The Garden House, Devon
The Garden House, Buckland Monachorum, Devon
This place is a gem. We first visited several years ago, in Spring as I recall because it was the first time I’d ever encountered a trillium. As a newcomer to Devon and even more the inexperienced gardener it quite blew me over. The Garden House is, without doubt, a plantsman’s garden with the more unusual rubbing shoulders with the commonplace. Earlier this week, no less enthralled, I spotted the variegated foliage of Hacquetia epipactis ‘Thor’ romping through a border, not far from the site of the original trillium as it happens. I bought a tiny specimen of the hacquetia from a plant fair this Spring. If mine does half as well I shall be happy.
The Walled Garden
The two acre walled garden, built around medieval ruins with a thatched barn and a stone tower, is just sublime. It is the original part of the garden developed by Lionel and Katharine Fortescue from the 1940s.
Dahlia ‘Karma Fuchsiana’
In September dahlias reign supreme here, a fitting climax to the summer season.
Dahlia ‘Dark Desire’
This one went straight on my list..
Hydrangea, actaea, salvia, penstemon, verbena, crocosmia and many other late summer perennials will keep the colour pumping out well into autumn.
And those sinuous, immaculately clipped hedges.. how cool are they?
The rough stone walls provide the perfect backdrop from just about any camera angle.
There were plenty of these Japanese anemones for sale in the plant centre. We could speculate on whether any of them accompanied this garden visitor home. But it would probably be a pointless exercise. Most readers will have already guessed.
Penstemon ‘Sour Grapes’
But glorious as it is there is much, much more to The Garden House than just the Walled Garden. Because when Lionel needed more space to expand his growing ambitions he moved out into the surrounding fields.
The Long Walk with its magnificent multi-stemmed Betula utilis var jacquemontii ‘Grayswood Ghost’
The steps lead up to..
The Magic Circle of standing stones, an echo of the garden’s location on the lower slopes of Dartmoor.
Everywhere you wander at The Garden House there are paths leading off through the lush planting with only faint glimpses, or no glimpses, of what lies beyond. The compulsion to explore is impossible to resist. A path might lead through a sun dappled glade of exotic trees and shrubs or maybe to a perfectly positioned bench to rest awhile and admire the view. Often the path opens unexpectedly on a different part of the garden entirely.
The Cottage Garden
The Garden House is really a series of gardens, each with a different theme and providing a unique experience.
The Quarry Garden
Lovely combination of textures in the plants hugging the ground alongside a bubbling stream: persicaria, bergenia, stipa and the seed heads of phlomis.
The Acer Glade
..with the first hints of the autumn firework display yet to come.
This is a garden that doesn’t stand still. Old favourites mingle with trendy new arrivals in the plant world and new areas of the garden are still being developed. The Fortescues bequeathed it to the Fortescue Garden Trust, a small independent registered charity, to preserve it for future generations. A new arboretum was planted in 2011 to celebrate the Trust’s Golden Jubilee.
At the heart of the arboretum, the lake with its floating mats of water hawthorn.
But I saved my favourite bit till last.
The Summer Garden.
Swathes of colour and movement planted in a modern naturalistic style. If this place doesn’t have the National Collection of persicaria then it bloomin’ well should have. I was in my element. Along with miscanthus, calamagrostis, eupatorium, rudbeckia and all the prairie favourites. All set against the back drop of those two magnificant wedding cake trees: Cornus controversa ‘Variegata’.
The Summer Garden was originally planted in a South African style but the cruel Dartmoor winters put paid to that. And just look at it now. Described as a ‘deconstructed herbaceous border’ it’s the look I aspire to for The Precipitous Bank. I was sad to learn that it isn’t low maintenance. While the plants may appear to be naturally weaving in amongst each other as they grow it is in fact rigorously managed. Not much space for weeds though is there?
Sanguisorba and Stipa gigantea
The Garden House (here)
Viewed as one of the finest gardens in Britain.
And who could disagree.
This entire place, and your wonderful images, really takes my breath away! How absolutely magnificent. I doubt I will ever get there, but thank you for showing us. Just so gorgeous…..
Next time you come over remember there are plenty of wonderful gardens in the West Country!
Stay safe in Florence Libby, it sounds frightening.
I’ve visited on a couple of occasions and while I have enjoyed the garden on both occasions, I didn’t feel the same rapture as you – I’m not sure why. I saw it in spring with masses of tulips and last July on a very cold wet day! There is much to admire but I felt it over gardened.
I can understand what you mean Christina. I think perhaps the farther you wander from the house the wilder and more natural it gets. Plus this late in the season the garden is starting to look a little more relaxed than perhaps it does in mid summer.
So much to inspire – just from your post, and I’m sure much more so in person. So glad that the anemones managed to hitch a ride back as well as the Hacquetia! 😉
It remains to be seen whether the anemone will survive, I’ve had mixed success so far. It doesn’t stop me trying though!
