The cultivated parts of the garden comprise around 4.5 acres, centred around a 2-acre Walled Garden.

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The Walled Garden

The epicentre of the garden is The Walled Garden, a haven from the local populations of  roe deer, hares and rabbits, which are all frequent visitors to the policies round about.

Contrary to expectation, our Walled Garden is not in fact square but more of a rhomboid, angled to optimise the sun's rays. Optimising the power of the sun is the art of walled garden design and all our walls are constructed differently, depending on their aspect. Our south facing wall, for example comprises a lower half of stone with an upper layer of brick, designed for fruit trees that like cool roots but require the radiated warmth of the sun to ripen the fruit. Our west-facing wall and the outer south-facing walls are 100% brick. In the former case, this is to optimise the heat of the afternoon sun, while for the latter, there are no surrounding walls helping to keep the temperature up, hence the need for greater heat storage offered by the bricks. Bricks were expensive in the 19th Century, so the walls that receive minimal sun (the north- and east-facing walls) were built from cheaper, locally-hewn stone from the quarry nearby.  In the spring, summer and autumn, the air temperature in the Walled Garden is often several degrees warmer than outside the walls, creating a valuable microclimate.

Formerly, the Walled Garden would have been the productive garden, the “larder” providing the big house with fresh vegetables, fruit and flowers. Aided by the nearby ice house to keep produce fresh, the head gardener would have been expected to work alongside the estate farm to provide fresh and wholesome fare all the year round.  The big house is now just a space in the woodland, its location disclosed by some tangled wrought iron fencing and one or two specimen trees still standing, proudly marking a bygone age.

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While we did have a sizeable fruit and vegetable garden in our early years here, this proved too labour-intensive, so these areas were put down to lawn with some spring-flowering ornamental Prunus trees, and have since been  developed into the Summerhouse Garden and the Old Orchard. 

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On all four sides of the Walled Garden, deep mixed borders house a variety of shrubs and herbaceous, in addition to a significant number of fruit trees (apple, pear, plum and cherry) grown in a variety of styles, including espalier, pillar and fan-trained. Some of the trees are thought to be original plantings. 

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The distinguishing and dominant feature of our Walled Garden is a large and rather unusual T-shaped English Yew arbour which essentially divides the garden into 3 segments, which are known as The Teacup Garden, The Summerhouse Garden and the Old Orchard.

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• The Teacup Garden

  is so-called after the two flat-topped Yew bushes that preside over the garden; it could be said that these resemble teacups, albeit without handles! To the west and south of this garden are deep mixed borders, with a number of notable plants, including large specimens of Eucryphia, a mass of white blossom in August much beloved of bees, varieties of Magnolia soulangiana, in both white and rich purple, and  Mahonia (believed to be x. Winter Sun) with its scented yellow winter blossom and cork-like bark. A fine specimen of Acer palmatum Atropurpureum sits in the north-east corner. Other plants of note include a pink-flowering Camellia, tree Paeonies (P. lutea), and a young Garrya elliptica, providing winter interest with its long white tassles. 

  In front of these borders are island beds containing our collection of rather unfashionable but wonderfully scented Hybrid Tea roses, which flower in myriad shades from June through until January, snow-permitting. On the north side lies our much-loved timber greenhouse, which evidences signs of a former life before it came to our garden. It has a rather charming northward 'lean', but seems stable enough! Unheated in winter,and home to a vigorous Black Hamburgh grape, it houses the Agapanthus until around May, when a summer hothouse display takes over, with seeds germinating there in March and April. Beside the greenhouse is a Box-lined Potager with various herbs and insect-friendly plants. 

  In order to create a focal point nearer to the house, in summer 2016 we installed a circular, raised goldfish pond in the south-west corner of the Walled Garden. This has transformed what used to be a rather unexciting gravel sweep for car parking into a more interesting informal seating area during the summer months where a variety of half-hardy and tender plants are set out, complemented by the therapeutic sound of tinkling water from the fountain. Clipped Portuguese Laurel roundels mark the portals to the Summerhouse Garden and The Old Orchard.

      

• The Summerhouse Garden 

  in the north-east corner of the Walled Garden was given this name in Autumn 2021 with the erection of the Summerhouse (supplied by Chelsea Summerhouses) on the site of the old compost heap, a more aesthetic feature for the warmest corner of the garden! The Summerhouse Garden has a cottage-garden feel to it, with deep mixed borders on its north and east walls. Winter aconites under the apple tree herald the arrival of spring, to be followed by naturalised daffodils in variety and tulips in May. In addition to swathes of colourful herbaceous, including an impressive array of lupins in the spring, the exotic red flares of Lobelia tupa in the summer, Echinacea and Eryngiums, modern shrub roses have been planted to contribute some welcome scent throughout the summer months. An adjacent island bed features a small collection of Paeonies with their large blowsy blooms.  Clothing the walls are honeysuckle species, climbing roses and fan-trained pears. Recent additions include a Killarney Strawberry Tree (Arbutus unedo) and a Gingko biloba.

