The Pomfret Arms garden is one of Northampton’s best kept secrets.
The bar’s handmade charm continues in the pub's award winning walled garden with its different seating levels and eclectic mix of hand-made tables and repurposed items.
The whole garden is surrounded by old stone and brick walls so it has a special and sunny microclimate.
The Pomfret Arms garden is the perfect space for live music, outdoor events, food and drink, it is dog, family and cycle friendly. Even when the weather isn’t warm enough to sit outside, it’s still worth a look. The dramatic lighting scheme makes the garden magical in the evening and uses low voltage led bulbs to keep energy use down.
The garden stage is a lovely setting for live music and poetry events, and when the weather’s not suitable, the barn provides the perfect shelter.
Renovation of the derelict garden began in 2013, it had been untouched for about 8 years and was a forest of bramble and buddleia.
Planting now includes grape vines, a heavily fruiting fig tree, herbs, grasses, ivy, ferns, native plants, clematis, tulips,
woodland flowers, shrubs and of course the incredible roses and hops scrambling up every upright.
The horse chestnut tree provides shelter in the summer and glorious colour in the autumn, not to mention the materials required for the annual conker fest, one of the many outdoor events held in the garden.
Even the hops are there for a purpose - we use them to decorate the pub and we plan to harvest and dry the flowers to use in our Cotton End Brewery beers when post-covid brewing resumes in earnest.
We try to have something in flower every month of the year with the aim of encouraging wildlife, and the garden is run on organic principles with no pesticides, herbicides, fungicides or peat products. We have a relaxed attitude to tidiness and yes, you will see leaf piles, self seeded plants between patio slabs and scruffy borders at certain times of year. This is intentional and part of the way we manage the garden for wildlife.
Already spotted on site are mason bees, ladybirds, robins, a wren, long tailed tits, wood pigeons and blackbirds.
We will be doing wildlife surveys this year so if anyone has any good pictures of wildlife in our garden please send them in so we can identify it and maybe publish the photos on social media. We have just put up some new bird and butterfly boxes, bug houses and roosting pouches. There is a very determined mole at the moment who has wrecked our already patchy lawn and we’re thinking of how to make this work to our advantage, any suggestions gratefully received!
"Weeds are flowers too, once you get to know them."
AA Milne