Rooted in Time: A Garden, a Shed, the Joy of Returning Home

When Harriet Thistlethwayte’s husband suggested that they move into the house cradled in the bottom of the Herefordshire valley where she had grown up, she had serious reservations. It was 2011 and their plans to relocate from the north of England to be nearer family had happened to coincide with her parents’ decision to downsize from the farmland-framed house in which they had raised their children.

‘For one thing there was the garden,’ she remembers. ‘An eight-acre immaculate garden that my mother had spent the previous forty-five years making and which was full of rare plants that she tended daily. I had always grown vegetables and loved working in the few borders in our previous houses had, but only ever on a fairly small scale.’

With a large wood at the top of the hill behind the house, it was a deeply rural proposition, the only soundtrack to days spent within its walls and rambling garden, the chatter of birdsong and the distant rumble of the occasional tractor. It was, in fact, the house itself that clinched it.

‘It’s a lovely Georgian farmhouse with beautiful proportions, which I already knew I loved,’ she explains. ‘It had the bonus of being completely unspoilt in that it had hardly changed at all since my parents had moved in. So we knew that whatever happened in the garden, first we had a sizeable updating job on our hands. Despite the odd middle-of-the-night panic that we might be taking on too much – just as others our age were beginning to slow down – we took the decision to move into my childhood home. It wasn’t long before I knew we had made the right decision. After spending our married life in the flat countryside of Nottinghamshire, I loved being in undulating Herefordshire hills. For the first time I felt truly at home.’

It is an irony that it should have been the garden that cast doubt over the move; fourteen years later, Harriet’s gentle tending and shepherding through the seasons has garnered hundreds of thousands of followers, enraptured by every post of undone, bucolic bliss at @yomargey. And, at the centre of it all sits a sight that is deeply familiar to those enchanted disciples: that of her studio shed, whose exterior exudes a quiet magic and whose interior provides nurturing warmth and sanctuary to every unfurling flower and cascading tendril she cultivates.

‘The idea behind my shed was originally to have a space for photography and where I could play with flowers and not have to tidy up immediately afterwards!’ she says. ‘It has become so much more than that: we eat in there too – it’s so cosy with the wood burner in winter and a lovely place to have a coffee on the veranda in the summer. Wanting to be as sustainable as possible in its construction, we found the original shed on eBay and my husband rebuilt it adding an oak framed veranda and using windows that I had sourced on Facebook Marketplace. It has become such a large part of my life. It is wonderful to finally have what Virginia Woolf once said was essential for all women: a room of one’s own.’

We are, she says, currently riding the crest of her very favourite month in the garden, as winter is finally put to bed and fresher days of renewal are in full swing. The garden is lush with new growth, so many things about to burst into flower, the promise of everything to come at its height, every day to be relished. With all the hard work done in the previous months starting to pay off, it’s a time for simply being, as much as for doing.’

It's the perfect moment, then, to start planning in earnest for summer adventures – the dreamiest amongst which for 2025 is Harriet’s plan to set up a brass bed in the shed – ‘as close to camping as I’m prepared to get’ – as the much-loved space she and her husband created together adds ‘bedroom’ to its roster of makeshift uses.

‘In summer, I spend as much of the day outside as I can, and sleeping in the shed has always been something I’ve wanted to do. When I saw Rowen & Wren’s beautiful embroidered linens, I immediately had a visualisation of a brass bed in the shed, a gentle breeze coming through an open window, surrounded by greenery on the cusp of summer, with all the cow parsley in bloom. The bedding felt exactly right for creating the romantic vision I had.’

Benvy Rustic Stool & Embroidered Linen Duvet, featured left & Embroidered Linen Pillow Case, featured right

She reflects, ‘I think there has always been an allure to sleeping outdoors – the romance of being close to nature, a considered simplification of living. Plus, there is something childlike and nostalgic about it too, turning towards innocent pleasures, and away from frenetic everyday life.’

The overarching plan for this garden, so lovingly tended first by her mother and now by Harriet, is that it converses harmoniously with its wild rural surroundings. As with everything in nature, it is in constant evolution – and while her own iteration and vision is quite different from her mother’s, the continuum is the love that they have both poured into this soil.

The result is a deliberately simplified space, which, she says, ‘inspires and nourishes me rather than overwhelming me with a task list.’ To that end, she has used a limited colour palette of mainly white, yellow and blue.

Etta Terracotta Pots, featured right

‘I find these colours calming, and that’s an important part of garden design for me – I find too much colour overstimulating. I grow mostly herbaceous perennials but also have a cut flower patch which is part of a fenced in vegetable growing area. Deer have become an increasing part of our lives here which has affected what I can grow hugely. The search for plants which deer find unappetising is a constant challenge!’

This year, she’s busily potting up a small medley of containers, including Rowen & Wren’s Etta and Agni terracotta pots. which will soon burst forth with vivid pelargoniums. ‘I’m very drawn to natural products, and these terracotta pieces are perfect for seasonal planting. I always grow pelargoniums in my greenhouse for summer and have a collection of vintage planters in which to display them. These characterful pots will go perfectly with mine and I know they will age beautifully.

Etta Terracotta Pots & Agni Terracotta Bowl, featured left

As spring turns to summer, she looks forward to the joys of a sun-drenched garden, the fruits of her labours thronging the scene as she sets a table outside. ‘We have an apple tree in the orchard in front of the shed where we eat on hot days and warm nights,’ she explains dreamily. ‘I have strung up some solar lights and to sit and chat with friends into the late evening is one of my very favourite things to do. Those balmy evenings happen so rarely in England that they have to be relished when they do.’

And that, for Harriet Thistlethwayte, lies at the core of everything: the knowledge that everything has its moment; that we simply need to recognise, embrace and delight in it. As she says, true happiness lies in the little things.

Interview by Nancy Alsop