IN BRIEF
What Prairie-inspired, north-facing, sloping, suburban garden with fantastic spring colour.
Where Sheffield.
Size 12m wide x 40m long.
Soil Free-draining clay loam.
Climate Cool temperate, and surprisingly mild, due to Sheffield's strong urban heat island effect, mostly 5°C to 6°C minimum.
Hardiness zone USDA 8.
I thought it would be interesting to see if I could fill the ground layer with plants from early winter into spring
When James Hitchmough, worldrenowned designer of naturalistic, often seed-sown planting schemes, turned his attention to his own suburban garden in Sheffield, his idea was to make a modified prairie full of South African and North American species. He had already cleared the plot of scrub, restored the existing glasshouse, added a potting shed, erected a green-roofed studio at the end of the garden and laid a diagonal path of
