Two days after Cothay Manor we were off garden visiting again.
Little Ash Garden, near Honiton in Devon, opens regularly under the National Gardens Scheme (NGS) but earlier this month Helen Brown and her husband Brian were cajoled into opening an extra time for the facebook and twitter gardening group AllHorts.
Nestling in farmland and with gorgeous views out over the surrounding countryside, Little Ash is a stunning garden. There is something to admire at all levels, whether taking in the vistas and perfect composition of the borders or peering into their depths to pick out one of the multitude of rare and interesting plants. Helen is first and foremost a plantswoman and collector and with a varied range of garden microclimates can indulge her passion to the full.
Polemonium pauciflorum
Another feature that sets this garden apart is its collection of iron sculpture, often secreted away in the most unexpected of places.
What would our ducks, and indeed Mr Ptolemy, make of it if I was to acquire one of these?
A stream meanders through the top part of the garden, expertly planted and landscaped. Hostas here and elsewhere showed very little sign of slug damage. Helen reports that she surrounds them with ash from the wood burner just as they’re starting to push their noses up through the soil. Another technique to add to the armoury.
The chickens look after themselves
The 1 1/2 acre garden has gradually developed since Helen started it from a field over 15 years ago and it is still evolving. It may be packed full of colour now but there would be something of interest here in every season of the year. It is a naturalistic garden with closely packed planting designed to blend with the surrounding landscape and provide a habitat for wildlife. The additional advantage of close planting of course is that there’s hardly a spot left free for a weed!
Clematis ‘Petit Faucon’
Helen grows a lot of climbers even though, like me, she has relatively little wall or fence space. She plants them at the base of large shrubs, even bamboo. Taking up virtually no space at ground level they rapidly clothe the host plant in bloom, contrasting with the shrub’s own flowers or giving it a second season of interest long after its own blooms have faded.
The ‘Bus Stop’, a perfect place to sit and admire the view
Geranium oxonianum ‘Sherwood’
Rose ‘Scharlachglut’
Wind spinners respond to the slightest breeze. This one has two sets of blades, one moving clockwise and the other anticlockwise to enchanting effect.
I waited several minutes for this one to slow down sufficiently to take a sharp picture. Cornus kousa blooming in the background.
It sits within a mini wildflower meadow. Yellow rattle in the foreground does a good job of restricting the growth of the grasses.
Iris reichenbachii stealing the show in Helen’s new raised alpine bed
At the bottom of the garden we move into woodland. A babbling stream and moist soil give Helen scope for even more treasures. Ferns, rodgersia, arisaema, impatiens, podophyllum to name but a few.
Podophyllum ‘Spotty Dotty’
Gunnera
Candelabra primulas
And then it was time to wend our way back up the lawn for tea. And cake. Because if it’s NGS there has to be cake. Cake and a plant stall. Knowing that Helen is partial to a rare plant or several this was a plant sale I was looking forward to more than most. So of course I had to succumb. With charities benefiting from the proceeds this time it would definitely have been rude not to. Arisaema speciosum and A. ciliatum may have found their way into the footwell at the back of the car. Along with a couple of other goodies gifted by Helen, just to keep them company.
If you are anywhere near this neck of the woods in the second half of August I would thoroughly recommend a visit to Little Ash. The next NGS Open Day is Sunday 21st August 12-5 p.m. Details here.
Would this little fella keep my bunnies at bay do you think?
pin it?
Great garden, great images and what a fantastic iris !!
I was rather taken with the iris too. Think I shall have to seek one out 🙂
I missed that little iris, better go back for another look! A lovely day and a lovely reminder, thank you 🙂
It was a lovely day, all the better for the stimulating company!
This looks like a delightful garden to wander around and of course the lovely views behind set it off beautifully. That is interesting about the wood ash being used as a main slug deterrent. It’s something we have plenty of here so I’ll add that to my armoury, too!
As planting yellow rattle is on my mind at the moment I’m interested to see its use in the mini wildflower meadow there.
I shall definitely be trying the yellow rattle. The difference it makes is quite amazing. Grasses really take over here given half a chance.
What a delightful garden with some very doable ideas. I love the sculptures too. The NGS schem isso good in enabling you to see ordinary people’s gardens rather than grand ones is loads of acres which you couldn’t possibly replicate.
Exactly Elaine. Although Helen seems to have the energy of a whole team of gardeners. What she has done is amazing.
This is a garden we have been to many a time as it isn’t very far from us. It has certainly expanded since our last visit, must be time for us to visit again! I’m so glad you enjoyed it as I think it is a beautiful garden and of course I love the metal sculptures!
I recognised the rusty pheasant straight away!
It looks beautiful and good that she offers some interesting plants for sale.
I came away with some Arisaema seeds as well, I must get them sown.
This garden seems to have a smile on its face. Perhaps the view tickles its fancy or the “just right” sculpture makes it happy. Or, could be because it’s lavished with love.
