David Domoney: ‘I keep a secret garden at a property I sold'

Telegraph

2 days ago

David Domoney, 62, is a chartered horticulturist best known for his flamboyant garden exhibits at the Chelsea Flower Show, and as a gardening presenter on ITV.
Domoney has won over 30 Royal Horticultural Society Medals for his show gardens, plant displays and science exhibits. He has also written bestselling books and lectures on horticulture.
He lives near a village in Warwickshire with his wife, Adele, and their children.
What attracted you to your home?
We were looking for more space to create gardens, and this is an old farmhouse. Four years ago, I bought it with 20 acres. It had been used for horses before so it had stables, and the trees had been cut down to create paddocks. Then this horticulturist bought it and reintroduced all the trees.
There are two old pear trees in the garden, I think part of an old orchard a century or so ago. We're attempting to re-establish the planting to what it was like back then. Some of the land is fields, some of which we leave for wild flowers and hay.
On the back of the house, there are two acres we're using to create a new series of gardens. We've done eight areas so far, including a grow-your-own area with a greenhouse where we produce all our own fruit, vegetables and herbs.
I appear on ITV's This Morning once or twice a week, so it's nice to film in my garden where I can set up for all the activity the night before.
Having built a lot of gardens for the Chelsea Flower Show, Hampton Court and many RHS shows, with my own garden it's the enjoyment and spontaneity that comes through.
What does 'home' mean to you?
It's a sanctuary. We're surrounded by plants, and engagement with nature is hard-wired into our family life. Our home facilitates that.
One of the first things we did was replace small leaded windows throughout the house with clear glass so we've got unbroken views of the garden and beautiful countryside with open fields.
Do you have a favourite room?
In the back of the garden, I built a mound for a bench so it's up high enough to get the view of the countryside. In the evenings, I sit there with a Peroni to watch swifts on the telephone lines.
That's my favourite place. I had to move 50 tonnes of soil. Some people spend a fortune to park flash cars in the drive – I feel compelled to buy soil!
What was your childhood home like?
It was a three-bedroom detached suburban house in the outskirts of the Midlands. We had a medium-sized garden my father set up so my brother, sister and I had our own little garden to grow plants in.
I was fascinated by it and it instilled in us a respect for nature and my mum cooked from what we grew.
I enjoy talking to people, so when we went to the church fairs as kids, we were allotted one of the stands. I'd do the plant stall, and anything that hadn't sold at the end of the day, I took home to grow.
One of the biggest things in that garden was the Worcester Pearmain apple tree – one of the sweetest and juiciest apples you can get. It was also where we climbed, saw birds nesting, the blossoms in spring and autumn colour.
Engaging with nature is an active pursuit for a child as well as adults. As a kid, while mates did paper rounds, I'd be earning money cutting pensioners' lawns, thinking, 'There's a career in this.'
How many properties have you lived in?
Four houses before this one. And, 20 years ago, I bought a place in Italy which I still own. I was attracted by the natural Italian landscapes, hilltop towns, sunflower fields and olive groves.
It's a small olive farm with about 100 trees from which we produce our own olive oil. If I had to live anywhere else, I'd move there.
I've also lived in many college digs – I went to five colleges because I'd become fascinated with the world of plants, and had developed a thirst for knowledge.
What are the best and worst things about your garden?
Best, that it's evolving. We're adding to it so that when we finish one thing, we're on to the next. There's no 'worst' thing about the garden, just keeping it all going.
I also have another garden, an acre and a half, in Stratford-upon-Avon. When I sold a property I kept part of the garden because the plants meant so much to me. It's a secret garden I plan to keep, full of established trees, micro-orchards and flower borders with a door to get into it. It is a peaceful escape.
Do you have collections in your house?
I give lots of talks to garden centres and nurseries, and the problem is every time I go, I bring something back. I sometimes have to sneak them in, and I feel guilty whenever I come back with yet another plant!
I have plants inside the house, like the long-lasting blue torch cactus with needles slightly gold in colour. The older it gets, the bluer the cactus becomes.
I'm looking at a Venus Fly Trap that's in flower (late May). It has a calcium clock – it can count up to 30 so it's a plant with a memory.
Have you needed to do renovations to your house?
Most of the work is outside. We must have planted 500 trees, a quarter of a mile of hedging with a lot of indigenous species like hawthorn and blackthorn, which is perfect for the birds.
We've cleaned out and renovated a lot of the native hedging I inherited with the property, and we regularly maintain it outside the nesting season.
We've also added a conservatory at the back of the house – a large glass box, so when we're having dinner, the right, left and straight ahead views are of the garden. Everything is focused on bringing outside nature in.
Have you done any DIY?
Most of the things like planting we've done ourselves, but some mature trees we're putting in take five people to move – you spend £1,000 on a tree and its trunk is the diameter of a big coffee mug. We balance them with younger ones.
We've planted little coppices of silver birch near the mound, and all the birds come to the stream to drink and wash. We have a feeding station outside the kitchen windows, and the kids recognise the robins and other birds that come.
Did your house present any surprises?
We found a secret well which is so deep a mountain climber would have vertigo looking down it. It's a dry well – you can see all the way to the bottom, and if you drop a stone, you can count to 10 before it hits the bottom. There's a little wash-house beside it which I use as my workshop.
Do you have flamboyant designs in your garden?
I've still got the giant Ace of Spades exhibit welded together from spades that I did for Chelsea's Harley Davidson Garden. But no Ace of Diamonds garden with £20m of diamonds or my water exhibit of 15 live piranhas.
But in our garden we've got a plant from every Chelsea and RHS garden I've built. Every one brings back a memory. Gardens can be a collection of memories, rather than just weeding, watering and cutting the lawn.
Honestly anything is better than sitting inside looking at a tablet or screen! Water pistols with the kids, the scent of honeysuckle in the air, it uplifts the heart and nourishes the soul.