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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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First Freeze



Last night the temperature dipped down to 29. Frosty patches covered most of the garden this morning and there is ice in the bird baths. It was enough to wither the tender annuals (begonias, petunias, sweet potato vine). It has been very chilly this week with highs in the 40s but there is sun and little wind so working outside has been pleasurable. 

Text and photos by Phillip Oliver, Dirt Therapy
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  1. Kris PetersonNovember 9, 2022 at 5:53 PM

    And here we complain when temperatures drop into the low 60s ;)

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  2. AnonymousNovember 10, 2022 at 8:57 AM

    Beautiful photo. Is this one of Michael's pieces?
    chavli

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  3. Anna KNovember 12, 2022 at 7:37 AM

    Beautiful photo... and yes, it was pretty cold. Managed to get the sanseverias inside, but I think I need to get the begonias etc. under cover this weekend. Almost completely spaced on the houseplants this year - LOL! (They never like being in our dark house much, so that's probably why I subconsciously left them outside. Checking on them today...)

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