Interview with Alex Law - Head Gardener at Horatios Garden

Alex shares some of his best gardening tips for those early winter months – and how he has used some of his favourite Agriframes products to enhance the winter garden ready for the year ahead.

About You

Can you tell us how you first became interested in gardening and what led you to train at RHS Wisley?

I’d always loved visiting gardens and dabbled with home-grown tomatoes while working as a pizza chef in London. It wasn’t until I took on my first allotment after moving to Ludlow in 2015 that I realised my passion for gardening. 

At first I was inspired by the idea of ornamental kitchen gardens, where productivity and aesthetics combine, but after working for a season in a small commercial flower garden and tending to a few neighbours’ lawns, I realised I needed to immerse myself in all the learning I could get my muddy hands on. 

I heard about the Wisley Diploma from a couple who had studied there. At the time they were renovating a small walled garden in the Shropshire hills, now the famous Wildegoose Nursery. 

Before applying to Wisley, I studied for the RHS Level 2 exams online while working as a trainee gardener on the Historic and Botanic Garden Training Programme at Houghton Hall Walled Garden in Norfolk. This gave me the confidence to apply for the two-year Level 4 Diploma, where students work full-time in all areas of the garden while studying garden management, design, pests and diseases, garden history, botany and more.

How would you describe your overall gardening philosophy?

I see gardening as an artform, science and practice. It’s a never-ending process of learning through doing, observing, researching, refining and playing. As gardens evolve they reflect the people who work on them and it is one of the great pleasures in life to develop and grow a garden.

I believe in the idea that garden historian, Mac Griswold, put forward that “gardening is the slowest of the performing arts.” I think gardens should invite people in as a participatory living artwork, asking us to develop and appreciate patience and perseverance, along with everyday wonders such as a cobweb on a frosty morning, a ray of sunlight, or a bee visiting a beautiful flower.

What do you find most rewarding about creating therapeutic, wellbeing-focused garden spaces?

There’s so much research now that proves gardens are good for our health – spending time in a garden reduces stress, anxiety and depression, and promotes positive feelings of calm and optimism. Horatio’s Garden Midlands is designed and nurtured in such a way that it is inviting and engaging in all seasons, so the patients spending time here can enjoy all the benefits of having a fully-accessible, safe and beautiful garden whenever they choose. 

This extends to the NHS staff who work with the patients, who we encourage to spend their breaks out in the garden – I’m currently peddling ‘The Green 15’ as studies show just 15 minutes a day can boost our mood significantly. 

It is also as much about the community and social connections we foster through events and activities, arts workshops, live music performances, and the homely atmosphere of our Garden Room, which features a small kitchen area, communal and private seating arrangements, and a pellet stove. 

Plus, I am always available to share my enthusiasm for the garden and I run weekly sessions with patients to tie in with their rehab, so I’m privileged enough to witness the physical and mental benefits of everything we do on a regular basis. 

Winter Gardening – Season Preparation

Can you share some top tips on enhancing your winter garden and preparing for the season ahead?

One of my favourite things to do in winter is make plant supports and arches by weaving together the feathered stems of coppiced hazel, so I like to get on with that nice and early in order to appreciate the resulting structures before the growing season gets underway. Practically speaking, it’s also much better to have your supports in place before the plants desperately need them. 

I also subscribe to the creative approach to rose pruning and training spearheaded by Jenny ‘Niff’ Barnes. By tying the vigorous stems of climbers to cover a wall in spirals or crafting domes out of roses in the border, you can create all manner of eye-catching organic sculptures to bring the winter garden to life. I’ve applied this method to other trained plants including blackberries and Japanese wineberries to enhance their visual appeal.

What are your favourite winter-flowering plants or structural species for adding interest in a garden when skies are grey?

I love winter-flowering shrubs, they offer some of the best scents of the whole garden year – their intensity having evolved to compete for the relatively few pollinators around at this time of year. Species and cultivars of Sarcococca, Edgeworthia, Daphne, wintersweet (Chimonanthus praecox) and the winter honeysuckles (Lonicera fragrantissima and Lonicera x purpusii) all bring so much delight to the senses on even the dullest of days. Underplant them with precious little snowdrops, primroses and carpets of Cyclamen coum and you’re really onto a winner.

How do you use your Agriframes products in the garden this season, and what products do you have?

This was our first year of using Agriframes products – a series of rustic Elegance Arches bridging between our raised beds supported a number of sweet peas, Spanish flag (Ipomoea lobata), bleeding heart vine (Dactylicapnos scandens), morning glory (Ipomoea tricolor), and a cucumber relative with the attention-grabbing name of Fat Babies (Cyclanthera brachystachya). We trialled several tomato cultivars outdoors, two per Tomato Support Frame, and of course we had a perfect summer for endless harvesting. In the greenhouse we trained two melon plants up Tall Elegance Obelisks, which caught the attention of most of the spinal unit, and provided enough fruits for everyone to share.

Garden Advice & Design

What’s the best piece of gardening advice you ever received?

A couple of pieces of advice come to mind: ‘Less is more’ is always a good rule of thumb – most of the time, having larger quantities of a refined number of elements will promote more visual impact and cohesion, whether that’s bulbs, perennials, landscaping materials or stems in a bouquet. The second piece of advice, though, was to ‘break the rules’ – always experiment and find what works for you, as so much received gardening wisdom is there to be challenged. Maybe having 20 mixed varieties of tulip in one border puts a bigger smile on your face than if you only had 3?

How do you stay inspired during the quieter, colder months in the garden?

The garden never sleeps, it keeps on giving in the quieter months, so I simply pay attention to the little things and welcome the slower pace of garden life. For example, some winter flowers, such as hellebores and snowdrops, have evolved to protect their pollen and nectar from winter weather by nodding downwards, so if possible get down on your hands and knees to appreciate them up close, or grow some in a pot on a table to be able to peer inside. Comfort is crucial to enjoying working outdoors this time of year, so layer up, invest in reliable waterproofs, and treat yourself to comfy thermals.

Who is your gardening (or non-gardening!) heroes?

My mum is an artist and gardener, she’s always inspired me to embrace the artistry of gardening and to celebrate the beauty and meaning in humble and ordinary subjects. My dad, a retired maths teacher and gardener, has passed on some useful design principles to do with scale, harmony and balance based on the Fibonacci sequence and golden ratio. I’m moved also by the gardens created by the artist and filmmaker Derek Jarman, and the Beatle guitarist, George Harrison.