Since my own garden is going into autumn withdrawal there is not too much to see and therefore to blog about. So I thought it might be a nice idea to feature the second National Gardens Scheme (NGS) Open Garden that we had visited during our vacation in England this year in June.
Old Down House is a lovely cottage garden, owned by Dr and Mrs Colin, with stunning wide and open views into the farmland that surrounds this old farm house. For the circumstances in England it is a relatively small garden, 3/4 -acre, which I like, because it is way closer to the garden size that most of us have to play with. I am always interested what someone makes out of a smaller garden, since I feel that this is much more challenging than if you have acres of land. For me the highlights of this garden were lovingly planted perennial beds layed out in a formal design, but filled to the brim in an informal way with beautiful cottage plants and an incredible potager.
The beds by the front door were framed with a beautiful plant with yellow leaves, which I didn't know the name of. As much as I like the boxwood hedges, it was refreshing to see these beds surrounded by a small hedge of this neat plant. I believe the impressive rose growing to the left side of the front door is a yellow flowering banksia rose, which perfectly picks up the color of the yellow low hedge.
The yellow leaves of the hedge make such a nice contrast to the purple alliums.
There was some quirky garden art to admire before you even got to enter the main garden.
Here is another example.
Then there it was: The main garden with a central circular lawn framed by a symmetrical design of flower beds. The open views into the surrounding landscape let this garden appear so much bigger than it actually was. What a lucky situation for the owners.
On the way to the potager we passed this beautiful, fury, relaxed fellow.
Luckily for us there was no one in this part of the garden! Running the risk to be called a snob I honestly have to say that I think vegetable gardens are often not the prettiest and therefore best hidden in a less prominent part of the garden, but was I wrong in case of this potager!
I know that to be able to harvest berries and other goodies that the birds are really after you need to protect these fruits one way or the other, which often doesn't look very appealing. But this structure, which was completely enclosed with netting appeared to be surprisingly pleasing to the eye.
They didn't have one but two of those structures. I think they look just neat and are probably very functional as well.
A beautiful and romantic corner of the vegetable garden. The clematis conquering the wall looks so pretty.
Here is a look in the opposite direction of the potager. This photo shows the symmertrical design of that garden very well.
The potager was located directly behind the house build on a quite elevated level. To do the hardscape for this one must have been quite an undertaking.
I loved the beautiful Victorian plant stand holding an aurikel plant collection!
On this photo you can see that the terrace between the house and the potager was used as a sitting area. This is for sure a vegetable and fruit garden worth looking at and enjoying!
In part two of this post I will show you the central circular lawn with the main beautiful flower beds in more detail. Please, stay tuned!
See you in the garden!
Christina
Old Down House is a lovely cottage garden, owned by Dr and Mrs Colin, with stunning wide and open views into the farmland that surrounds this old farm house. For the circumstances in England it is a relatively small garden, 3/4 -acre, which I like, because it is way closer to the garden size that most of us have to play with. I am always interested what someone makes out of a smaller garden, since I feel that this is much more challenging than if you have acres of land. For me the highlights of this garden were lovingly planted perennial beds layed out in a formal design, but filled to the brim in an informal way with beautiful cottage plants and an incredible potager.
The beds by the front door were framed with a beautiful plant with yellow leaves, which I didn't know the name of. As much as I like the boxwood hedges, it was refreshing to see these beds surrounded by a small hedge of this neat plant. I believe the impressive rose growing to the left side of the front door is a yellow flowering banksia rose, which perfectly picks up the color of the yellow low hedge.
The yellow leaves of the hedge make such a nice contrast to the purple alliums.
There was some quirky garden art to admire before you even got to enter the main garden.
Here is another example.
After looking at some lovely details...
....and wonderful plant combinations in that area we decided without much enthusiasm to go and see the potager first, because the main flower garden was quite packed with visitors at that time.
On the way to the potager we passed this beautiful, fury, relaxed fellow.
Luckily for us there was no one in this part of the garden! Running the risk to be called a snob I honestly have to say that I think vegetable gardens are often not the prettiest and therefore best hidden in a less prominent part of the garden, but was I wrong in case of this potager!
I know that to be able to harvest berries and other goodies that the birds are really after you need to protect these fruits one way or the other, which often doesn't look very appealing. But this structure, which was completely enclosed with netting appeared to be surprisingly pleasing to the eye.
They didn't have one but two of those structures. I think they look just neat and are probably very functional as well.
A beautiful and romantic corner of the vegetable garden. The clematis conquering the wall looks so pretty.
Here is a look in the opposite direction of the potager. This photo shows the symmertrical design of that garden very well.
The potager was located directly behind the house build on a quite elevated level. To do the hardscape for this one must have been quite an undertaking.
I loved the beautiful Victorian plant stand holding an aurikel plant collection!
On this photo you can see that the terrace between the house and the potager was used as a sitting area. This is for sure a vegetable and fruit garden worth looking at and enjoying!
In part two of this post I will show you the central circular lawn with the main beautiful flower beds in more detail. Please, stay tuned!
See you in the garden!
Christina
