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...
I love all the shade and the woodsy feel of these gardens, especially now when we're in the middle of a mild (so far) heatwave!
ReplyDeleteAh, they are lovely gardens. They feel expansive, bigger than a quarter acre that's for sure!
ReplyDeleteEverything is starting to blur together for me - I think I missed the Hilderbrand garden and Wagner's 4 Season's Garden. I remember we spent a lot of time at Hicks and Big John's garden because it was cool there and the day was so HOT. Definitely a favorite.
ReplyDeleteThey do begin to blur together after you've seen so many!
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