The house and garden covers just under an acre in size with the
house standing more or less in the middle of the plot and the garden surrounding around
it. It will be a lot easier to
understand the layout if I take you on a descriptive tour round the garden.
View of the drive from the house looking towards the main entrance
Starting from the main entrance; as you walk up the paved drive,
to your right is a triangular area running parallel with the drive; I call this
the oriental garden and is home to a collection of azaleas, acers and
rhododendrons, on your left is a small copse of mainly sycamore trees which is
covered by an area preservation order.
Walking on past our house on your right and with our garage to your
left you enter a sheltered north-facing paved area, this has herbaceous borders
on the northern side and also running alongside our garage. Diagonally in front of you, on the opposite side
of the paved area, is the greenhouse; if you walk on with the greenhouse to
your left, in front of you is the orchard.
This is where we have apple, plum and cherry trees. In between the
orchard and the northern boundary hedge stands the fruit cage where I grow soft
fruits.
Walk to your right through the orchard and past the back door of the house and you come to a south-facing sunken terrace built of local stone. The terrace has a flight of steps leading down to it from the orchard and facing south; walking across the sunken terrace leads you to the south-facing green walkway, this has two parallel borders where shrubs such as osmanthus, box, sarcococca and azaleas grow. At the end of this walkway on a plinth is a bust of Julius Caesar.
At Julius Caesar turn to your right and you walk on the main lawn
of 450 sq metres. In front of you on the other end of the front lawn is the
oriental garden and to your right is our house raised up on a terrace with
steps leading down on the lawn.
Up against the terrace’s supporting wall and either side of the
stone steps are two borders where I grow or attempt to grow anything with a
blue flower. If you climb the steps of
the terrace surrounding the house and then walk to your left in front of the
house you emerge back on the main drive and well that’s the end of the tour.
I hope you enjoyed walking round our garden; in the years we
have lived here we have never deliberately planned the layout; it has evolved
over the years into the areas that exist today.
These areas need regular maintenance and tweaking throughout the year and
I plan to record my work in this blog as and when the time comes.
