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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...

One Earth Botanical



It is always exciting to discover a new nursery, especially when so many are closing these days. A friend recently introduced me to One Earth Botanical. They are located at 24001 NE 28th Street in Camas, Washington and are open on Fridays and Saturdays from 10-3.

This is a family-owned nursery specializing in perennials, shrubs and trees. I was impressed by their inventory and saw some plants that I didn't know existed, such as the red-blooming Cestrum called "Ruby Clusters" pictured at the top. Their prices are also awesome (most of the perennials I saw were $7 with larger sized pots around $12 - $15.) 

Stephanie gave us a tour of their 8-acre property which includes large display gardens, areas for weddings and other events and an in-the-works yurt which will be opened as a B&B. She says they have to deal with deer and she is knowlegeable about plants they don't like. In addition to all that, they also do beekeeping I need some of their energy! 

They are located in a beautiful setting in the countryside. I can't wait to visit again. I did pick up the Cestrum as well as a groundcover skullcap (Scuttelaria 'Dark Violet'). I wish I had consulted their website before I went because I see things I missed!

Text and photos by Phillip Oliver, Dirt Therapy

Comments

  1. How lucky! It's been a very long time since I've seen a new nursery open here.

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  2. What a great find, and those prices sound fantastic!

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