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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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Plants For The Winter Garden - a book review


The first day of winter is not until Saturday, December 21st but it has certainly felt like winter this past week. The first frost finally came on December 1 and, until last night, we had consistent temperatures around 27 degrees every night. 

What better time to think about the winter garden and Warren Leach, a garden designer from New England, has just published an informative and visually enticing book called Plants for the Winter Garden (Timber Press). 


I love gardens in winter although I don't particularly like being outside working in them.  A view from the cozy indoors though is most welcome. As I sit here at the computer on this cold, blustery, rainy day, I'm looking out the window at our north-facing front garden. There are a few leaves left on some Japanese maples and an occasional wind gust is bringing them down. But scattered among the bare branches, which of course are beautiful in their own way, there are evergreen pines, a deodar cedar, camellias, daphne, a dappled willow and a Colorado blue spruce that is presently adorned with leaves from the 'Skeeter's Broom' maple. There are also touches of gold from the 'Ogon' spirea, a larch and 'Morning Light' miscanthus grass. 


For the gardener who is unfamiliar with what plants to buy, this book would be helpful. It highlights various conifers, evergreen shrubs and trees. In addition, Leach stresses the importance of texture and illustrates how the distinct characteristics of bark, foliage, berries, seedheads, cones and even winter flowers add to the mix. 

He also discusses how to achieve a balance in creating a winter-interest landscape without sacrificing interest in other seasons. Photos show some gardens in various seasons -


In addition to plant selection, Leach includes chapters on maintaining the winter garden and how to protect plants and pots from the harsh winter climate. A chapter on "structure' shows how to create an inviting entry garden and create nice views from windows. Structural interest can also be achieved by clipped, pleached and espaliered shapes. 

Disclosure: Hatchette Book Group sent me a copy of this book in exchange for my honest opinion and review. 

Text and photos by Phillip Oliver, Dirt Therapy
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  1. Kris PetersonDecember 8, 2024 at 10:08 AM

    It looks like a beautiful book, although I can't lay claim to having anything like a real winter in my climate. I sometimes regret that.

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