A garden at the edge of the world

Having built his garden from scratch, author Patrick Gale shares the challenges he faces having one of England's most westerly walled rose gardens and the plants he holds dearest

- Patrick Gale

Tucked away on the rugged coast of Cornwall, novelist Patrick Gale has spent the past 25 years transforming a windswept farmyard into a lush, vibrant garden. Sheltered by towering windbreaks and filled with roses, salvias and Mediterranean plants, his garden is both a testament to resilience and a deeply personal retreat.

How would you describe your garden?

Our garden, Trevilley, is just under an acre in size. I've gradually taken over a large part of the farmyard, which is now part of the garden. The biggest challenge here, though, is that the soil near Land's End is only about 5in deep before you hit a layer of compacted subsoil and then solid granite. Because of this, most of the garden consists of raised beds.

All the flowerbeds have been created by rolling boulders along with a tractor and then piling up earth behind them, or by building artificial beds using shuttered concrete. If big things like trees thrive here, they tend to do so after about five or six years of us wondering whether they're going to die or not!

The wind is the biggest challenge here, as it's almost constant, either from one direction or another. So, our first priority was creating windbreaks. In fact, I could probably write a book on them - what works, what doesn't and what stands up to the relentless wind. Almost by accident, this has led us to plant a lot of species from New Zealand. We have plenty of olearia, elaeagnus and similar hardy evergreens. We have learnt to love them as they provide protection for more delicate things, for which having such protection is the only way they will survive.