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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...

Gregg Andrews' Garden


The HPSO Vancouver West Side Mini Tour concludes with the garden of Gregg Andrews. I saw his garden years ago shortly after moving here. That tour was probably the Clark County Natural Garden Tour (it took place today but I was working so unable to attend). 



Gregg's garden begins with a cottage garden that surrounds the front and sides of the house with a profusion of roses, perennials and wisteria that runs along the wrap-around porch.




After leaving the front garden through a side gate, the garden becomes heavily shaded by fir trees. Pathways lead to a large circular brick patio, a small pond, hidden seating areas and a tree house.




Along the way are many artistic touches, such as this beautiful stepping stone -


A vegetable garden is located on the other side of the house but by this time my camera battery had expired as well as the tour. We had arrived at his garden just minutes before the 4pm closing time but he generously allowed us to wander through. Thank you Gregg!

This past weekend, four more gardens in Vancouver were on tour, this time on the East side of town. I will have photos to share on later posts.

Text and photos by Phillip Oliver, Dirt Therapy

Comments

  1. Everything is so GREEN in Vancouver, it's a shock to my eyes! Beautiful garden, I'm glad you got to share a bit with us.

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  2. I love the idea of secret seating places - and a treehouse!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Charming--I love flowery gardens, but this one also has a beautiful foliage-mostly area as well. Gorgeous stepping stone--we wants one.

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