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  • From: "Susan McCoy" <buzz@impact-pr.com>
  • To: "'Garden Writers -- GWL -- The Garden Writers Forum'" <gardenwriters@lists.ibiblio.org>, "'gardenwriters-on-gardening'" <gwl-g@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: [gwl-g] Sanford Garden - GWA Story Tour preview
  • Date: Mon, 31 Jul 2006 07:54:09 -0400

Marty Ross recently interviewed my friend Sheila Sanford for an article on
"pretty vegetable gardens." Sheila's garden is on the Saturday GWA Story
Tours this year - it is a "must see." Here's what Marty writes in her
recent column:

A Feast For The Eyes, Too
An ornamental vegetable garden can fill up your yard and your table
MARTY ROSS
Universal Press Syndicate
http://www.charlotte.com/mld/charlotte/living/home/15023450.htm

. . . Years ago, Sheila Sanford, a gardener in Chadds Ford, Pa., turned to
the great British plantswoman Rosemary Verey for ideas for her kitchen
garden. Verey, who died in 2001, was famous for her four-acre garden at
Barnsley House in England and her books on garden design.

The potager Verey designed for Sanford relies on a geometric grid dividing
the space into a number of smaller gardens. The whole plot is about 30 feet
by 50 feet, which might seem intimidating, but Sanford says the space is
perfectly manageable.
"It's very easy to garden when you have beds that are divided into small
sections," she says.

Verey would have liked to plant figs, oranges and lemons as ornamental
accents in Sanford's garden. But such plants are too tender for
Pennsylvania, and Sanford instead grows artichokes in pots at the corners.
She erected handsome arches and trellises to support beans, sweet peas and
other vines, all of which give the garden height and dimension.

"The whole garden is very much about order and beauty," Sanford says. "The
structure of it is so beautiful."

Strong design does not appear to have any effect on productivity. Sanford
grows two vigorous tomato plants in each bed and still has room for peppers,
cucumbers, beans, lettuce and spinach.

"We get a huge harvest," she says. She also raises onions, garlic, cabbage,
squash and gourds. An asparagus bed produces fresh spears for her family for
six weeks every spring.

To keep the design sharp, Sanford pinches and prunes regularly. Around each
bed, she grows annual and perennial edging crops. Where Ogden has boxwood
hedges, Sanford plants low-growing marigolds or ribbons of basil or parsley.
About half of her edges are perennial herbs, such as marjoram and chives,
and the rest are annual flowers or herbs.

"It gives me a nice opportunity to experiment," says Sanford, who also
allows a few surprises in her garden.

"There are wonderful things that volunteer," she says. Sunflowers have
self-seeded, and she planted around them this spring.

"Beauty and order are in the eye of the beholder," she says. "Sometimes
there is a little disorder that makes it beautiful."

Ogden doesn't grow tomatoes in her vegetable garden.

Susan McCoy
Office: 610-388-9330
Mobile:610-220-8400

IMPACT Marketing/Garden Media Group
PO Box 758
Chadds Ford, PA 19317
www.gardenmediagroup.com

"We make you popular with your customers!"

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