A tour of an English private country garden- part 2

Today I would like to take you on the second part of the small guided tour of one of those private , exquisite and quintessentially English gardens here which are rarely open to the public .

It's nice to think that, althought the rain seems to be battering the whole of the UK, gardens are only thriving from rainy weather and make all the plants even more lush .

There are, however, in this particular garden  even without the rain, plenty of water features, like for instance the pond with the fountain here above in the picture..and there is a small lake further down in the garden with a fabulous weeping willow and a stautue of a woman who seems to bath underneath the weeping willow branches... so atmospheric..

I just adore this sprouting fountain that leads into the lake, in the shape of a fish..the whole garden is full of touches like this..

There is a stream that runs through the estate, and in the bits of the garden that are furtherest away, the garden becomes more of a landscape garden, and there is where you find this pond with this fabulous duck's house...I think this is the one( not this particular one,  mind ! ) that set off the expenses scandal as MP's were deducting costs like duck pond residences as garden costs at the taxpayers expense !

Well it is one heck of a duck house!

It's not all water features, there are loads of lovely old walls which hold the whole of the estate in some sort of embrace on which they grow all sorts of climbers..like this .. ( I love the combination of the purple clematis and the red rose..)

And like this lovely climbing rose..

..and of course the old walls are a perfect backdrop for herbaceous borders..

A fabulous background too for climbers and statuary..

There are lovely pathways like this.

But for now, I think I will take us back to the pond with the fountain..

Near there is a super cute garden house where you can get some tea....this is what you see on entering on the doorpost- and the whole inside is painted..

Here is one of the windows...

..and this is the window  a little bit nearer ..

Just outside is a lovely area with the pond an these cute little chickens ...

But because it was raining, they had set up this fabulous marquee - so you could have a cup of tea and stay dry- which I thought just fabulous..

There is much, much more to see- but I will leave that for the next post - as I am going to have a cup of tea and then it's to bed..

Hope you have enjoyed the tour and till part three !
XOXO
Bea

My favourite flower, an unfinished painting and some more garden cushions...

Paeonies are my favourite flowers.. I just adore the scent and the shape of the flowers- like an old-fashioned cabbage rose.Plus it's a June flower - the month of my birthday so they always seem so festive and remind me of my birthday...just hope all the buds will open!

I am not sure I told you that I originally trained as a painter. This is a panel I am still to finish.It's been some time though since I painted. I must put some time aside to finish this..I could see this as a panel on a door or  cupboard as well, can't you ?

Here's almost the whole panel apart from the unfinished bottom bit.

I am still working with all the fabrics that my sweet and kind neighbour gave to me and have enjoyed myself immensely making patchwork cushions for the garden.

Like these - the pale green with the heart..( all used in the house at the moment because of the bad weather here)..

..and this one in blue with lots of hearts..

 

..this one is yesterday's cushion..

..and here's today's garden cushion.. prefer this one to yesterday's to be honest..
 

I came into the sitting room just now and happened to come across this..

I got both Tilda and Thomasina from a small holding- the farmer said he only would let them go if they went together- and I am so pleased he insisted on this.. I think he was quite right.

aww- two little sisters...
         

I know I am very lucky with my two lovely cats and two lovely dogs!!

Have a lovely week and mind your step tomorrow - the 13th!!

XOXO

Bea


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A tour of an English private country garden- part 1

There is nothing like an English country garden- and today I would like to take you on a small guided tour of one of those private , exquisite and quintessentially English gardens here which are rarely open to the public .

This garden is quite near where I live and it was open today for just one day to the public, in aid of a local charity.

The borders are very cleverly designed with a good eye for colour and contrast, as with these purple ornamental onions and the fuchsia coloured pentstemon.

I love the fact that these ornamental onions keep their interest even after the flowers have faded- as the structure is so striking.

We had visited this garden two years ago, and  - I noticed they had managed to invest quite a bit in extra   ornamental onions which you could see in all kind of varieties.. here is a different variety with a different purple, teamed up with yellow Welsh poppies..

I thought it looked spectacular just as seed heads in green , in contrast to the purple Iris in this picture.

There is almost too much to see in this garden so I will split this up in two posts or you will get visual overload and garden fatigue!!
There are statues and urns everywhere to provide interesting focal points- like this urn in one of the gardens which is all in white with no other coloured plants- even the ornamental onions are white!
 

The borders are really what you expect of a classic English garden, full of perennials and with lovely colour schemes..

Who would not dream away in a garden like this!!

And some garden statues are just lovely..and in a lovely setting too..
 

We're not even halfway through this garden but I feel I should sit down and relax.. thankfully there are loads of benches..
 

There are also all kind of water related features like ponds and streams with statues like this..

What a fabulous setting !

There is much, much more to see- but I will leave that for the next post - as I am going to have a cup of tea and then it's to bed..

Hope you ahve enjoyed the tour and till part two!
XOXO
Bea

June in the garden- come rain or shine..

 It has turned stormy and rainy in this part of the world and cold to boot as though we're starting Autumn or Fall.
 But just to remind you that summer IS really here, I would like to share a few shots of the garden before the rain set in - just before the Jubilee- a few days ago.Here is the climbing rose "Teasing Georgia " in the picture above starting to really expand on the front of the house.

Just to think I kept this rose for years in a pot as I could not decide where to put it and it only had two or three blooms a year- and look at it now!It just goes to show it's really best to put plants normally in full soil.

I wanted to tidy up the terrace in the back garden and add some colour so we could sit outside - and managed to get some lovely looking geraniums..like a raspberry ripple.

Just a lovely bit of colour in the stone urns I have..

There was also a deep velvety red geranium which I thought a lovely as well so I planted that in the back too near the statue of Flora...

I have in the past grown my own petunia's but I saw these lovely dark purple ones so planted a pot full of them for another bit of colour in the back garden..

 

And I still had some baskets hanging on the wall of the garden shed which I also filled..now I just hope it will grow enormeously and I will have mases of petunia's tumbling down.

I have some baskets at the front which I have filled with pansies which I adore..this one is in front of the kitchen window...

And the front garden- aaash- we're getting in really painful territory here..I have not been weeding there at all so it's a bit of a jungle out there..  somewhere among the Veronica's  there is an Oriental Poppy !

 

It's full and overgrown but the colour scheme I planned is working- blue, white and purple in the left hand side of the border...

...and red, yellow and pink on the right hand side..

 

In the meantime, I have to enjoy Flora and her velvet red geraniums from inside the house..

..because as soon as I step from the French windows into the garden I have this....

 

Summer in Britain!! Have a great weekend!! XOXO Bea





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