Stoneyford Cottage Gardens.

This was a different garden to anything seen on this trip. It was inspired by Monet's Garden and it has featured on Gardeners World. Our guide told us the interviewer was extremely nervous as she did not like water and boats and she had to carry a four hundred thousand pound camera around with her. She has not been back!!!
The garden is not far from Chester but it seemed miles away in the countryside with horses riding by and the infrequent train service passed their place.

It was created out of wetlands around a pool area on the edge of the Delemere Forest, a royal forest. The garden is in a valley and they get very heavy frosts in winter and sometimes snow so everything has to be hardy. I would describe it as an informal garden.

The garden was developed by the parents but both sons have trained in garden design and horticulture so they run the nursery side of the business and their wives run the cafe and live locally. It is a real family business which they obviously love.

The boys have built the bridges around the walkway over to the island and created small plantings of specialised plants in the swamp lands. The main waterway is a stream which runs right through the property and has swans, Moorhead,  and kingfishers plus three types of woodpeckers live there.Willow trees,elders,a monkey puzzle tree and three types of rare bamboos grow here. Quercus Forest Pansy seemed happy in these conditions and he had a rare redwood growing here of a golden variety.

They specialize in unusual plants in the nursery gardens which is beautifully set out and a credit to them.They had a lot of salvias,lilies and astlibes of all colours and some of them were very tall growing.They had a Waterlilly pond and chicken coops so plenty of interesting nooks a crannies along the way to explore. Magical.

The gardens also display lots of Candelabra Primulas,astilbe varieties, hostas,hydrangeas, ferns and trees which like damp conditions. It all created a very peaceful place with all round interest with places to sit and watch the birds or look at the lake. Not sure I was keen for the blue boat though. It looked awhile since it had been used.

It was rather eerie and magical under the trees and they  were hosting a production of Twelfth Night next month which would be a great setting for the performance.

Mt Pleasant Gardens

Our afternoon garden visit was another drive through pleasant villages with lovely old brick houses, some with thatched roofs and others tiled. The old age of 'England being a green and pleasant land' is certainly true around this area. Narrow roads though,not sure how the bus driver copes.
We eventually arrived at Mount Pleasant Gardens in Kelsall, close to the Delaware Forest and fifteen minutes from Chester. Took a lot longer to inch our way back in rush hour traffic to Chester on a Friday night.
This was an interesting garden in a number of ways.
It was a young garden,twenty years in the making and set up by the current owners on ten acres of land. It is a sculpture park and the owner also sells Christmas trees so it is a lifestyle garden.
It had the 'wow' factor as the photos of the wild meadow show. We walked through this area before the rain struck and it is a mix of wildflowers but yellow is the dominant colour now, it was red poppies a month ago according to the owner who took us on a tour of the garden  and described the evolving nature of the place. He had built most of the structures and done the landscaping himself.
It was undisciplined. There did not seem to have a rhyme or reason to the plantings. I guess it lacked cohesion but that may be because we have got used to more formal designs.They certainly had a lot of plants on show and much was healthy enough but it would have benefitted from a plan leading you through the various areas. I liked the Japanese Garden. I thought that was well done and the area around the house with th pond was attractive.
The sculptures,these were varied and added some drama to the overall garden. They were for sale so no doubt the landscape would change over time.
There were some notable trees which have been grown from cuttings but the redwoods are going to dwarf the house and garden in time so selecting trees for suitability to size has been an issue. There are lots of Monkey puzzle trees too which will cause a few issues as they grow.
Anyway it was an interesting visit and the wild flower meadow was a highlight for me.Magic.
We had a cup of tea here before departing for Chester . The minute we set off the skies opened. How lucky were we. It had been spitting on and off during the day but not coming to much,now is the hour and it is still raining. Hopefully by the time we leave tomorrow it may have cleared up and the sun may shine......

Arley Hall and Gardens

I had not heard of Arlington Hall before our trip but what a revelation our visit was today. Not a very warm start to the day either so well kitted out with our wet weather gear we set off after breakfast ready for anything Huey threw at us. Turns out he was not as destructive as predicted.
It took about an hour to drive to the Hall. It has quite a history as a garden of note and it is used by various film companies,most recently for filming Peaky Blinders, a BBC production of a blood thirsty genre.  Apparently the title relates to the Caps worn by the bodies who had knives embedded in the brims aiming to blind the  enemy. On another note it is where Coronation Street burials and weddings take place in the chapel.

