OF THE - Canonteign Falls

Return
ferns
OF THE
The restoration of a Victorian
fern garden at Canonteign Falls
has been a labour of love, as
CATHERINE COURTENAY discovers
162
DEVON LIFE May 2016
Gardens
PHOTOGRAPHY: EMMA SOLLEY
Restoration of the fern garden began two years ago
DEVON LIFE May 2016
THE cold wind suddenly eases; after climbing
steadily uphill for several minutes, the footpath
levels out and we reach our destination.
It feels a privilege, in more ways than one,
to be entering the fern garden at Canonteign
Falls. It’s still more than a week to go before the
attraction reopens to the public after its winter
shut down. There’s no one around, and with
no people-chatter distraction, just the sound
of water and occasional birdsong, it’s a real
opportunity to stand quietly and absorb the
atmosphere of this special place.
Tree ferns, still covered in their winter protection, stand eerily, like frozen figures; but the
sun, making a gentle appearance in the wake
of rainy days, highlights patches of humous rich
earth where there are already signs of unfurling
jewel green fern fronds.
The site was probably once a gateway to the
moor, gardener Mark Nunn tells me. This beautiful wooded gorge, with its stream running
down through the rocks, leads straight up on to
Dartmoor from the Teign Valley. It so inspired a
former landowner, Lady Susan Exmouth, that
she decided to create a dramatic waterfall. In the
mid 1800s, in typical Victorian entrepreneurial
fashion, she employed redundant miners to dig
a channel, leading from a point further back
on the moor, diverting a watercourse to make
what’s now the highest man-made waterfall in
England. Everyone knows Canonteign for its
falls, but the fern garden, halfway up the site in a
small valley bordering either side of the original
stream, was another of Lady Susan’s creations,
and one which had all but disappeared.
Kate Baylis, who with her husband Chris is
the current owner of the Falls, started restoring
the fern garden two years ago. With help from
students from Bicton College and Dartington’s
Schmacher College, led by Mark, they have
cleared, redesigned and rebuilt the garden.
Kate has devoted hours of her time to uncover
the story behind its creation. A semi-retired
barrister, she’s approached the task with the
determination and zeal you might expect, but
also lavished a level of excitement and passion
that reveals how much she loves the place.
“It’s unique because it’s a fern garden that’s
very much part of the natural landscape, which
is also what makes it magical,” she enthuses.
“During my research I discovered an academic
163
Gardens
SEVEN FERN
FAVOURTIES FROM
MARK NUNN
Asplenium scolopendrium the
hart’s tongue fern, a great
Devon hedgerow native and
really good for foliage contrast
in any garden.
Canonteign has a total of seven lakes including the Lily Lake (pictured) and Swan Lake
paper by Peter Boyd which showed that in 1890
there were 212 known species of ferns growing
in Devon. We want to get as many of them back
into the garden, so we can be a showcase.”
The main battle has been clearing laurel,
which had spread across the whole garden and
into the surrounding native woodland.
It seems an almost impossible task, but where
large areas have been cleared Mark and his
team have moved and replanted ferns. As the
Falls open this spring they will be hard at work
planting new ferns, all selected by Kate and Mark
with the advice of fern expert Martin Rickard
who came to visit the garden last year.
“It was a great day when he came,” smiles
Mark, recalling Martin’s plant hunting agility.
“He was climbing everywhere, finding all sort
of ferns.”
Sadly, as Martin went through the list of 212,
he revealed that many of them were either
extinct or extremely rare. And many of the ferns
he found at Canonteign were the same cultivars,
says Mark. But, undeterred, they continued with
the plan to re-establish the garden.
Gardener Mark Nunn in the fern garden with some of
the stumps he and the team have created
164
As the laurel and more verdant common ferns
were cut back or moved, original planting beds
were revealed and these have been cleared,
ready to house more delicate or unusual varieties, possibly grouped in areas of origin, suggests
Mark.
But it’s not just about cultivars and numbers;
talking to both Kate and Mark it’s clear this is
also about recovering a sense of place - call it
the spirit of the garden if you like.
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“For me its the most magical place, it’s got a
presence, quite a spiritual feeling,” says Kate,
who in the same breath mentions that Frances
Hodgson Burnett’s The Secret Garden was her
favourite childhood book.
At her happiest when she’s out walking the
dogs, climbing the falls and sitting in the fern
garden, she talks about “the joy and delight of
the natural world”.
She goes on to recount a strange experience,
one where not long after they had cleared the
fern garden, she felt the presence of a child in her
room at night. “I could hear a child breathing. I
didn’t say anything to Chris but later, when I was
walking our dog through to the fern garden I felt
it again and I had the sudden thought that a child
used to play here and that they were delighted.”
Whether she exists or not, it’s easy to imagine
a child spirit playing among the ferns and rocks
in Kate’s very own secret garden at the gateway
to the moor. Š
Canonteign Falls are near Christow, on the east
side of Dartmoor. Find full details of opening times
at canonteignfalls.co.uk
Dryopteris lepidopoda A
Himalayan fern with pinky red
colour when it unfurls, it’s easy
to grow and evergreen.
Athyrium niponicum ‘Godzilla’, ‘Burgundy Lace’ or ‘Regal
Red’ are deciduous, and all
great for colour, with striking
silvery hues.
Osmunda regalis ‘Purpurascens’ the Purple Royal Fern is
a large and striking deciduous
British native with a purple
stem.
Cyrtomium fortunei ‘Clivicola’
the evergreen Japanese Holly
Fern has circular elegant fronds
with broad leaflets on them.
Polystichum setiferum ‘Bevis’
was found in a Devon hedgerow no less than by a Mr Bevis
over a hundred years ago. Evergreen.
Blechnum chilense now
renamed B. cordatum a leathery and tough evergreen fern
with a strong architectural
presence.
DEVON LIFE May 2016