Yummy… I want those dahlias too…what a gorgeous place
I love the simpler, smaller dahlias. ‘Dark Desire’ hit just the right spot!
Wow! So much beauty to take in. What a gorgeous garden and your pictures capture it well.
Thanks Peter. It’s the setting that really makes it. All those lovely stone walls. I’ve always hankered after a walled garden.
Drop dead gorgeous image after image. Your photos really do it justice esp. the stipa and sanguisorga. One of the most perfect plant combos I’ve ever seen. I guess we all know deep down that great gardens take a lot of work and tweaking to look this fabulous. But we always hope that someone will admit that it’s easy care, low maintenance. Imagine the effort in just taking care of that skinny evergreen hedge!! I’m going back to look at everything again.
Yes indeed. And of course they have a whole team of gardeners and here it’s mostly just me. But I have started spreading my prairie perennials around more randomly in an attempt to create those fabulous interwoven drifts. Always exciting to see what comes back next year and whether it has worked!
I gasped from one image to the next, thinking, this is my favourite bit, no this is my favourite bit. In the end I think the walled garden does it for me. I could live there. We nearly visited last year in spring time, but ran out of days. I am now thinking that a day out might be warranted before these colours disappear. Thanks for the virtual visit and splendid photos 😀
Oh gosh yes, do go. There is so much colour still and it will get even better once the leaves start to turn. The Acer Glade must be fabulous!
I have never even heard of this beautiful garden before Jessica, and it really is sublime. I wonder how they keep those hedges so sinuous and yet green – mine get wider and wider even though they are cut every year. What a joy those colourful dahlias are to see as we start to say goodbye to summer for this year.
The hedges, tapered to the top edge were fabulous. I’m tempted to try, if only to keep the pigeons from landing on the top. But knowing the pigeons they would try to land anyway and just collapse it!
An incredible garden even for a country hosting zillions of incredible gardens. And you’ve now added more dahlias to the already long list I don’t have space for.
Sorry. Dahlias don’t do well for me as a rule. The slugs mainly. And here of course they need lifting every winter if they have any chance of surviving. But I’d really like to try some in containers on the basis that I can just lift the whole kit and caboodle into the greenhouse when it turns cold.
Envy, envy, I must get there sometime soon. It looks wonderful. In the meantime your lovely picyures have whet my appetite even more. Brilliant.
It really is a lovely garden. And we found a good place to eat en route.. on the list?
I just loved the walk through this garden with you and oohed and ahead at your stunning photos, especially the Dark Desire Dahlia- such a rich red and that gorgeously egg-yollky yellow behind. No wonder you grabbed that dahlia, I would have done too. And all those wending paths…hard not to run through the gate to find out what is on the other side.
I love gardens where you have to explore. It gave me so many ideas for here, especially the paths through the trees and shrubbery. If only I had their team of gardeners, and budget!
Oh thanks for sharing you visit Jessica 🙂 We’ve stopped off at the Garden House couple of times en route back from France and thought that garden was quite magical. It’s been a few years since our last visit though so will have to do something to remedy that. Have you visited Wildside which as you will know is just down the road?
I didn’t know about Wildside and looked it up. Thank you Anna! Keith Wiley’s own garden would be a treat. I have noted the dates for 2019.
If there was such a thing as Heaven, surely it would be that garden.
Agreed.
Wonderful ! I have visited a few times at different times of year, but never in September. Last time we went it was to see all the Acers in Oct/Nov and they were stunning. I don’t think it matters what time of year you visit, it is always a stunning garden, full of inspiration.
It’s a hard trick to pull off, an all seasons garden. Certainly you need a lot of space which they obviously have. But the planting is so well layered that really anywhere you looked was pleasing to the eye and I can imagine it would be the same throughout the year.
Absolutely wonderful, my kind of garden in every way, (which is a small problem as I live in Australia). We will definitely put this one on our list to visit when next we are in Britain, I hope it remains the same…congratulations goes to the owners and gardeners. I will look out for the Dark Desire Dahlia, it is special. Thanks for the tour, I enjoyed every minute looking at your lovely photos.
Thanks Gerrie. Australian gardens can be just as beautiful, just different. At least the ones I got to visit anyway!
Wonderful! A well deserved break for you Jessica, and a delight for us followers. We had a lovely big garden in our last house, and Japanese anemones had a bed all of their own, largely owing to how DETERMINEDLY they took over! Everyone was most impressed, as if we’d gone to great efforts!
I was bored the other night and trawling the archives of TV programmes to watch came across an old Monty Don ‘Around the World in 80 Gardens’ featuring Australia and NZ. Fabulous! One thing that he mentioned was how fast everything grows out there. Japanese anemones are slower for me. Maybe the lower temps, or the rain, or the heavy soil. I have read so many times they can be invasive. But not here. Remind me I said that if things change..
