Some people hate gardening. I can't understand why," says David Hodgson. "You are out there and you forget all about everything. It's very therapeutic."
Many Sunday Times readers would agree, as they spend every spare moment outside, weeding, trimming, mowing, and reaping the benefits. But if you've got it, why not flaunt it? David's garden is the first to feature in a new series, starting today, in which we invite you to show off the fruits of your labours - whether it's a tiny town garden, a fantastic vegetable patch groaning with exotic varieties or a clever collage of bedding plants.
During the 34 years he has lived with his wife, Diane, at their cottage in Coddington, near Ledbury, in Herefordshire, David has indulged in a lot of this "therapy". The couple inherited the half-acre sloping garden on clay soil from an elderly sculptor. They have transformed it from a smattering of small flower beds into a haven of many parts: walled terraces behind the house; a wild area of long grass, trees and shrubs; a sinuously curving herbaceous border; a vegetable area; and a stream and bog garden, bordering the spring that flows through the bottom of the garden. David is also a fiend for cultivating from cuttings, and the greenhouse is crammed with young plants.
The garden has evolved over the years. "We have been to several gardens - Beth Chatto's and the like - and you just get ideas," says David, 64, a meat inspector turned butcher. "My father used to love growing dahlias and vegetables to keep the family fed. Gardening has always been in my blood." He seems to have read every gardening book there is, and meets plenty of experts in his capacity as chairman of the local horticultural society, based in the nearby village of Colwall. If he has one regret, it is that he didn't read the late Chris-topher Lloyd's The Well-Tempered Garden when it came out in 1970. "It is so practical," says David, who approves of Lloyd's common-sense approach rather than slavishly following rules.
David and Diane, 61, are both keen gardeners, but with rather different approaches, which can cause the occasional battle of wills. "She likes everything to be spick and span, and I'm an untidy person, I must admit. I tend to call her Gertrude. Sometimes she will do something, and I will say: 'Right, Miss Jekyll, what are you doing?' I do keep her off the garden if she is deadheading flowers - 'Let them seed, so they can seed around' - but she is getting better."
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Miss Jekyll is not in evidence to give her contrary views as we tour the garden. One area of current debate is a border filled with the yellow 'Korresia' rose, until recently underplanted with Alchemilla mollis and 'Orange Emperor' tulips. The rose should be trouble-free, but it has been constantly afflicted with blackspot and is for the chop. "I wanted to put in a Lonicera 'Baggesen's Gold' cloud hedge, but my wife didn't agree with that, so we are going to have box."
There is hardly a straight line at the top of the garden, so a traditional squared-off box hedge would have looked at odds with the soft curves. Then, earlier this year, the Hodgsons visited Barnsley House, in Gloucester-shire, once home of the late, great gardener Rosemary Verey and now a hotel. "We saw they had a box hedge cut into swags," says David. And that was their solution.
Much of the Hodgsons' garden lies above the house, which is tucked into a northeast-facing hillside. This can make it hard work, especially when trying to get a wheelbarrow up to the top on a wet day, but at least "there's no need to go to the gym".
The original house is about 350 years old and the Hodgsons have extended to the rear. "We had to dig out the bank to add to the cottage," says David. To hold it up, they created a series of curving terraces from broken paving slabs and stones from local quarries and the Forest of Dean. The layout for these was sketched out by a local designer in the early 1990s for about £150. Cistus flows over the walls, and Mexican daisies and aquilegias appear at random between the shrubs and in crevices in the wall - David must have hidden his wife's weeding fork when they seeded.
On the top edge of the lawn above the house is a large cherry tree, through which is growing a rampant 'Seagull' rose. There is a bench underneath, from which the Hodgsons can sit and admire the garden and the Malvern Hills beyond. Beside the cherry is a cedar, now about 60ft high. "When we came here, the cedar was smaller than my wife, who is 5ft 2in," says David. "It is amazing."
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Another keen gardener once told him that one should look along the length of a herbaceous border, rather than full on. David has taken this to heart: at the bottom slope of the lawn is a herbaceous border that blends from blue through pink into white when you look along it from the house. "I think we will try to mix the colours up a bit more," he says - another matter for further discussion with Diane.
He is not convinced that an area by the terrace at the end of the border, which is planted with silvery specimens such as santolina, is working well, but at least one problem has been dealt with: "There was a Victoria plum, but the plums were always dropping on your head, so I dug it out." David also regrets planting trained fruit trees east-west, rather than north-south to maximise the benefit of the sun's rays. They are going to be removed and replaced.
Below the kitchen garden, where the vegetables are grown in raised beds to counter the slope of the land, is David's favourite place: the area around the spring. Here, Japanese primula line the steps down to the stream, skunk cabbage, angelica and gunnera thrive in the damp conditions, and arum lilies and azaleas fill the air with their scent. There is a little stone slab on which to sit of an evening, hidden from the rest of the world. "You hear the water dripping over the stones and it gives you that sense of peace," says David. Therapeutic, indeed.
Are you proud of your garden? Then share it with other Sunday Times readers. Send up to six high-resolution shots of the garden at its best to readersgardens@sunday-times.co.uk, with a brief description of the garden and your contact details. Or send prints to Readers' Gardens, Home, The Sunday Times, 1 Pennington Street, London E98 1ST.
We regret we cannot return photographs sent by post
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The reader: David Hodgson Location: Coddington, Herefordshire
Conditions: Half-acre site on northeast-facing slope with clay soil
Description: Curved borders of herbaceous plants and shrubs, stream and bog areas, vegetable garden
David's top tips:
-In spring, cut lengths of stock-proof wire fencing, then join the ends together to form a tube to put around young plants. Once they have grown, the wire will be invisible
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- Plant purple sprouting broccoli or sprouts in a deep trench and earth them up as they grow. This will prevent wind damage and give a more upright plant. Treating leeks in this way will give a longer blanched stem
- To extend the life of bamboo canes, soak the bottoms in cheap vegetable oil overnight. This will prevent water entering their bases.
- When sowing vegetables, draw out the drill, water well, line with potting compost, plant the seeds and cover lightly with more compost. Finally, cover with soil: germination will be greatly increased