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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...

Hardy Orange

The Hardy Orange (Poncirus trifoliate) is loaded with fruit this year!


Text and photos by Phillip Oliver, Dirt Therapy

Comments

  1. We have been harvesting Meyer Lemons now for about a month, and we do have a Washington Orange Tree (in a pot) but the fruit may not ripen as our nights are now down in the 40's.
    PS: best of luck on the sale of your home.

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  2. How cool! I can't imagine being able to pick oranges from my own yard. But the apple trees are doing well this year; I'm hoping last night's winds brought more of them down so I don't have to get out a ladder to pick them:)

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  3. Nice! I should give those a try here at some point; they might just be hardy.

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  4. And, it's beautiful!~~Dee

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  5. Wow! Looks awesome.

    Do you use them for anything edible (I've heard that Poncirus oranges are 'technically' edible but hella seedy and sour) or just for ornamental value?

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  6. I keep having to prune mine. The weight of the fruit makes the branches bend down towards the sidewalk, where its thorns threaten to blind someone.

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