The house at Audley End is the cut down relic of a much large Jacobean palace, and is surrounded by acres of lavish parkland mostly used these days for picnicing, sunbathing and concerts. Arriving is almost the best part – you stop at the gatehouse and then sweep along the enormous curved drive across the [...]
Entries Tagged as 'gardens'
Audley End
June 15th, 2009 4 Comments
Tags: audley end · decoration · espalier fruit trees · gardening · greenhouses · historical gardens · historical re-enactment · nineteenth century life · organic garden · organic growing · servants quarters · stately home · victorian
Fenland garden
May 19th, 2009 No Comments
One of the more interesting gardens at Chelsea this year is the unromantically named Foreign and Colonial Investments garden, which is partly based on East Anglian fens by Thomas Hoblyn Garden Design of Bury St Edmunds. If you are gardening in the fenlands it has some interesting ideas to take home.
Snaking round a mysterious pool [...]
Tags: chelsea flower show 2009 · fenland · garden design · gardens · pitcher plants · planting
May
May 16th, 2009 3 Comments
I’ve been chained to my desk all week but just wanted to share how far spring has advanced while I haven’t been looking.
It’s Chelsea Flower Show next week and then it’ll be June any minute. There were cricketers in whites on Parker’s Piece in Cambridge today. The verges are gauzy with cow parsley. It even [...]
Tags: aquilegia · columbines · flowers · garden · gardening · honeysuckle · lupins · spring
International Garden photographer finalist
May 13th, 2009 No Comments
This lovely graphic shot of agave utahensis was shot in the Old Vicarage Gardens at East Ruston in Norfolk by one of the artists taking part in Norfolk Open Studios, Geoff du Feu. It led to him being one of ten finalists in the plant portaits category of the International Garden Photographer of the Year, [...]
Tags: agave · garden photography · geoff du feu · kew gardens · norfolk broads · norfolk open studios · photography
Pleasure Gardens
April 27th, 2009 1 Comment
Anglesey Abbey was actually never an abbey in the religious sense, and hasn’t had any connection with religious orders since the Augustinian Priory on this site was dissolved during the dissolution of the monasteries in 1535.
In its current form, as looked after by the National Trust, it is an elegant party house surrounded by a [...]
Tags: anglesey abbey · cambridgeshire · eighteenth century style · espalier apple tree · formal · gardens · lode mill · national trust · plants · sculpture · statues · traditional materials
Spring colour at Anglesey Abbey
April 23rd, 2009 No Comments
With Cambridgeshire basking in sunshine all this week, absolutely the perfect time to visit one particular feature at Anglesey Abbey – the birch grove.
The rest of the gardens there adhere to classical notions of garden design, with walks and vistas and all the urns and statuary a large garden requires, but this small grove owes [...]
Tags: anglesey abbey · garden · national trust · picnic · planting · silver birches · species tulips · spring · spring colour · tulips
Foraging in the hedgerows – spring
March 29th, 2009 No Comments
Today I went foraging in the woods with friends for the fresh green tops of stinging nettles which are just coming into growth to make nettle and ginger beer. I can’t yet vouch for the flavour – it takes about 7 days to be ready to drink, so watch this space.
Even if it turns out [...]
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Hunting signs of spring
March 20th, 2009 1 Comment
Today is the equinox and the official beginning of spring. Signs of it are catching hold all across East Anglia. Yesterday I popped into the gardens at Blickling Hall to see their lovely dell full of hellebores – if the weather holds this weekend will be the perfect time to visit them.
It’s a blowsy spring [...]
Tags: architecture · blickling hall · classical · east anglia · east of england · garden · garden design · gardening · gardens · hellebores · jacobean · national trust · norfolk · planting · plants · seasonal · spring · spring flowers · tree ferns
Wimpole Hall Farm and Gardens
September 23rd, 2008 No Comments
In the last few sunny weekends of the year, the outdoor parts of Wimpole Hall near Royston are worth a lingering visit, either if you’ve got kids or are enthusiastic about gardening.
I fall into the enthusiastic about gardening category, so I loved the victorian walled kitchen garden. Surrounded by beautifully mellow brick walls with fruit [...]
Tags: cambridgeshire · childrens · east anglia · farm · gardening · hall · national trust · wimpole