Green-fingered Hannah plans ambitious restoration of 100-year-old walled garden

A talented gardener is taking on her biggest challenge when she starts work on restoring a historic 100-year-old walled garden at a north Wales care home.

Hannah Barrow, from Caerwys, in Flintshire, has just been appointed as a consultant horticulturalist by the Wrexham-based Pendine Park care organisation and her first project is to restore the walled garden at their Bryn Seiont Newydd care home near Caernarfon.

She will work closely with Pendine Head Gardener Andrew Jones and his team of five across the acclaimed gardens at the organisation’s homes which include Highfield, Pen y Bryn, Bodlondeb, Gwern Alyn and Hilbury in Wrexham.

Hannah, 37, has the pedigree – her mum, Jan Lomas, now retired, was the head gardener at Mostyn Hall, Llandudno, and at the Grosvenor Estate, at Chester, and encouraged her to go to the Northop College of Horticulture when she spotted Hannah’s green fingers.

Project

Hannah worked at the Grosvenor Estate until she decided to branch out on her own and she is fresh from putting the finishing touches to a herb garden at the recently-opened Well-Being Centre at St James’s Church, Holywell, a project the Prince and Princess of Wales had been due to visit before the princess’s cancer diagnosis.

The invitation to join the team at Pendine came out of the blue when she received a phone call from the owner, Mario Kreft MBE, with a challenge Hannah was happy to accept and she’s looking forward to restoring the walled garden in Caernarfon which is on the site of a the former Bryn Seiont Hospital.

Blank canvas

Hannah, who gained a National Diploma in Horticulture, Landscape and Design at Northop, said: “The call from Mario was out of the blue but it was so exciting and the first task is the old walled garden.

“It had been neglected for so many years but that isn’t necessarily a bad thing because it means I have a complete blank canvas and have been able to put some ideas together.

“The area needs clearing and then hopefully we can start work properly in March, marking out, putting in hard landscaping, water and foundations for the greenhouses because basically everything needs to be done.

“I can’t wait to get started. I love to get my hands dirty and I think that’s what makes me a bit different.

“We’re going to have raised beds accessible for residents, a wild flower area, deep shade and sunny borders, vegetable, herb and flower beds, a water feature in the centre, outdoor seating and communal spaces.

“I just love creating beautiful spaces for people to enjoy, being outside and in nature – I couldn’t be indoors all the time.”

Beautiful

Mario Kreft said: “Andrew leads a great team of gardeners at Pendine Park and they have created the most beautiful, manicured gardens and that’s key to us.

“We believe that when you are unwell or infirm then the opportunity to spend time outside in a lovely garden or even just to see the flowers and trees and hear the birds through the window is so important.

“I just think Hannah can help our excellent people and as this is our 40th year at Pendine I wanted to put some resources into taking what we have here to the next level.

“Wellbeing is not just about indoors, it’s about your outdoor environment – it’s literally about stopping to smell the roses.”

Hannah’s father, John Lomas, is now the Church in Wales Bishop of Swansea and Brecon and her parents live in South Wales while her childhood was spent in different vicarages as her father moved from parish to parish every few years.

Talent 

She started gardening with her mum in Colwyn Bay and then continued when the family moved to Holywell and she said: “The houses we lived in were often large with big gardens so I was able to get out and help my mum.

“I always wanted to work outside. I was never very academic – in school I was always looking out of the window and I knew that’s where I wanted to be from a young age.

“I would be out in the garden with my mum and then we moved to Holywell and that’s when they gave me my own patch of garden to develop and mum noticed I had a talent.

“I developed a herb and vegetable garden there and grew annual flowers and that’s when mum realised I needed to go to Northop.

“I loved it there and it’s such a shame the Horticultural College isn’t there any more – it’s great loss to the area and to Wales.”

Hannah is married to Thomas and the couple have two children, Esme, 18, and James, 13, and she sees a lot of herself in James who enjoys working alongside his mum in the garden.

She decided to go on her own in lockdown and has been running a garden design business and consultancy and combining that with her work as a florist – for more on Hannah click here.