Creative destruction The garden of Moleshill House, Surrey

MANY gardens in the South-East of England were all but destroyed by the famous storm of October 1987. For some, such as Moleshill House, it turned out to be a blessing in disguise. At a stroke, seven mature beech and oak trees were felled, opening up a garden that had been cramped and starved of light. The loss provided relief to the thin, sandy soil, too, from which the trees had drained moisture and nutrients.

Moleshill’s owner, Penny Snell, had only moved from London a few months earlier, so it was something of a baptism of fire. As her long career at the National Garden Scheme (NGS) and her spirited