Skip to main content

Featured

The Garden House (Devon, England)

The destinations are beginning to blur but looking at the tour guide booklet, I see that we are now in Plymouth. Today, we visited two gardens designed by Keith Wiley.  The first is The Garden House , where Wiley worked as Head Gardener for 25 years (from 1978-2003). The 10-acre estate was purchased in the 1940s by former Eton schoolmaster Lionel Fortescue and his wife Katherine. It was formerly home to the  vicars of Buckland Monachronum. The Fortescue's renovated the gardens and ran a market garden business and raised cattle.  The remains of some of the original buildings in the vicarage still stand in the garden and serve as a romantic backdrop in the Walled Garden - I loved the way they had massed ferns together. Just stunning! Surrounding the walled garden and venturing out away from the house are more naturalistic plantings  - Today, the head gardener is Nick Haworth, who was previously head gardener at Greenway , which we visited earlier.  Keith Wiley lef...
2 comments
Read more
Labels

July doldrums

This is not exactly the most exciting time in the garden. Since we've finally received some rain (FINALLY!!), the weeds are taking off and the grass is greening up. The humidity is down and this was a pleasant weekend but still a tad hot. This morning I mowed, spread some mulch and did some minor weeding. I took these photos this afternoon.

The paniculata (PeeGee) hydrangeas are beginning to bloom. This one is called "Pee Wee."





Not many roses are blooming right now, but "Belinda's Dream" has several blooms.





I'm beginning to see frogs around the waterfall.





I think this is a rain lily but I don't remember the name of it. The color is fantastic.







Containers around the mailbox include coleus, million bells and ageratum.




Coleus are truly wonderful plants for containers. This one is called "Saturn."






This is becoming one of my favorite annuals - Begonia "Dragon Wing"




This is the first time I've grown this annual and I love it. It is called Dichondra 'Silver Falls' and is a trailing plant with silvery round leaves - they remind me of coins. I put it in a shallow concrete basket which has always been difficult to grow things in but this is doing quite well.



Text and photos by Phillip Oliver
Email Post
Labels:

Comments

  1. AnonymousJuly 23, 2007 at 12:01 PM

    Great photos Phillip. I especially like the effect of the PeeGee looking through the "Gateway Of Light" between the trees. Not sure why but I was unable to view the first picture from July 22 as it would not download properly. DW

    ReplyDelete
  2. Phillip OliverJuly 23, 2007 at 1:13 PM

    Thank you! Can you see all the photos now? - Phillip

    ReplyDelete
  3. AnonymousJuly 27, 2007 at 8:17 PM

    I like the way you've used the Dichondra, like a silver waterfall. We call it silver ponyfoot around here, because of the round, cloven leaves.

    ReplyDelete
  4. AnonymousJuly 28, 2007 at 12:08 AM

    Phillip,
    The top photo is still not coming through. DW

    ReplyDelete
  5. chuck b.August 1, 2007 at 8:04 PM

    That dichondra is awesome!

    ReplyDelete
  6. Diana StuderSeptember 5, 2010 at 3:45 AM

    Oh dear! When I click on the Photo Label, I get 2 posts. But this one has 'there was a picture here' all over it. No pics at all ;>((

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment