Stonyford Cottage: the family garden grown from marshland

Tucked into a sheltered valley on the edge of Delamere Forest, Stonyford Cottage Gardens feels like a place that has always been there. In truth, it is the product of decades of patient work by one Cheshire family.

When Tony and Janet Overland moved to Stonyford Cottage with their three children in the 1980s, the property was a derelict cottage surrounded by swampy marshland and a field of pasture. Tony, who trained at Kew Gardens and has served as President of the Kew Guild, saw potential where others might have seen only hard work, and was determined to turn the land into a beautiful garden.

The family has worked on it together ever since, creating pathways and walkways and planting steadily over the years. The result is a garden set around a tranquil pool, with a Monet-style landscape of moisture-loving plants such as iris and candelabra primulas. Drier areas are home to unusual perennials and rarer trees and shrubs, while woodland paths meander through shade and bog plantings.

The garden's reputation has grown accordingly. It has featured on BBC Gardeners' World, been chosen among the Telegraph's top ten spring gardens and is now one of Cheshire's RHS Partner Gardens. It has also opened its gates for the National Garden Scheme, raising funds for charity, and in 2025 welcomed a visit from the Cheshire Gardens Trust.

Alongside the garden sits a specialist plant nursery, which is a draw for keen gardeners in its own right. It focuses on herbaceous perennials, irises, hardy geraniums, moisture-loving and bog plants, sempervivums, peonies and candelabra primulas, many of them the same plants visitors admire in the garden itself. Mail order is available all year round, so the Stonyford look can travel well beyond Oakmere.

It is a lovely example of a family business built on a single shared passion. What began as a project to rescue a neglected cottage and its waterlogged land has become one of mid-Cheshire's quiet treasures, and a reminder of what patience and green fingers can achieve.

Stonyford Cottage Gardens and Nursery is on Stonyford Lane, Oakmere, near Northwich. The nursery and garden open seasonally, so check dates before visiting at stonyfordcottagenursery.co.uk.