End of the month view – December 2016

This End of the Month View (and End of the Year) I am going to take you all on a frosty walk through the garden. Over the last six months you have seen many parts of the garden but this walk will try to bring the parts together. You may find the garden map helpful.

The above picture is taken from our conservatory and shows the main lawn and, on the right, the wall which was originally part of the walled garden for the Rectory next door. The wall was built in 1704 and is a significant feature within the garden. The garden extends beyond this wall and we will take a route that goes behind the wall and round to the bottom of this photograph.

But first lets start at the front of the house.From the lane the drive area is mostly cobbled with some tubs and beds around the edges.Entering the drive we can see the well near the front door surrounded by roses and clematis. The part of the house on the left was built in 1724 with the extension added in 1977.

Walking to the right of the housethere is a small courtyard area . On the right is a row of pleached limes under planted with roses and lavender. The doorway, at the end of the path, is the entrance to the main garden and to the right of this is a small gate through which we will go. On the left of this courtyard area is a very shady bed which is mainly planted with ferns, rodgersia and hostas most of which have died down now. In the spring there are a lot of Erythronium dens-canis (Dogs Tooth violet) and snowdrops here.

Going through the little gate isthe area we called the Italianate garden with the large formal pond. The seat on the right is one of many ‘gin & tonics’ seats! From the other side of the pondwe reach a small area known as Ivy’s garden. (Ivy lives in the house on the right!) On the right, beyond the yew hedge, there are some fruit cages and the compost area. Looking back from here across the pond we can see our only green-house and the end of our house. Although rather small the green-house is very productive throughout the year.

Continuing around the garden, through the yew hedge, is the area waiting for a design to be finalised. See Planning for the future – a design challenge . This needs to go on my New year’s resolutions list if it is to get done!

Passing through the second yew hedge there is a small pond. This pond is under a large sycamore tree and is netted to keep the leaves out. The pond is a favorite for the grass snakes that live around the compost area. The garden around here is know as Elise’s garden. Elise is the name of the statue standing in the water.

Beyond the end of the wall we can then see across the bottom of the garden.In the bottom right-hand corner of the garden is an area of shrubs which are under planted with tulips. The shrubs were planted to help protect from the winds that comes across the field.

To the left of this shrubbery is a five barred gate   with a view across our borrowed landscape. The lake in the middle distance is the original fish ponds for the rectory and may date back to medieval times.

Further to the leftis the Japanese bed named mainly because of the Japanese stone lantern (which is still waiting for me to erect again after it fell over!) The Hakonechloa macra is under planted with snowdrops and crocuses and will be cut down soon.

Looking back from herewe can see into the main garden area.

The area on the bottom left-hand corner of the gardenused to contain a very large walnut tree which unfortunately died. This has been replaced with some multi-stemmed silver birch under planted with a variety of flowering plants to simulate wild flowers. You can see that the fence stops and there is apparently no fence to the garden. This is part of the ha-ha which was part of the original rectory garden. Looking back, from the field, we can see this better The ditch and wall stop the farm animals in the field getting into the garden and give us the perfect borrowed landscape.

Looking towards the house we can now see into the main gardenwith a circular rose bed on the left and a rose on the right at the end of a low wall that forms the edge of a higher part of the lawn.Looking towards the ha-ha at the bottom, the wall and higher lawn can be seen.

Standing on this higher lawn, this is the photograph I normally start my End of the Month View with. See September 2016. Much of the herbaceous growth has been cut back ready for the spring bulbs etc.

Looking back towards the house there is a patio area surrounded by small beds and climbing roses. From this area we see across the main garden.

On the right is the entrance we saw as we entered the gardenwith the gate on the right of this photograph.

I hope you have enjoyed this walk around the garden. In a few weeks time the spring bulbs will be pushing up and the cycle will begin again.

Happy New Year to you all.

Gardening Hours
This week	Total since June 19th	Average per week
5	483	17

Thanks for looking around our garden, and do pop over to Helen’s blog to look at what’s happening in other people’s gardens today.