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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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The Ultimate Wildlife Habitat Garden - a book review


The Ultimate Wildlife Habitat Garden
by Stacy Tornio
Timber Press, 2024

This colorful guide is a good introduction for beginning gardeners who want to attract wildlife. The focus is on four major groups - birds, butterflies, hummingbirds, and bees. There is also an additional chapter on "Other Wildlife" which offers brief notes on attracting dragonflies, spiders, amphibians, reptiles, earthworms, etc. It even mentions squirrels and rabbits, but my question is - who would want these in the garden?!!

Each section begins with profiles of the major players with a description, photo and list of statistical information such as physical characteristics, nesting habits, diet and range. This is followed by a section of plants that are beneficial. The plants include trees, shrubs, perennials and annuals.


A section titled "Show Me How to Plan a Garden" features five or six plants with an illustration to use in whatever type of garden you are making (shade, drought-tolerant, songbird, hummingbird, etc.). 



A final FAQ section answers questions about native plants, organic gardening and problems one might encounter.

The book is well illustrated with beautiful photographs and drawings. I would recommend the book as a gift for someone just starting out with gardening or for someone who wants to identify birds or butterflies. I'm not sure I would use the word "Ultimate" in the title as the information on both plants and birds is quite minimal, but it is a good starting point.

Text and photos by Phillip Oliver, Dirt Therapy
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