So beautifully photographed and eloquently described
Thanks Derrick 🙂
A lovely garden. I can’t get over how green and lush everything looks. Many gardens we have visited this year look dry and tired.
A month ago it probably would have been the same but we’ve had a fair bit of rain recently. Even our lawn (far less well tended) is bright green again now, wind back a few weeks and it was brown.
Yes, it’s certainly one of my favourites. I have never seen it in September. Gorgeous photos. Thank you, I enjoyed the post.
Thanks Chloris. I should go back more frequently, in all the seasons. From what I saw I don’t think I’d be disappointed any time.
Glorious! Every time you looked at one photo, you couldn’t imagine anything better. But you would be wrong! Each photo leading on and on to yet one fabulous display after another. I can just imagine you gasping through the place and being unable to write down all the things you would like to buy/do for your own garden fast enough to keep up with the sheer beauty of it all. Thank you for the tour of this amazing property.
It certainly left us with plenty of ideas. Well, I planted the anemone already.. it’s a start!!
Surely those hedges are boat shaped? It looks magnificent, somewhere to go and see before we move to Hampshire. I suppose if it was up to me I think perfection in a garden like this should include topiary…
They do look like boats, you’re right. And plenty of huge borders too, with plants en masse. Well worth a visit.
You’re leaving Somerset? What did we do?
Handicapped son lives in Basingstoke so 200 mile round trip plus taking him out for a drive means 250 miles per trip. So we will move closer in a couple of years time. We went to Rosemoor last week, I think it is the best RHS garden I have seen, which is all of them except the one in Yorkshire.
The scale of Rosemoor is just perfect. Plus the fact that they share similar conditions to me. I can’t help feeling if they can do it.. but then I don’t have their budget. Or an army of volunteers! We visited Wisley frequently when we lived in that neck of the woods many years ago but I haven’t seen the other two.
Simply glorious, thanks so much for sharing!
You’re welcome! The sacrifices I have to make for the blog.. 😉
It’s all just marvellous, Mrs Duck. Gorgeous photos. Thank you!
No ducks on the lake. Perhaps the only disappointment of the whole day.
Awesome.
Yes indeed. Maybe I can replicate just a little bit of it!
The Garden House looks wonderful, I’ve just added it to my list of places to visit in Devon. I also love that Dahlia, that’s a real stunner. Wonderful photos as always Jessica
Thanks Julieanne. I love those simple, single, deeply coloured dahlias. I really must try some again.
Not me! It looks wonderful. I hang my head in shame to confess I have never visited. Perhaps a joint visit next spring?
That sounds like an excellent idea Gill. They have a tea shop and a lovely plant centre. What’s not to love?
What a treat! Absolutely magnificent! Thanks for sharing!! Deenie
Definitely a treat! Welcome to rusty duck Deenie.
Thank you for the tour as I’ve never been to this garden. I love those cornus controversa (my three are between 3 and 5 feet high and very very slow growing!)
They were quite impressive. I can see the link to the Cornus kousa I have, the way the trees organise themselves into layers is just lovely.
It is one of my favourite gardens Jessica, it features in my slide show, ‘Wild Gardeners’ due to the original work there by Keith Wiley. Have you visited his garden just down the road from the GH?
We haven’t yet Brian, but I’ve noted the dates it’s open for next year! A must do I think.
What a beautiful place and your photos are gorgeous. Those dahlias are magnificent. I adore them but they don’t do well in my garden.
They don’t do that well for me either, mostly because they get attacked by slugs. Next year I’ll have another try, I’ve seen so many lovely varieties recently but I must find a reliable way around the mollusc problem without resorting to pellets.
I start my Dahlias in pots, planting them out when they are 1-2ft tall at the beginning of June. They seem to grow away from any slug damage then.
We must have a very special breed of slug here, they eat anything and everything irrespective of size. I’ve even found them six feet up the bean poles. I’ve tried planting out even fully mature dahlias and still have to dose them daily with slug pellets to keep the wretched things off. I plan to try again and leave them in pots. It seems to work with hostas.
That artless natural look – like watching Maggie Smith on the stage.
Like watching Maggie Smith in anything..
Absolutely stunning and your pictures are popping.
I hope it has survived the storms we’ve had down here. But it probably has. I’m sure they’re a lot more diligent about plant support than I am..
What a glorious garden, Jessica – and one would know that just by standing at that open gate in the wall…what an invitation is offers… Thanks for sharing
I love gardens that give you a peek into new areas before you get to them. What better way to explore.
This looks like a wonderful place to visit.
Well worth it Cherie, if you’re ever down this way.
It is one of the most wonderful gardens in England and we have been visiting it for so many years! We didn’t manage to get there on our latest trip to Devon so it was great to have this opportunity to visit it with you, there is always so much to see each season. Sarah x
Having done Spring and Autumn I must definitely go back in high summer!