Synopsis
Planning their tulip display is one of Joanne Drew's favourite tasks of the year. 'Every August, I spend a day sitting in the shade, sifting through a bulb catalogue, envisaging the different colour combinations,' she says. It may take a day to choose the tulips, but from first frosts in November until nigh on Christmas Day, Joanne is single-mindedly focused on planting the 9000 bulbs throughout the 30 beds and borders that comprise the flower parterre in their Victorian walled garden.
Faced with spring's fabulous array, it is hard to picture the scene almost a decade ago when Joanne and her husband Bryan, a property developer, first set eyes on the three-quarters-of-an-acre walled garden. 'It was for sale as a building plot with planning permission, but had such a special feel that we fell in love with it as a garden,' recalls Joanne, a dance teacher and examiner who increasingly juggles career with her love of gardening.
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