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Great Gardens and parks to visit this Autumn

October 7, 2010 By 1 Comment
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My two favourite seasons are spring and autumn. I love autumn! Not only do I like wandering through woods, with the sunlight twinkling on the dew of freshly fallen leaves, but I also love the feeling of rejoicing in another season that has so much to offer.

Here is a list of my top  places to visit for autumn colour, the UK’s version of leaf peeping :)

  • Visit your local wood, you won’t be disappointed.

The New Forest in Hampshire is a favourite place of mine to admire gorgeous trees such as oak and beech, this lovely forest looks spectacular in autumn and a great place to see wild deer during the rut.

  • Westonbirt Arboretum in Wiltshire is lovely, it is very well set up with a café to enjoy a yummy hot chocolate after your walk.  We are hoping to make a return visit this autumn.
  • Exbury in Hampshire. Don’t miss their wonderful exhibition of nerines, running through October.
  • RHS Gardens – particularly Rosemoor in North Devon.
  • Epping Forest in Essex – if you like fungi, this forest has a large collection to explore.
  • Sheffield Park Garden in East Sussex, owned by the National Trust originally created by Capability Brown and Humphrey Repton.
  • Trevarno Estate and Gardens in Cornwall. Their woodland is beautiful! I saw this garden covered in bluebells and know that it will be stunning throughout autumn.
  • Bicton Park Botanical Gardens in Devon. We visited last week and they have a wonderful collection of trees, which are just beginning to show their Autumn colours. Keep an eye out for their maple collection.

Many of the National Trust Gardens are charming to visit! So check their website to see if there is a garden near you.

Don’t forget to look in magazines for ideas, for example Countryfile mentions Grizedale in Cumbria, Elan valley in Powys Wales and in the north of Scotland Carbisdale Castle.

October’s Country Living has a run down of their 25 favourite woods to visit in autumn.

Where do you like to visit for autumn colour?

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A Visit To A Beautiful Subtropical Garden In Dorset

September 7, 2010 By 1 Comment
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Abbotsbury Subtropical Gardens.

Recently I managed to visit a garden I have wanted to visit for a long time – Abbotsbury Subtropical Gardens.

These beautiful gardens are dog friendly, so we were able to take our lovely little dog Brinkley on a new adventure. On our trip out we were accompanied by our respective families.

I have to say we did get a little lost on the way there as our Sat Nav didn’t register where we were for most of the journey, because there are lots of hills and valleys in the area. So if you are planning to visit, I suggest you remember to pack a map, just in case.

A big plus was that you could visit the restaurant, shop and garden centre for free before paying to enter the gardens.

I love visiting the Lost Gardens of Heligan in Cornwall, Abbotsbury Subtropical Gardens is similar in planting and design to Heligan’s Sub-tropical garden. The gunnera in the ‘Upper Pond’ and ‘Bog Garden’ areas in the gardens, are amazing. We saw beautiful fuchsias and hydrangeas dotted around the garden, and we all thought that the ‘Walled garden,’ ‘Victorian walled gardens’ and the ‘Lily pond’ were exquisite. It is a peaceful place to enjoy the plants at their best.

Other areas of interest are the sculpture trail and they hold special events for example plays, falconry events, and enchanted floodlit evenings. You can even have your wedding there!

It is a truly beautiful garden! The design and layout of the plants is cleverly done, as you are able to admire the views and planting schemes from many angles. To catch a glimpse of what you can expect check out their virtual garden tour

At the end of your visit, there is a nice garden shop, to tempt you!

If you are lucky you may catch a view of the extravagant Golden pheasant!

Brinkley thoroughly enjoyed the day out, as there was plenty to sniff and investigate!

As the well known saying says, as quoted on a beautiful wood carving that you see when you enter the gardens –

‘Enjoy the Garden.

Take only memories, leave nothing but footprints.’

