Man spends 27 years transforming garden into four seasons oasis

Yahoo

05-07-2025

A PENSIONER has spent 27 years transforming the land outside his bungalow into a spectacular oasis considered one of the finest private gardens in Britain.
Stunning pictures show John Massey's garden bursting with glorious summer colour – despite being on the edge of the industrial heartlands of Dudley in the Black Country.
John, 76, has spent almost three decades devoted to his labour of love which features 20,000 different plants, trees and shrubs across a ten acre site.
The four-time Chelsea Flower Show gold medalist says he needs to lovingly nurture his plot eight hours a day, seven days a week to keep it looking beautiful all year round.
John Massey in his garden in Kingswinford (Image: Emma Trimble / SWNS) He even opens up the four seasons garden to the public to raise money for charity and has recently reached the incredible milestone of raising half a million pounds.
John is considered one of the horticultural industry's most respected plantsmen and his tranquil oasis has been hailed as one of the best private gardens in the country.
Since it began life as a patch of grass in 1998, the garden has evolved to feature UK trees and plants alongside rarer and more exotic species from Japan, South Africa and Turkey.
Green-fingered John, of Kingswinford, said: "The garden hasn't really been planned, it's just evolved over 27 years.
'We bigheadedly say we're a garden for every day of the year and that you would hopefully find something in flower every day you came.
'There's hundreds and thousands of different plants, we're all plant nutters and it's a full-time job looking after it.
'I usually get up at 7am and take the dogs out and I go around the garden all day from there.
"Then there's the last walk at night to check for snails and slugs, that's usually 10pm until 11pm.
"It really is an all-day thing. I started by the house and just moved out - and just kept going and going. I absolutely love it all."
(Image: Emma Trimble / SWNS)
The garden is nestled against the backdrop of the scenic Staffordshire and Worcestershire canal.
Each corner is brimming with vibrant flowers and an abundance of greenery, with a range of conifers and shrubs surrounded by ornate pots.
John, who has been in horticulture for 57 years, says it has since become so vast it now requires four people to help him maintain it.
His inspiration came from the late Princess Greta Sturdza, a Norwegian who established one of France's finest gardens — Le Vasterival, in Normandy.
John, who was previously awarded the Royal Horticultural Society's highest honour the Victoria Medal of Honour, said: "I was privileged to meet the late princess Greta Sturdza, a Norwegian.
"We became sort of friends and she invited me over and had, in my mind, the greatest garden that I've ever seen.
"She taught me how to garden. Her big thing was transparency pruning, you prune every tree, shrub and conifer so it was its own sculpture in its own right."
He inherited his love of gardening from his grandad but says he got into the industry by chance, with no formal horticulture training at all.
John prides himself on creating an all-year-round green space, meaning that flowers and plants are always growing.
John, who took over control of the family nursery which sits nextdoor when he was just 18, said: 'Some beds are replanted twice a year.
'If we want to keep people coming back we need change.
"We work on three layers, the big trees we raise the canopies and lift the branches.
"We lift the canopy of the shrubs so that we can work under that.
"Witch-hazel's are often considered to be most in abundance, with John's Garden home to over 40 different varieties."
(Image: Emma Trimble / SWNS)
Summer in the garden is dominated by blue, pink and white hydrangeas, while autumn and winter sees various cornus and spindle trees.
Spring is full of hellebores, bulbs and different narcissus, anemones and viburnums - ensuring the garden is always well-stocked.
John said: 'We're always trying to get happy plants, I wouldn't want to grow a plants that weren't healthy.
"There are certain plants we don't grow as we're a real frost pocket. We try and grow plants that are hardy in this area.
'We've got a wonderful selection of conifers, both dwarf and small. Then there's witch hazel, we've got 40 odd varieties.
"We've got the grass bed and the asters which look their best in September and October.
"I love it all, I do love the whole garden. We had the Danish horticulture society here the other day and they said each corner there's something different to look at. I think you should walk gardens both ways
"The garden is constantly changing, with something majoring on different groups of plants right the way through the season."
John stepped away from day-to-day duties at Ashwood Nurseries next door in 2000 to focus on his passion.
The site is open to the public every Saturday between February and December, for just £8 a ticket.
John and his team have won over 50 gold medals at royal flower shows, with four of them coming from the coveted Chelsea Flower Show.
They also boast four Farrer Trophies, two Williams Memorial Medals and two Gardeners' World Live gold medals.
He added: 'I've been in horticulture for 57 years and I'm still learning, it's one of those subjects where the more you learn, the more you realise you don't know.
"A friend of mine described horticulture as the slowest form of art as it takes 20 years to reach its maturity.
"We used to show a little alpine plant called Lewisia. What we tried to do is take a particular genus and try and get it to the highest possible level.
"Then take on another family of plants and try and get them to that level. The beauty of plants is you don't have to be monogamous and can keep building them up."
Since opening to the public in 2003, the garden has generated over £500,000 for charity.
John added: "I wouldn't like to think how much I've spent on it, I wouldn't know. It's a passion, but it would be frightening.
"The main thing is we've raised a lot of money for good causes in the process.
"The garden is constantly changing right the way through the season, and I love it."