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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...

A visit to Rhone Street Gardens




I have followed Scott Weber's blog Rhone Street Gardens for many years and I was very excited to get to meet him and see the garden. I am always blown away by his amazing photography and collection of unique plants. Scott had presented a workshot at Joy Creek Nursery earlier in the day and I know he was exhausted. It was mighty nice of him and Norm to show us around late on a Saturday evening. Thank you Scott and Norm!





The house sits on a corner lot in a popular neighborhood. The garden area is small with only a few feet between the house and the sidewalk but every inch is jam-packed with an array of colorful perennials, shrubs and ornamental grasses. Scott even gardens in the roadside curb strip for maximum benefit! He has also used attractive tin containers in the driveway and path areas. I think he has one small strip of grass left but I'm betting that he has dug it up since I was there.




There were so many interesting plants and many that were unfamiliar to me. He has a large assortment of alliums, persicaria, geranium, agastache, rodgersia, and the list goes on. Stunning textural combinations and artfully arranged scenes, it is truly a lovely garden.



Allium cristophii


Panicum 'Shenandoah' and Persicaria 'Golden Arrow'

Astrantia maxima 'Roma'

Agastache 'Golden Jubilee' and Kanutia macedonica

New Zealand Wind Grass (Annemonthale lessoniana)

Silver Vein Virginia Creeper (Parthenocissus henyana)

Lupine

Allium nigrum

Clematis recta purpurea



Text and photos by Phillip Oliver, Dirt Therapy

Comments

  1. Thanks for this great tour of Scott's garden! I hope you enjoyed your trip out to the wild west!

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  2. I enjoyed this tour so much! I read Scott's blog too, and it's so cool to see his garden from someone else's lens. What a treat it must have been.

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  3. Philip, the pleasure was all ours...so glad to have you over and to get to meet you! I hope it's the first of many visits you get to make to Portland :-)

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  4. I bet you didn't hardly know where to look next. Beautiful. My kind of garden... full.

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  5. Lovely...I have long admired his skill at combining textures and colors. It's a beautiful garden. gail

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  6. Oh wow, I will have to start following this blog. Love the garden!

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  7. I love the garden. I'm going to have to start following the blog because I do love a cat photo ;)

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  8. Another lucky day on your trip. I have followed Scott and his skilled photography for some time now.

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  9. Beautiful! Going to visit the blog now!

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  10. Beautiful! Going to visit the blog now!

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