So in conclusion

It’s a stunning garden, with a lovely restaurant, and shopping area. Brinkley enjoyed his visit and we will be back! Everyone in our party enjoyed the day it is a great day out for the whole family and I fully recommend a visit!!!

If you would like to visit here are the details –

Directions –

You can find this lovely garden in Abbotsbury near Weymouth in Dorset.

Admission fees –

Adult – £9.50

OAP, Student, Disabled – £9.00

Children 5-15 years – £6.50

Family Ticket – Group of 5 with a maximum of 2 Adults- £26.00

Near by is the famous Abbotsbury Swannery and Abbotsbury children’s farm. If you would like to visit these too, the gardens, swannery and farm run a special passport ticket scheme, so you are able to make the most of your visit to this beautiful area.

If you are an RHS Member check your handbook for when you can use your card for free entry.

If you have the Gardener’s World 2 for 1 garden visit card you can use it here, which is great!

Opening Hours –

Open everyday apart from the 18th December – 1st January

10 am – 5/6pm Winter until 4 pm

Final Note

If you would like to know more about our visit in terms of it being a dog friendly garden and a garden with disabled access, please see our post on Birds on the Blog – A Visit to Abbotsbury Subtropical Garden

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The National Garden Scheme

June 22, 2010 By 1 Comment
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I am a big fan of the National Garden Scheme also known as the NGS!

I love visiting gardens such as the large RHS Gardens, but I also love visiting smaller / personal gardens, loving created by people who love to share their pride and  joy with visitors, whilst raising money for charity.

Over the years I have tried to get to as many gardens operating under the NGS as I can, but there are still many on the list in my area that I am eager to visit.

As I regularly write blog posts about particular flowers, I often recommend particular gardens in the NGS to visit, as not only will it be a great day out, but  it is also good to support our local neighbourhood gardeners. You can learn so much by visiting these gardens, admiring their planting schemes and asking the owners questions.

If you are looking to redesign your garden, or add to your garden and are looking for inspiration, these gardens are ideal! As often we can be a little intimidated by the larger grander gardens that are looked after by teams of gardeners. If you want to know which plants would be suitable in your area, visiting local gardens gives you a great opportunity to see which plants work for your soil conditions.

Last weekend I had the privilege of visiting the Cerne Abbas Open Gardens in Dorset. I had been a few years ago and was looking forward to a return visit.

The weather was perfect :) which always makes a visit to a garden extra special. The Cerne Abbas Village is stunning.

If you want to visit a typical traditional English village, then this is a must visit.

25 gardens took part in the weekend. If you love investigating every crook and cranny of old walls and pathways, you will enjoy visiting this village as there is always some thing interesting to see.

Tickets to this event was £5 for adults and free for children, which was extremely good value. You also receive a small map to help you find the gardens around the village.

The photo on the right was taken as I was looking over an old wall admiring the view. The rose and rose bud was beautiful and I thought it would make a nice photo for this blog post.

We didn’t make it around all of the gardens, but really enjoyed the ones we ‘discovered’ as we walked around the village. As I walked around the streets, down various paths and small alley ways, I was reminded of one of my favourite childhood stories – The Secret Garden. As you looked for the yellow posters and open gates, you were never sure what you would find. The gardens fitted each other like a perfectly made jigsaw puzzle, and if you had a peek over the walls you would get a brief view of the next door garden’s delights. :)

The flowers that were in abundance throughout the gardens was the stunning rose, in gorgeous colours and tones such as white, pink and red. Astrantia was also a popular plant in these gardens and to be honest I can see why. I have a fondness for this lovely flower, the colours and detail complement so many other plants, and when the sun catches their petals they just look stunning!

Not only were the plants beautiful to look at, but also the scent made the whole presentation even better. You could tell that the bees were enjoying their dinner, but I was also mesmerised by the varying scents of the tea roses and honeysuckle. WOW!! If I had a chair and a mug of tea in hand, I wouldn’t have been able to move for hours!

