A Georgian farmhouse and garden in Cornwall, where a pioneering duo are busy nurturing the land

The original Tudor dwelling had been modernised in the 18th century and transformed into the Georgian farmhouse of today, with its sash windows and nicely proportioned rooms. Built of the local Elvan stone, it has lichen-covered walls and old enclosures that retain something of the atmosphere of the medieval homestead of Cornish gentry family the Carnsews, who had lived and farmed at Bokelly in Tudor times. It felt, Henrietta recalls, like a place ‘that had always been loved’.

Above the original fireplace is Cornish pewterware from Wadebridge Antiques centre and pewter candlesticks from TAT London. The rug is from Rush Matters and the green glass lamp is from Soane Britain.

Dean Hearne

Dahlias including pink ‘Otto’s Thrill’, apricot ‘Jowey Linda’, pinkish purple ‘Elma E’ and ‘Bristol Stripe’ in the sitting room.

Dean Hearne

As well as somewhere for the family to escape to, Bokelly has developed into a kind of field station for Henrietta and Bridget’s trials and research into soil. Here they evolved the recipe for their Climate Compost inoculum, now widely used for soil improvement. It’s also the base from which they run their Cornish garden tours. More recently, their work has been gathering momentum: last year they held the exhibition Soil: The World at Our Feet at Somerset House, WC2, which they’re planning to take to Milan, Geneva and the US. And their charity Love Soil is due to launch this summer with the aim of raising awareness of the importance of soil health through research, art and education.

Henrietta arranges Cosmos bipinnatus ‘Purity’, Hydrangea arborescens ‘Annabelle’, rose hips, autumn-flowering raspberries and branches of apples in an antique Mason’s ironstone jug on the hall table. ‘We bring armfuls of flowers and fruit into the house throughout the year,’ she says. The painting of her children on the wall behind is by artist Charlotte Johnstone.

Dean Hearne

A nearby shed harbours large bins of experimental poplar and willow woodchip decomposing under cover, while just beyond lies an area for well-organised composting bays and windrows. Stand-alone, layered, no-turn compost cakes are left to bake over six months. Once the ingredients are balanced correctly, the result is a microbe- and nutrient-rich humus which feeds the productive flower and vegetable garden that Henrietta and Bridget designed. Part kitchen, part laboratory, it all feels at once scientific yet miraculous – and deeply rewarding.

An array of vintage vessels, including Constance Spry Fulham Pottery vases and antique ironware jugs, line the shelves in Henrietta’s office – the centre of The Land Gardeners’ operations in Cornwall.

Inside the house, Henrietta’s approach has been ‘to bring the garden in’. A visit to the designer Marthe Armitage and her daughter Jo Broadhurst in their Chiswick studio led to her commissioning some of their hand-printed wallpapers in bespoke colours. Coming into the kitchen gives a hint of what lies beyond with ‘Cobweb’ in a grey-blue background on one of the walls, featuring wood pigeons, butterflies and lacecap hydrangeas. In the adjacent sitting room, the walls are covered in yellow ‘Tobacco Plant’, which feels like sunshine.

Armchairs have simple white linen loose covers and the Delabole slate flagstones, worn smooth by many generations, are covered with plain rush matting. Treasures found on forays to local antique fairs, Wadebridge Antiques Centre and Estuary Textiles have added to the layers. The whole effect feels uplifting, cheering, bright and calm. Botanical prints of native grasses line one wall and, on another, a colourful early-20th-century oil of pansies by French artist Mildred Bendall draws the eye.

Dean Hearne

Beyond, in a small central hall, hangs a collection of Emma Tennant’s watercolours: rhubarb, plum, primula and cyclamen. Off to the back is a small glazed wooden porch ideal for growing pelargoniums and scented rhododendrons – wafts of R. ‘Lady Alice Fitzwilliam’ and R. ‘Fragrantissimum’ fill the air on the way out to the garden. There are always flowers in the house – potted-up snowdrops, pale yellow hellebores and primroses in winter, and abundant armfuls of roses, peonies and dahlias from the cutting garden in the summer. Henrietta’s collection of containers, cachepots and Constance Spry Fulham Pottery vases are lined up on shelves in her office – the nerve-centre of The Land Gardeners’ operations in Cornwall, which doubles up as a dining room on high days and holidays.

In the garden, Henrietta’s mission from the start was to ‘blur the boundaries and encourage nature in’. The low stone wall on one side of the garden runs with Canterbury bells and erigeron. Under it, the border billows with old favourites – clouds of sweet rocket, white valerian, meadow cranesbill and catmint, foxgloves and towering grey cardoons. Fennel and red campion self seed madly and the Euphorbia mellifera is abuzz with insects and bees.

Her ‘Cobweb’ wallpaper was chosen for the kitchen.

Dean Hearne

Henrietta’s ebullient planting might seem artlessly natural, as if it’s happened entirely on its own, but the skill is judging the tipping point and maintaining the balance between wildness and control, attention and neglect: ‘It’s always a dance with nature, but getting the soil humming and full of life was the priority.’

A particular challenge was the creation of the productive garden on what had been a hard, compacted pony paddock. The composts, natural fertilisers (nutrient-rich soil brews made from comfrey and nettles) and a regime of broad forking to aerate the soil have all played a part. Repeated sowings of green manures (buckwheat, phacelia and mustard) have been the way forward in recent years. ‘These manures feed the soil while aerating it with their roots, at the same time as suppressing weeds. We rarely go out without a handful of seeds in our pockets to chuck on bare corners – they do all the work for us,’ adds Bridget.

Picking Cosmos bipinnatus ‘Purity’ in the cutting garden.

Dean Hearne

Now bursting with life and health, and full of worms, the beds erupt each spring with a joyful productive mix of flowers, fruit and vegetables, grown together in four large box-edged beds. Favourites for cutting include Rosa ‘Royal Jubilee’ and R. ‘The Lark Ascending’, Paeonia ‘Coral Charm’, sweet peas from the hazel wigwams and, later, masses of luxuriant dahlias. Nepeta ‘Six Hills Giant’ is planted under the gooseberries to hide the fruit from the birds, though Henrietta is keen to stress that a third of what she grows goes back to nature. The birds get the teasels and rosehips (species roses such as Rosa ‘Amy Robsart’, R. ‘Dupontii’, and R. ‘Stanwell Perpetual’ are grown in the long grass). Nettles are allowed to romp through the adjacent laid hedge, and valerian and comfrey are given plenty of valuable growing space, as they’re crucial for the natural fertilisers.

Recently, by complete chance, Henrietta came across a copy of William Carnsew of Bokelly’s diary from the late 1500s, which charts the yearly rhythms of life on the farm. He writes of his garden, of planting trees, of growing hops and quinces, and he goes on to describe making ‘sandridges of dung’ and of taking ‘the shelly sand’ from nearby beaches for spreading on his soil. How pleased he would be that the tradition of resilient husbandry at Bokelly continues to flourish to this day.

The Land Gardeners: thelandgardeners.com