We arrived in London on May 28th and a train ride to Oxford to pick up our car and we drove to RHS Wisley on June 1, 2024. This is an overview of our trip, one photo for each of the 28 plus gardens we toured. A blog post for each garden will follow in the coming weeks. This is just a teaser.
Our second visit to Wisley in over 10 years and lots to take in.
This is Flo and we are in the basement of her home looking out onto the garden behind her London Townhouse? I don't know what to call the neighborhood, I will show a photo for the street below.
We are back at the gardens of Trentham in Stoke-on-Trent. This is our 4th or 5th visit. This huge estate has many things to do and is geared toward family visits but has many elements of a true Pleasure Gardens. Lots for the kids but even more for the gardener. With big names like Piet Oudolf, Tom Stuart-Smith, Nigel Dunnett,...Capability Brown lake and old trees. We enjoy seeing this garden at different times of the year. This time it is June.
Here we are again at the Old Hall in Wollerton and their bountiful garden. A small garden that is greatly loved by the community. I don't think you can arrive in a large tour bus. This year they remade the Well Garden. This space with sixteen pyramidal yews cut into quarters has been a favorite of mine. I was shocked to see its remake. I will compare below and announce my judgement.
We drove by this peak a few times during our week stay in Buxton. We stopped on the way home this evening to check out some of the local flora.
Here I am Tuesday morning looking to catch up on the gardens I explored this summer. Next up, is RHS Bridgewater. A new garden in the North of England around Manchester. Always fun to go to Manchester.
I love Biddulph's compact size full of all the England Garden themes. I particularly love the use of follies to move in space to the next theme. The Egyptian Pyramid to the Chestershire Cottage.
Evening after dinner, we stopped by this small but delightful garden in the middle of three large university buildings.
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We are at the peak of June. To see more of the structure of this garden, look at my post for 2023: The Garden of Pooled Talents
We are back to the inner part of Sheffield which is undergoing a years long process to plant out underutilized concrete areas in the form of unused traffic lanes. After a by-pass was built, the inner ring road no longer required four lanes of vehicular traffic. A year later but almost six weeks earlier in June the beds look vibrate with recent rain.
The English love their outdoor concerts and rain doesn't faze them.
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Plus another Giant Sequoia in Evenly.
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The lust gardens around the art gallery in the heart of Yorkshire. Tom Stuart-Smith designed garden installed in 2019.
The color in this garden is all green no flowers anywhere. A lot of reflective water surfaces along with a few follies and white statues. We are back for a second visit nine years later. One difference is the abbey at the end has had some restoration work.
I recall being a bit disappointed with our visit. Spring seemed late up here in the northern part of England. I saw few things that really inspired me but that ok. There is something in every garden waiting to be withheld. The was a lot of infrastructure projects, a couple of new bridges and vast areas of the garden under renovation. This little room was Looking good.
Here's some photos of my June trip to England with Frank Eddy. I love these road trips.
First time to York Gate but have seen numerous photos in Gardens Illustrated magazine. But photos can only go so far in telling the story of this garden.
The front entryway looks recently planted with water-wise plants among large borders and gravel. It is a gravel garden; very trendy since Beth Chatto made it famous.
June 8, 2024 - I am catching up on my trip to England, 2024. Click here to see the other gardens we visited or click here for the Overview post.
From Blackpool we head due East to Leeds. Another fun city in Northern England that you don’t hear much about. Fun architecture and lively college town offers some good shopping and food.
Now we’re headed toward new land. First time for purely recreational visit, no gardens really to see here. We went for the Victorian era seaside beach resort adventure. Packed with bars and restaurants, roller coasters and theme attractions big in the 1920’s catering to the domestic northern England vacationers.
Today we crossed over into Wales and headed to Abergavenny. We are traveling with our friend Julia who happens to know garden designer Sarah Price. She set up a lunch date with Sarah at the Chapel Cafe & Garden, one of Sarah’s designs renovated in 2015. We enjoyed a lunch out in the garden on a sunny warmish day.
When we are in the Cotswold, we like to save a Tuesday for a visit to Special Plants Nursery. Weekly on Tuesdays, Derry Watkins throws an open garden around her home. This week’s subject was grand, The Humble Umbel.
We are back to Arvensis Perennials with our friend and fellow gardener Julia. Their demonstration garden has filled in very well over the last eight years.
We were excited to see Arundel Castle gardens after watching Carol Klein’s show. But it is closed on Mondays, although their website clearly stated otherwise, the day we were in town. So here some exterior shots of the castle and the village of Arundel.
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Since our morning garden was closed, we had extra time in the afternoon. We looked up near-by gardens on gardenvisit.com and found this Grade II Tudor house along with a twentieth century gardens owned by the National Trust.
Our next garden on this road trip around England is Gravetye Manor for drinks on the lawn, garden tour, luncheon, and finally coffee on the terrace. We are not staying in the house this time. A sunny and warm day to enjoy this masterpiece. Garden is only open for guests staying overnight in the house or reserved a table for lunch and afternoon tea I recall. The best way to experience this garden.
Our first stop on our 2024 Road Trip around England and Wales. Our last visit to this garden was in 2012 and lots has changed in twelve years.
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