My garden in Broadstairs is small and jungly, which is just how I like it. When I need a little more space, my friends Steve and Lou at The No Name Nursery give me the run of their incredible plant playground near Sandwich. Here, I am standing in their 100m-long mixed border, which is home to 450 varieties of trees, shrubs and perennials. If you think this small section looks good, imagine it multiplied by ten!Â
Here's what's growing
- Populus nigra 'Italica'
- Cotinus 'Grace'
- Bistorta amplexicaulis 'October Pink'
- Verbena bonariensis
- Eragrostis curvula
- Foeniculum vulgare 'Purpureum'
- Potentilla nepalensis 'Miss Willmott'
- Stipa gigantea 'Gold Fontaene'
- Veronicastrum virginicum 'Challenger'
- Geranium 'Mavis Simpson
- Hylotelephium 'Matrona'
- Sambucus nigra 'Black Lace'
- Verbena officinalis 'Bampton'
This photograph was taken in late July, when some traditional herbaceous borders are starting to look tired. Not this one! The deep green poplar hedge ('Populus nigra 'Italica') provides a backdrop of glossy foliage from April to November, helping the lighter tones in the foreground to stand out. This is a very deep border, measuring six metres from front to back. An access path runs between the poplars and the back of the planting, which includes shrubs planted at intervals. Steve and Lou have chosen varieties with dark leaves, including smoke bush (Cotinus 'Grace'), cut-leaved elder (Sambucus nigra 'Black Lace'), and ninebark (Physocarpus opulifolius 'Diabolo' - not shown). These all produce flowers which are lighter in colour at different times through the summer.Â
What you don't get from this photograph is the tremendous sense of movement and immersion you experience when among the plants in Steve and Lou's border. Sandwich is close to the sea, and the sheltering hedge is a reminder of a time when this was an agricultural field. The leaves and flower heads are always moving, creating sound and shifting areas of shade. Plants have the space to demonstrate their full potential, creating large clumps that are sometimes repeated along the length of the border. Light, airy plants such as Stipa gigantea 'Gold Fontaene' (to my right), Foeniculum vulgare 'Purpureum' (to my left) and purple-flowered butterfly magnet Verbena bonariensis introduce height and movement without being blocky. Standing in this spot with plants up to my chest felt like being in the ocean with a large wave about to crash over my head!
There is colour in the border throughout the year, but flowering peaks in late summer. To create harmony, Steve and Lou have limited themselves to plants with foliage or flowers that are in the spectrum from deep purple to pale pink with no bright reds, oranges or yellows. Occasional exceptions are made when a plant has great form, such as the white spires of Veronicastrum virginicum 'Challenger', or when flowers are fleeting. This border is very much a marathon, not a sprint, so plants are chosen for their stamina. They must also be drought-tolerant, since Sandwich is in one of the driest parts of the UK and there is no mains water on site.
If you'd like to see more of Steve and Lou's garden and nursery, which they call 'The Land', you can visit their website or listen to an episode of my podcast, Two Good Gardeners, recorded in April 2026. Steve and Lou also give talks to Horticultural Societies and Garden Groups and take part in a number of specialist plant fairs. You'll find an up-to-date list of these here.
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