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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...
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A beautiful day in the garden


It is the last day of March and this past week has felt more like May here in southwestern Washington. I started my seasonal job at the nursery last week and the greenhouse was stifling at times. I kept wishing I had wore my shorts. The weather has just been fantastic and we had a full day in the garden on Sunday. Exhausted but got a lot accomplished.

 Assessing the situation, the plants look like they survived the winter with flying colors. Of course, there was some winter damage, like the Hebe, but all is not lost.

It is exciting to see how things are growing. This Goshiki Osmanthus looks like it has at least a foot of new growth that shot up seemingly overnight.
Osmanthus heterophyllus 'Goshiki'

And I really did not think that Camellia 'Nuccio Bella Rossa' has grown that much but when comparing to it last year's photo, it is at least twice the size.

April 2018
Camellia 'Nuccio Bella Rossa' today
Other early bloomers -

Clematis armandii 'Snowdrift'

English Daisy (Bellis perennis)

Spirea thunbergii 'Ogon'

Red Flowering Currant (Ribes sanguineum) - a beautiful native plant to this region.

And, last but not least, the ironclad little Primroses. Michael bought these at the supermarket to go in our kitchen window right after we moved here. I eventually put them out in the garden when they started to sulk inside. They have come back faithfully every year. I noticed on a plant tag earlier in the week that they are hardy to -30!



I spent the majority of the day fertilizing the roses. I generally use an organic granular fertilizer (like Lilly Miller or E.B. Stone)

The fertilizer is sprinkled around the base of the rose and lightly scratched in...

Then watered in. During the season, I will fertilize with fish emulsion every 2 or 3 weeks.

Rain is on the way tomorrow but I still have much more to do, including spreading a truck-load of compost over the borders and mulching them. The grass (what little there is left) needs cutting and fertilizing. Fun times ahead!

Text and photos by Phillip Oliver, Dirt Therapy
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Comments

  1. ShoalandaApril 4, 2019 at 3:28 AM

    All simply beautiful, but I love the rubber duckies!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Lisa at GreenbowApril 7, 2019 at 5:53 AM

    Spring is charging into your area. Here is is slowly sauntering in.

    ReplyDelete

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