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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...

Eden State Park

Eden State Park is always a stop we have to make. We feel in love with it the first time we visited. The property used to belong to a timber family and they donated it to the state of Florida. (For more history, see last year's post). The huge live oaks dripping with Spanish Moss, a magnificent collection of camellias and ferns are just a few features on this spectacular property. It is a sure-fire way to lower the blood pressure.












Text and photos by Phillip Oliver, Dirt Therapy

Comments

  1. What a wonderful place. It lowers the BP just looking at pictures of it.

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  2. When I retire, I hope to get another camper and continue visiting the state parks I missed the first go around. Very pretty. Thanks for posting. I started working two jobs the camper was sitting there, so I sold it. Mary

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  3. A lovely park and your vacation home rocked! I don't blame you for not cooking on vacation. It wouldn't be one then.

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  4. Looks rather tranquil and inviting. Lovely photos. Must keep that one on the list of interesting places to visit.

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  5. I enjoy Southern gardens so much! I hope to see this garden some day too.

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  6. Enjoyed your post. Unless you object, I've linked it on my state parks web magazine, http://www.scoop.it/t/state-parks/.

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  7. Some friends of mine love this house so much they actually built a replica of it and live in it now.

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