The same family still live here and various members of the family have added to the original design done in the eighteenth century, two hundred and fifty years ago. The war years caused much neglect but the current owners grandparents undertook to restore it's grandeur and what we see to day is a tribute to their vision and the next generations. Today it is the home of Viscount and Vicountess  Ashbrook.

The double  herbaceous borders here are magnificent, full of structure and awash with colour and form. Apparently they were the original herbaceous borders identified on the original plans (1846) and in their day they set a trend and became a fashion leader. Jenny would love these borders.
The  long beds were full of phlox,stock.daisies,salvias,roses and a host of perennials which are carefully graduated in height with some climbers for height and structure.

When we arrived here the gardens were opened early for us so we were ahead of the crowds. You enter the garden and arrive into the walled gardens where you enter a herb garden,a vegetable garden with a variety of fruit trees espaliared along the brick  walls and a huge glasshouse with figs and peach trees and many frost tender plants.
The vegetable garden had these lovely borders of white and red  rugosa roses on both sides of the main walk  with a red double climbing polyantha roses over arches along the walk .This garden had lots of old roses in several different plantings. There was a huge collection of vegetables growing happily in their sheltered conditions.  I want a brick wall !!!!

This garden lead you further into another large walled inner garden with a fountain in the centre. A formal arrangement but some lovely borders here too with lots of plantings on the walls so there are many layers to look at. There were some lovely hydrangea plants in this garden. Formal seats and places to sit and admire the scene,statues and plinths contribute to the formal look.

From this garden you emerge into the long herbaceous borders , hedges beautifully trimmed, some striking  topiary also in this area too for dramatic interest. From here you move to  the Ilex Avenue, the tennis court  and another private  area for burials of their horses with odes to their memories recorded on bronze plaques.
There was a lovely stream in this area too with rhodendrons and azaleas, hostas and acid loving plants  with a pretty walkway leading out to a haha looking out over the farmlands.

This was an extensive,beautifully maintained garden with many sheltered private gardens to enjoy. There was a gorgeous old Victorian tea cottage for taking tea set amongst shrub  roses ,fuschia and climbing clematis ,ladies mantle and catmint borders. Just lovely.

You walked on much further to the Grove and woodland walk with a sculpture trail and beautiful old tree specimens set in lawns. In the spring this is a riot of bulbs followed by plantings of  rhododendrons,magnolias,azaleas and camellias. There was a film to watch showing the history of the garden and a film of the garden throughout the seasons.It would be a lovely place to visit in springtime. The autumn colours looked dramatic too.

We had time for lunch here before moving on to our next garden after lunch.

Photos of Tatton Park Garden Show

Tatton Park Garden Show 2017

A cold and rather grey, threatening sky greeted us as we loaded onto our bus for our drive to Tatton Park about forty five minutes away traffic permitting. Conditions did not look favourable for our anticipated day out but it eventually improved and the temperatures rose slightly during the morning. Good weather to keep on the go.
The trip to Tatton was lovely. Through lovely rural farmlands,cows,horses and lots of grain crops. We passed several canals with houseboats plying the canal. I have to say when I looked at the other side of the bus their views were of wind farms and industrial artifacts like towers and electricity pylons .
We arrived at the park ahead of the crowds,gates were open but just so no queues to get on after about a ten minute walk from the car park.
Tatton Park is a big estate and has been in the National Trust for about fifty years. There are large areas of deer parks and the house and gardens open for visiting as well.
The show?Yes I did get there and I did enjoy it. It was much more interesting than this year's Hampton Court. The layout was easier and I thought the gardens were more interesting.
The RHS themes this year are the same but it is how it is interpreted that gives each show its character.
The focus is on sustainability, greening townscapes and bringing back wildlife into gardens all were expressed in the gardens and featured in  the talks on offer.
I loved the schools gardens sections. Very individual as you might expect but so much diversity in the entries. Children had taken a book and bought it to life in their displays on caring for the environment. Ratty and Toad, Jemima Puddle duck and others all had their habitats enhanced with bug houses and seed sources,nectar sources etc. A lot of work had gone into this section.
The Young Designers section was very strong. The gold medal winner here was Michael McGrath with his garden of the future. The metal structures and plantings draw attention to the need for plants to adapt and change for the future.
There were decorated small shed spaces, the one featuring music and dance stood out amongst the war themes on offer.
There were gardens for workers to take to the outdoors as a workspace and they were tempting.
Another section was about bus shelters and how to green them for the customers, everything from vegetables climbing up the frames to edible treats and flowery walls took the eye.

