Skip to main content

Featured

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...
2 comments
Read more
Labels

The New Romantic Garden - a book review


by Jo Thompson
Rizzoli, 2025

Jo Thompson is a noted UK garden designer who has won numerous awards at RHS shows. Her style is the epitome of the "romantic English garden" idea - sumptuous borders packed with perennials in pastel colors, arches covered with roses, idyllic meadows and garden rooms.

But what is the "new" romantic garden? Described as a fresh perspective of utilizing this lush gardening style into the present-day world, it places an emphasis on organic gardening, biodiversity, plant and soil health. 

A scene from the author's own garden...

Photo: Rachel Warne


In this gorgeous book, Thompson showcases thirty of her gardens, all beautifully described and photographed.  From estate gardens to a London penthouse roof garden, they provide sumptuous eye-candy and inspiration.

A peek inside...

A London city garden filled with roses and iris (Photo: Jason Ingram)


Writer Justine Picardie's garden in Norfolk evokes a feeling of a rustic country house in the French countryside. (Photo: Rachel Warne)


A show garden featuring a creative water garden with a stone spiral art piece
(Photo: Katy Donaldson)



Pastoral views of the Wealden countryside surround an ancient farmhouse.
(Photo: Jason Ingram)

The New Romantic Garden is now available in book stores. You can also find a copy on Amazon.

Note: I received a complimentary copy of this book from Rizzoli Publishers in exchange for an honest review.



Text and photos by Phillip Oliver, Dirt Therapy
Email Post
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment