
A protected species. All three UK newt species breed in our pond — a mark of genuine environmental quality.
Crab spider in blossom
Crab Spider in Blossom
Can you see it? White on white, perfectly camouflaged. The garden notices things like this because we take the time to look.
Tawny Owl in nest box
Tawny Owl, On Duty
The mother, keeping watch from the old owl box. That expression says everything about how she feels about the paparazzi.
The 1701 farmhouse at Lordship Farm
The Story

One acre.
One and a bit of us.

Lordship Farm is a farmhouse built as a barn in 1701, set in Hertfordshire on the North Chalk Ridge. The garden has been thirty years in the making, none of it by professionals.

We have flowers, fruit and vegetables. We get things wrong and we’re constantly learning. Everything here that has survived has been worth keeping.