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...
Beautiful photos of a beautiful garden, Phillip! However, given that your bench shot shows that a geranium has taken over, it looks as though you haven't given yourself many opportunities to sit down and enjoy it ;)
ReplyDeleteThis is true. I wanted to cut it back and Michael insisted we leave it.
DeleteGorgeous, Phillip! You do August right! I am tempted to get a Vitex now that you've shown it here and in your July favorites.
ReplyDeleteJerry, you should. I love it.
DeleteOh, my! So beautiful. I remember when you put those steps in...
ReplyDeleteThe bench shot in particular is romantic and magazine worthy: I'm glad Michael insisted :-D
I see your Phormium is fully recover since a couple of winters ago. Right above it in the far left corner: are those 'red twig' dogwood branches in the large pot?
Chavli
I have cut the phormium down close to the ground for the past two seasons. Now that I know it will rebound, it is painless. Those twigs are a variety of different things, spray-painted red by Michael.
DeleteHow beautiful, you've created a masterpiece! I especially love the path photos #3 & #5. So lush, your garden looks like it appreciates the mild summer.
ReplyDeleteThank you!
DeleteYour garden is so lovely, Phillip! Each path draws your eye further in...so lush. Debbie Crockett
ReplyDeleteThank you Debbie! I loved your garden.
DeleteI've been following you and your garden for a while via your emails, and it just gets more beautiful every year! Thanks so much for sharing your gardening passion!
ReplyDeleteThanks so much Sandy!
DeleteLove these photos. An inspiration for a Vancouver Island gardener. What is the purple flowering bush, very tall, in photo #8? Love your use of colours. Divine!
ReplyDeleteThank you! That is a chaste tree (vitex).
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