The sculptures are well chosen and well placed, certainly raising a smile as we walked around. And that it’s lavished with love is indisputable.
What a beautiful garden. You’d like Midney Gardens in Somerton, Somerset too, I’m sure.
Hi Cat and welcome.
I’ve just checked out Midney and it does look interesting, not least the plant nursery! It’s close to Hauser and Wirth too, which I also want to see this year. I feel a day out coming up. Thanks for the tip!
Oh lucky you with all this recent garden visits Jessica. I’ve seen photos of Little Ash Garden via Twitter and it looks a most special garden. Cakes and a plant stall too. What more could a girl want?
Not a lot!
What a lovely garden! And nice quirky ornaments too!
I do love a bit of rusty metal.
Fantastic. Love it all, and those sculptures wow.
It encourages me to get more sculptures for here. Everyone who visits comments on the ducks, I must think of what else to add.
I’m hoping the wood ash will work for snails as well. I have just 2 bulbs that the snails are determined to devour (I’d be happy if they nibbled bits of the other 99% of the garden. Sigh)
Those flashes of vibrant colour and quirky sculptures make a garden I’d love to see!
It’s odd, I see relatively few snails here. But the slugs certainly make up for it. And they also home in on my favourite plants. Why can’t they eat the weeds? It’s not as if I don’t have enough of those.. 🙁
Your photos remind me of all those books by English gardeners that got me hooked early on. So beautiful and yet so unattainable in my climate. Sigh…
Not so attainable here either if this rain keeps up. Like you Kris, I do wish there was a fair distribution of sun and rain.
Thanks for a tour of Little Ash Garden …lots of inspiration for spring and summer planting. I love the honeysuckle at “”The Bus Stop” and that lovely hare with his magnificent ears was my favourite for a garden sculpture.
I loved the hare. Helen says she has bunnies too so perhaps he isn’t a deterrent after all, but no less handsome for it.
Oh, that’s very pretty! I love the iron sculptures!
They add a quirky touch to the garden. You never know what you will find around the next corner.
So different from your previous garden visit to Cothay Manor, but just as lovely. Like you, and Little Ash Garden, I have rusty objects hidden in several nooks and crannies and amongst my plants.
I need more Rosemary, having been to Little Ash. But they’re not stupidly expensive, and such fun!
Now that’s a garden I could dribble and drool over 🙂 Lucky, lucky you being close enough to visit.
And we did!
It looks fabulous, that view makes it look as if the garden goes on for miles. I do like a bit of quirkiness in a garden so I love all those sculptures.
I do think a garden needs to be fun as well as attractive to look at. This one scored on both counts.
What a beautiful garden! Love the different sculptures too, they really add to the garden don’t they.
They certainly do. I was fascinated by the wind spinners. They add movement which really catches the eye.
’tis the season for garden visiting and this looks like a stunning garden. Do you have any plans to open your garden one day, I wonder?
I would love to Ann but it’s a long time in the future. The NGS standard is really high.
Thank you for the tour of yet another beautiful garden. You always show varieties of plants I have never seen offered here in New England.
Helen has some rarities that would be difficult to track down even here. But there are things I see on American blogs too that I instantly fall in love with and then cannot find supplied in the UK. It’s frustrating isn’t it.
What a fabulous garden, just the sort I like, crammed full with interesting plants. I came across Rose Scharlachglut recently and put it on my must- have list. The iron sculpture everywhere is lovely. Ash to deter slugs? We might as well try it, we have tried everything else. I had that Dotty Spotty but it didn,’ t like it here and died. A great post, thanks.
I’ve seen Spotty Dotty on sale twice this year and so nearly succumbed, but I did wonder if I would be able to keep it alive. All my (expensive) trillium failures weigh heavily upon my mind.
Helen & I follow each other on twitter & I’ve seen a few images of her garden, how lovely to see so much more, lovely photos too!
It is even better in the ‘flesh’!
Super place. We are off to cothay next week after your recommendation 🙂
Make sure you go down to the meadow area, you will love it there. We left it to the end with insufficient time. I’ll just have to go back..
Little Ash looks a beautiful garden, with such unusual planting the plant stall must have been very tempting!
Private gardens which open under schemes such as NGS have so much to offer Brian.
This is another lovely looking garden, thank you for sharing it with us.
Yes, I got plenty of ideas here too. Thanks Cherie.
Wonderful garden I particularly love the sculptures, the stream garden and the unusual plants. I will have to put that date in my diary! Sarah x
I think you’d enjoy it Sarah. And Helen is so knowledgeable about her plants, I learnt such a lot.
Yes, sounds like my sort of garden too – especially if they have a feature called the ‘bus stop’ along the same lines as our ‘bus shelter’, and all the intriguing sculptures too! Makes me want to go and seek out more places for climbers as well – for next year that is…
I hope your own garden opening went well and that the rain held off! I was thinking of you when it started to drizzle here but with luck it didn’t reach you until later in the day.