Some of the gardens also had small ponds and fountains, and on a day like we visited with the hot sun fully out, the trickling sound of the water made a welcome addition to the setting.

No garden visit would be complete without a cup of tea of cold drink. We enjoyed an ice cream and an elderflower presse at Abbots Brasserie and Tea Garden. There are a couple of tea rooms and pubs in Cerne Abbas, so plenty of places for a drink and something to eat.

If you would like to visit the Cerne Abbas Open Garden weekend, then they will be holding the next event next year on the 18th- 19th June 2011, so make sure you add it to your diary, as you are sure to have a lovely time.

If you would like to visit a local NGS garden near to you, you can select the county that you live on the NGS website and a detailed list with photographs will be shown. You can also pick up little yellow NGS booklets at various tourist information points, for more information.

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A visit to Apple Court Garden

May 5, 2010 By 2 Comments
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Recently we had the privilege of visiting Apple Court garden again.

When you visit, you feel as though it’s a secret garden, but I want to share this secret with you. Magnolia

I suggest you ask for the garden leaflet for information about the garden, to get the most out of your visit.

This beautiful garden is situated in lymington Hampshire, near to the coast and the majestic New Forest; it ticks all the boxes for me.

The owners and gardeners are Angela and Charles Meads. They took over the garden in 2003, and in a relatively short space of time in gardening terms, they have a garden they can be proud of!

On both occasions we were fortunate to see the garden in lovely spring weather, you feel so at home in the garden that you could quite easily sit and have a cuppa watching the world go by.

Rooster At Apple Court GardensThey also had some amazing chickens with an enormous black velvet rooster, I don’t know the name of these chickens but I had to take a photo to show you how magnificent they are. They are great for pest control, very eco-friendly and a gardeners friend.

Often gardens specialise in particular plants and flowers.

Apple Court Garden’s specialities are – hostas, day lilies, and ferns.

On our visit last year in May, we had a lovely surprise, a beautiful wisteria was found over a lovely little seat at the beginning of the rope walk that I mention on my video below. We will be returning to admire this lovely scented flower again very soon. Angela was sure that the wisteria would be in flower very soon, and you could certainly see the buds about to burst into life.    Wisteria at Apple Court Gardens

The planting scheme is planned very well as it looks natural, but you know that a lot of work has gone into the design. As I mention in the video it’s a restful garden, a garden to visit to let your stresses melt away and feel refreshed once more.

I particularly enjoyed the lovely spring, salmon and peach borders for the spring bulbs, the lovely camellias and magnolias and the hellebores.

If you like gardens with many rooms and little paths to discover new areas, then this is a garden for you.

It’s definitely a garden to see through the spring to the autumn seasons.

The garden is open under the National Garden Scheme (NGS)

Here is the video to give you a little taster of what you can expect from this lovely garden.

When is Apple Court Garden open?

It’s open from the beginning of March to the end of October.

Opening hours - 10-5 pm

Opening Days -  Friday – Sunday and Bank Holidays

Price £4.00. There is a season ticket available for £10.00 well worth it if you are planning to visit a few times in the opening season.

Shop There is a nursery area with a large array of plants available to purchase, to add to your garden. They also have an online shop

Refreshments there is a little area for drinks.

If you want something more substantial we can recommend Braxton Gardens that is about 5-10 mins drive away. Braxton Gardens is definitely worth a visit, especially when the roses are out as they have a rose garden, as well as a tea room.

Mobility if walking is hard for you; there are little sitting areas to admire the garden from. The paths are small, so using a wheelchair may be difficult, as it doesn’t have paved paths. I would suggest contacting the garden before you visit, to see if it is accessible for you.

I hope you enjoyed the video and find the information useful.

We hope that you will add this garden to your list to visit, as you won’t be disappointed.

For more details Apple Court Gardens website is – www.applecourt.com

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