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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...

Leaves to Remember (Michael's Concrete Art)

Michael teaching our friends Geoff and Masako how to make and paint concrete leaves

Michael has been busy making concrete leaves, saucers, bird baths and other objects. This is a process that takes 24-36 hours for forming and drying the cement mixture (sand and mortar mix).




After the objects are finished, they are then painted and glazed.


My favorites are the bowls and bird baths. I have a small one on my desk and the larger ones will be used throughout the garden.












Text and photos by Phillip Oliver, Dirt Therapy

Comments

  1. Fun! My favorites are those in the 6th and 13th photos.

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  2. I adore these. Especially the birdbaths. I hope Michael sets up an online shop.

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  3. How very creative. It'd be fun to place them throughout the garden.
    chavli

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