An award winning garden featured the use of water in the home garden and how to use it sustainably with porous materials to drain water away and store it for later use. The second photo is of this garden.

There were a number of medical research gardens which were lovely.offering peace and tranquility through their illness. Remember Me was a favouite of mine. It was designed for dementia sufferers and it was  was quite special with circular pathways emphasising the nature of the illness bringing you round into smaller enclosed spaces filled with scented flowers. The journey became more chaotic as the illness advanced until the pathway ended with beds filled with chamomile plantings to soothe and scent the air. The metal panels around it had words stenciled into them of relevance to those who share the journey.

The same planting themes featured here too of perennials, strong colours and grasses with spikes of white,deep pink and lemons.
The floral pavilion was huge and plant sales booming. I would be a buyer under other circumstances but I stand and stare!!!!
There were lots of stalls selling an amazing array of gardening items,a garden art Marque which had some lovely things on sale,pity about the baggage allowance!
There were also excellent stalls of local foods. Cheshire Cheese is still number one cheese in the UK but there was plenty of competition.
Stalls sold garden arts,tools,clothing.infact anything needed for gardening could be found here. There were Pimms and Champagne outlets,music to sit and listen too,talks and Q&A sessions so nobody could say they did not have enough to do.
Before finishing the day I went to look around the Tatton Parks own garden too. Again a large expanse of parkland and farms but the garden is lovely.
The Japanese Garden here was excellent and so we're the walled gardens so by the time I walked back to the bus at 4.30 pm I was knackered.

Stroud and the Gardens of Througham Court and Rodmarton Manor

It was a treat to go down to see Wendy in her new home in Stroud today. It is a very popular, pleasant ride down by train to Stroud. Very rural farming countryside with wheat and corn crops are colouring up and not far from harvest time.
I caught the 11.38 train to Stroud and arrived about 1.05 to be met by Wendy. It was lovely to see her and we walked back to her new home by the canal. Lucy her daughter was there hanging pictures for her so we had a nice lunch sitting outside on her deck. She has all her landscaping done for her as it was the show home for the development,even hanging  baskets in place.
The house is brand new and built over three levels,with lots of insulation and double glazing so it will be nice and warm in the winter. Wendy said it was quite noisy but once the development is done it will be much quieter.  She is overlooking the canal so there is lots of greenery to look out onto and it seems to get plenty of sun. The canal is being restored too so in time it will be a very attractive asset. We walked along the tow path after tea for about an hour and it was lovely,very peaceful and we saw Llama grazing.
Wendy has lots of pictures still to hang but she has all he favourite things there and the house I'd decorated in a neutral tone which shows the paintings to advantage so she is feeling really good about the move to Stroud.
It was a lovely catch up although I got food poisoning from my Cotswold venison meat pie at the hotel where we had our meal. Nasty night to follow😣😣😣😣😣