      

• The Yew Arbour

  Separating all 3 gardens in the Walled Garden is our T-shaped Yew arbour, now a simple green space of mossy grass and high hedges of English Yew, where a single sundial charts the progress of the day. An original and formal feature, an old photograph indicates that the arbour used to have gravel paths, ornamental urns, a comfortable bench and very possibly herbaceous borders. It is, however, now a haven for nesting birds in the spring and a valuable winter refuge for birds and insects in the winter. The hedge, which is over 2 metres wide in places, is trimmed every autumn.

   

• The Old Orchard 

  can be accessed from both the Summerhouse and Teacup Gardens. A long border dedicated to shade-loving plants is the major feature of this garden, where large hostas and Tree ferns provide the backdrop for spring and summer primulas, Himalayan Blue Poppies and the large pink and white goblets of Colchicum species. On the west-facing wall, a number of aptly-named pillar apples can be found, where all the fruit grows on spurs off the main trunk. There are some free-standing apples here too, believed to be original plantings which, despite their age, continue to provide wonderful crops of cooking and eating apples. In addition to a wealth of blossom, Spring colour is provided by naturalised Bluebells, Daffodils and Tulips. In the corner of the Old Orchard is a recently installed lion's head water feature, providing an aural accompaniment of tinkling water as one returns to the Teacup Garden. 

   

   

​​The Drying Green and Secret Gardens

On the other side of the south wall of the Walled Garden are the Drying Green and Secret Gardens, both backed by a brick-faced wall to their north, offering excellent heat storage for the range of fan-trained apple and pear trees found here and a 5' beech hedge to their south. Beyond a small alpine garden, the Drying Green is a particular suntrap and our butterfly garden; at its best in the late summer, Buddleia, Rudbeckia, Verbena bonariensis, Echinacea, Cosmos and Dahlias attract a variety of different species including Peacock, Red Admiral and Small Tortoiseshell.

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At the end of the Drying Green is the Secret Garden, so-named as this is partly concealed by a mature Laburnum tree, which is smothered in a cascade of yellow blossom each May. Here a small vegetable garden has been created, comprising a series of timber raised beds, which were installed during the 'lockdown' summer of 2020. Naturalised with scented Jonquila daffodils for the spring and Amaryllis belladonna for the late autumn, this area is nicely sheltered by the restored (c.2010) beech hedge to the south of this garden which had reverted in previous years into an avenue of tall, multi-stemmed beech trees. These were shading out the elderly wall-trained apples and pears growing there and preventing them from flowering and fruiting. Happily these trees have made an impressive recovery, all now bearing good crops on an annual basis. At the far end of the Secret Garden, a young Magnolia grandiflora has been planted where the north and east walls adjoin, sheltered by one of the original hollies to its east. Spring 2023 saw the addition of further plantings to this area, including ornamental acers, ferns, a Fatsia  and hostas in variety, creating a pleasant and partly-secluded grove.

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The Slope and Woodland 

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To the west of the Walled Garden and separated by the driveway to the house are The Slope and the Woodland. Large lime, oak and sycamore trees provide the canopy to these areas. In May and June, the Rhododendrons and Tree Paeonies, to which we have gradually added over the past 20 years, provide a fine display in the Woodland, following on from the swathes of snowdrops that herald the spring. Thereafter, the Woodland becomes a cool green space, centred around a magnificent lime (Tilia). 

The Slope is our collection of smaller, more ornamental trees, including Cherries, Silver and white-stemmed Birch, Rowan, and golden and dark-leaved Acers. Of particular note is a Pocket Handkerchief Tree (Davidia  involucrata), which flowered for the first time in 2022,  and golden and green-leaved forms of Dawn Redwood (Metasequoia glyptostroboides). Plantings in this area include naturalised Daffodils and Narcissus in the Spring and various species of Hosta and fern. 

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The Lily Pond

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South-west of the house lies the Lily Pond. Housing our collection of water lilies, which provide white, pink, red and yellow blooms from June to early October, this wildlife pond was originally built with a deep water area for over-wintering ornamental fish. Despite preventive netting, visits from heron, mink and possibly otter during the first winter led to their early demise, however. As we decided not to restock, the pond supports a far greater range of equally interesting invertebrate and amphibian species, including, for the month of August, a number of dragonflies and damselflies, and a resident newt population. The pond is also a regular watering hole for families of elegant roe deer, with their sleek russet coats contrasting beautifully against the frost of a winter's morning.  

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​The Meadow

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The Meadow lies to the west, south and east of the house. Mown just once a year in the Autumn, this area is managed for wildlife and can be navigated via a series of grass paths. 

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There is very little planting in this area, the main feature being the wonderful views of the surrounding hills. 

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Looking south east over a magnificent stand of mature conifer and broad-leaved trees, and down to a mist-wreathed meadow beyond, our lower meadow is our wildlife area, teeming with insects, regularly visited by roe deer, foxes and badgers, and overflown by swallows, house martins, buzzards, owls and bats.