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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...

Time to Cover Plants & Bring in the Hummingbird Feeders Again


After an extended stretch of mild weather, we have two nights of sub-freezing temperatures. No snow or ice, just cold, in the mid twenties tonight and teens tomorrow night.

I cover three or four plants including the loquat and a eucalyptus that was planted late last season.



We usually bring in a few of the hummingbird feeders and put them back out early in the morning. 

For the other birds, I have a heating device inside the urn fountain. I recently received this little heated bird bath that you just plug into the wall. This is the first time I've used it. I'm not crazy about the color but if it works, that is all that matters.




In the meantime, much interest is to be found -


Cotoneaster dammeri -
either 'Lowfast' or 'Mooncreeper' - anyone know the difference?


Euphorbia characieas wulfenii


Camellia 'Nuccio Bella Rosa'

Heather (Calluna vulgaris 'Firefly' and 'Multicolor')


Hypericum 'Pumpkin' (St. John's Wort)

Vinca minor 'Illumination' (Periwinkle)



Asian Star Jasmine (Trachelospermum asiaticum 'Ogon Nishiki')


Pieris 'Little Heath'

Stay warm!


Text and photos by Phillip Oliver, Dirt Therapy

Comments

  1. That's a very pretty Cotoneaster! You've got a lot of nice color ro see you through your cold snap.

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  2. Not familiar with 'Mooncreeper' but I know 'Lowfast' is really what its name indicates - very low unless you give it something to climb on - in which case it will totally head upwards. It's probably fast, too. Those heathers look so good with the river rocks - yummy!

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