Friday morning I met up with my gardening group. Wendy took me to the station to meet the tour. Janine and Annie arrived by train but they had delays along the way so I was on board the bus when they arrived.
Our first stop was to Througham Court which has a long history,four hundred years old for parts of the original house but the most recent addition is an Arts and Craft wing with a garden designed to complement it.
The current owner is a scientist who has retrained as a landscape designer and she has maintained the style of the garden but added her own ideas into the structure. She reads scientific books for inspiration rather than gardening books and brings mathematical ideas to her garden as well. Evidence of this was seen in the garden gates she designed and had crafted. Her vegetable garden has a fibonicci number sequence running round the metal edging. The Rose pillars are topped by symbols celebrating the top scientific discoveries of the world, such as splitting the atom.
She had maintained the art and crafts features very carefully with boxed beds,topiary, garden walks,pleached avenues of hornbeams and formal borders. The garden was spread over four levels sloping away from the house with lovely views out to the countryside.
She also maintained a large vegetable garden, a shade house and potting areas to maintain plus large areas of hedging to be trimmed yearly.
She had introduced a wilderness area at the bottom of the garden,featuring a wide moon path painted with a white edging strip leading your eye to the far edges of the garden. She is planting iris's and bulbs through the pasture for impact in the spring as well as displaying banners made by a local artist which adds some movement to the area.
She has also introduced colourful borders of perennials on the third level which were like the trend at Hampton Court. She is a step ahead of the rest but they did look great although she said they were very labour intensive and took a long time to weed.
The most unusual addition was the courtyard space she designed around mathematical principals to mask a difficult site. The shapes were arranged in a colourful pattern with a reflective pool I  the centre.
There were lots of lovely plantings here,special trees and she even had created a maze of bamboo tied together with red cord to stop the snow flattening it.
It was a place to challenge your thinking and see how ideas can be taken from many sources and used to transform or enhance a garden. I could have spent more time here but we were on a timetable.

Rodmarton Manor was our afternoon stop and we had some trouble finding our way there or the bus driver did. Apparently the villages upset the sat maps because the post code system here does not recognise some of the country places which is why we were circling around narrow country roads for an extra half hour.
We eventually arrived at Rodmarton where lunch was served first. I approached that cautiously after my night with food poisoning antics.
After lunch we went for a tour of the house with a guide who told us about the history of the house and the family who live there. The home is still in the same family who built it in 1909. The Biddulph family built it to showcase the best of local craftsmanship and to provide employment for the villagers. The timber was milled on the property and cut for timber by two men using a handsaw and pit on the lawn. The saw is still hanging in the library.
The furniture was hand  crafted by local craftsmen,no machines were used and the women also contributed to the soft furnishings and are seen in the wall hangings and tapestries.
The piano was beautifully decorated as were the dolls house and rocking horses for the children.
After the tour we were let loose on the garden which was also designed in the arts and crafts  mode with lots of topiary,walks,vistas, borders and tennis courts. The garden was not as well maintained as the previous one but it was authentic ,quite sculptural and it looks like work is underway to bring back areas of the garden.
We had to leave by 4.20 pm to catch our train back to London so we were on our way promptly as it was Friday and rush hour but we made it.
I was knackered by the time I climbed the steps to Lou's place but it was a great day out

Hampton Court Garden Show

Sunday was a beautiful day for my trip out to Hampton Court so armed with sunscreen, sun hat and shades to avoid sunstroke.  Who would have thought that I would strike such a lovely summer spell of weather. Great to make the most of it.
It took me about an hour and a half to get there by train but there was no queue to get into the show so that  was a bonus. My memory was that last time there were large queues snaking back to the road but maybe a Sunday is not as busy.

I enjoyed wandering around the displays and I listened to a couple of talks by experts, one a scientist talking about the  decline of people's consciousness of plants around them and a decline also in how people understand the health benefits of plants. He was very interesting as he talked about the experiments they were undertaking at Wisley to bring better understandings to communities about planting and preserving gardens and parks. I also heard a rosarian talk about pruning and care of rambles and climbers and old roses.

It was a change this time as it seemed much more commercial than I recall. The stalls and food areas were mixed up with the gardens and it was not easy to find them. I think there were less displays too but it was still fun to be there and it was mind boggling all the lovely garden decorations,furniture,tools and accessories that are available to gardeners.
It was interesting trying to gauge the trends but the big thrust seemed to be environmental and conservation concerns. Bees,butterflies and endangered  species all had displays featuring habitats and plants to attract bees and butterflies into gardens so there were more wild spaces, bug houses and scented plants.

The top garden was a very natural garden suitable for exploration by children with natural features. It could be the average back yard in a garden at home (with some additions).
There were some great scarecrows exhibited by local children and well worth having a good look around them. Many featured bug houses and bee homes.

