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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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Laura Scott's Garden


Following the garden tour last Saturday, the gardeners who were on the tour got together for snacks, drinks and recovery. We met at Laura Scott's garden, who lives just a few miles from our house. I had not seen her garden before and it was a treat. Despite living so close, her house and garden is like being in the country. Very quiet, bucolic and big!

Laura has an artistic eye and she is very good at creating vignettes. The garden is a series of rooms with a vegetable garden, herb garden, perennial and shrub border, a mini-pond and the list goes on. And I just remembered there is an orchard and a peony field!

The photo above and below show the water feature. I absolutely love Clematis recta - a new plant to be on the look for!



 

Another plant that I loved was the pink Bowman's Root (Gillenia trifoliata 'Pink Profusion'). I have the white-flowered variety but didn't know that a pink variety existed. 




One plant that I'm vaguely familiar with but rarely see is the Gas Plant (Dictamnus albus).




Pineapple Broom (Cytisus battandieri)



Rose 'Kateryna'













Jerusalem Sage (Phlomis russeliana)




A sea of thyme in the herb garden

Did you see the cat in the window?


Thank you Laura for a tour of your wonderful garden!

Text and photos by Phillip Oliver, Dirt Therapy
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Comments

  1. AnonymousJune 22, 2022 at 8:42 AM

    A massive garden! And you are right, there are many wonderful vignettes throughout. The slightly stressed sedum Angelina in a pot, or the potted chartreuse bamboo... great artistic combinations.
    I can't tell if it is a rusted shelf or a bench in the photo, but I want it! :-D
    Chavli

    ReplyDelete
  2. Kris PetersonJune 22, 2022 at 12:19 PM

    A peony field? I think I my husband and I may need to revisit our discussion of a move to the Puget Sound area...Laura's garden is absolutely fabulous.

    ReplyDelete
  3. hbJune 22, 2022 at 3:42 PM

    Wowza. Classic PNW garden. Looks like your area got a very rainy rainy season.

    Same reaction as Kris: a peony...field?!?!! I can only dream!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Phillip OliverJune 22, 2022 at 10:00 PM

      hb, she used to raise peonies. Yes, we've definitely had a rainy season!

      Delete
  4. AnonymousJune 24, 2022 at 6:32 AM

    nice

    ReplyDelete
  5. AnonymousJune 25, 2022 at 8:19 AM

    Laura Scott has an excellent eye for garden vignettes. The potted short bamboo agains the rusty metal, the heat stressed sedum Angelina in the urn with glass orbs, the totally drool worthy rusted shelf, or bench. Inspired combinations!
    Chavli

    ReplyDelete

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