The gardens seemed to be more colourful this time around,reds and orange ruebeckia plants,yellows and deep blue agapanthus with grasses for texture. Usually pinks and pale colours feature more.Sedums,yarrow,coleus, huchea and daisies were also in evidence in many garden designs.
The Rose Pavillion was  a riot of colour and Peter Beales stand was eye catching but with more modern roses than I expected.
2017 Rose of the year was Rosa Lovestruck.
Anyway it was great to be there and check out the displays and plants available to gardeners here.

I decided mid afternoon to have a trip back on the river so I set off for the four o'clock sailing. It was such a lovely warm afternoon,perfect for sitting out on the deck.
I really enjoyed the trip,there is so much activity going on the river and along the river  banks there are walkways and picnic places. People were fishing and some were even swimming although the water looked pretty murky,not sure I would be keen. There are some pretty smart houses along the way and many had tables set up for dinner,the barges and house boat residents were making the most of the day too. Lots of sunbathing and picnicking evident.

It took two and a half hours to travel from Hampton Court to Westminster Pier.  The Queen's ceremonial barge passed us too, that was a sight not usually seen according to the captain.
Anyway it was a good day out and the evening was lovely too as Lou had prepared a special meal featuring NZ lamb.
It was pleasant sitting around having a wine or two and eating lamb.

Hertfordshire Tour:July 10

Hertfordshire Tour:July 10

Today we set off in sunshine again from St Johns' Tube station on the Jubilee line, duely found with help from my friends and all kitted out for a day of garden delights.My kind of day.
We transferred to a bus and st out for Hertfordshire.The first garden we visited was in St Albans where the owners had created a delightful oasis on a small site resplendent in the colours of the Cross of st Albans.

Not that you can see that from the pictures but it was a lovely setting and many treasures evident in the garden walks.

Our next garden was at Hitchen-not far from my friends,Wendy and Rod so familiar territory.Here we visited a pastoral garden with very natural plantings,amazing topiary and a wild flower meadow to capture the butterflies and insects vital to the countryside. It took them two days to trim all the hedges once a year,they only did them once so they did not disturb the birds and insects. Some very special spaces to relax and enjoy the garden.

The philosophy of this garden interested meas it closely mirrored the life cycle of the garden inhabitants which brought benefits through insect control and natural seedings of plants to replenish the garden each year.Life was in balance here

Lunch was at The Brocket Arms in Welwyn and infamous because of the fraudulent dealings of the local lord and master-still in jail it seems.Never mind we enjoyed his ale and vitals.

Alongside the pub was a quintessentia lEnglish cottage and garden known as Ruins 1 because of the church nearby.

It was lovely so we were given a quick peck before moving on to Benington where we visited another lovely cottage garden notable for the garden art made by the owner.

Gardening,British style

I was lucky to join a number of garden events while visiting the UK this year. This image was taken at Fenton House in Hampstead, a National trust property and an example of a smaller stately house with a traditional design, occupied until recent years by a lady of means who furnished it with examples of  her musical interests and her love of craft work.

The garden is  small and quite formal  in layout, it is enclosed by high brick walls in the traditional manner and it features a significant collection of fruit trees in an orchard at the bottom of the garden.They have cider making events here in the autumn.

The vegetable garden was quite special too. The gardener met us and talked about how the garden had changed and the aspirations he had to restore it to glory. The rose garden was lovely and featured a wonderful example of Tuscany superb along with some scotch roses in the borders.

The day was superb ,hot and sunny and hats and sunscreen were  needed in plenty. We enjoyed our lunch in an historic old pub, HollyBush Inn the oldest hotel in the area. This area was known by boatmen on the Thames for its snow capped heights-it was the white laundry spread out to dry  by the laundry maids which caught the eye.
This was one of Janine Wookey's tours and well worthwhile so looking forward to the next day when I join her group again for another trip.We also toured the Hampstead village and looked at historic  buildings, visited the old cemetery associated with an historic church and found the burial sites of famous people such as Robert Louis Stevenson and Daphne Du Maurier,Constable and many other notables.It was a snobby place to live and die!