Barnsdale Gardens, a special place

* I was invited to a press visit at Barnsdale Gardens earlier in the summer, so my posts from that visit will be marked as 'Ad’ though as usual my views and opinions are very much my own.

As we’ve already explored some of the flower and vegetable gardens at Barnsdale I expect you’re wondering what else there is, well there’s plenty - and plenty more flowers and vegetables that I haven’t shared, and like many gardens they’re best explored in person. This press visit was my second time at Barnsdale, we’d visited before when we were staying close by - and as we’re less than an hour away I’m sure it won’t be my last visit either. If you find yourself close by then it’s a garden (or many gardens) that are definitely worth a visit, and like other independent gardens it has a completely different feel to the National Trust gardens, which are also fabulous and favourites of mine to visit.

When Geoff Hamilton was the Gardeners’ World presenter on TV he used Barnsdale as his TV garden, and there’s a very distinct separation between the TV gardens and the non-TV parts of the garden - and this sign gives you a big clue, and reminded me of those notices that we are used to seeing now which notify you you might be filmed. Clearly there’s no filming for the programme now, but it’s a nice part of history to keep that distinction.

Immediately you pass the sign you’re in, quite literally the Apple Arch (garden number 25), which featured on many of the programmes and continues to be popular with visitors, me included. Here it contains 26 different varieties of apples and pears and was originally created to show how its possible to grow a wide variety of ‘top fruit’ within a restricted space.

And given it’s beauty it’s easy to see why it’s still maintained - and fruitful - today.

I couldn’t finish this series of posts without sharing a picture of the bronze bust of Geoff Hamilton, which was sculpted by his youngest son Chris. It takes pride of place, on its reclaimed plinth, in the Memorial garden (garden number 3), and amongst the flowers surrounding it is the David Austin ‘Geoff Hamilton’ rose - what else?

But there is more, this is the view the bust looks out over, a wildflower border with Geoff’s favourite tree, a Katsura - and isn’t it just the most calming spot?

I also want to share more about the Artificial Rock Garden (garden number 7) pictured below. It looks like an ordinary rock right?

Wrong. The rock garden was created by Geoff using artificial coir-based rocks, inspired by the rapidly disappearing of natural limestone. They’re very realistic and are made from 2 parts coir, 1 part sharp sand, 1 part cement and some yellow cement dye.

They look - and feel - just like rocks, but also help save vital natural habitats. Clever hey?

The Japanese Garden (garden number 15) is a rare share of such a garden here for me, and Barnsdale are open that it doesn’t adhere to any formal ideas for gardens, and so is very much their interpretation of a traditional Japanese garden - and maybe that’s what appealed more to me, I’m not sure. Those upturned ‘bamboo’ pipes as an edging especially caught my eye.

It seems a calming end to this series of posts, and a great place to end a busy and photo-heavy day at the site. I know I’ll be back, and I hope you can get along if you ever find yourself nearby, I know you’ll be given the warmest of welcomes whatever the weather.

* With thanks to Barnsdale Gardens for inviting me to the gardens, and to Nick Hamilton for leading a tour through a selection of the gardens available. It’s a great space and I’m pretty sure I’ll be back to visit again.

Flowers everywhere you look at Barnsdale Gardens

* I was invited to a press visit at Barnsdale Gardens earlier in the summer, so my posts from that visit will be marked as 'Ad’ though as usual my views and opinions are very much my own.

In the first post in this series I admired the veg plots at Barnsdale, and when I say plots I mean multiples. It’s the same for the flower gardens, though there are many, many more so compressing what I saw into a single post has been a challenge, to say the least!

Though it has been glorious to look back at my photos of the summer flowers, yes peonies and roses galore - what’s not to like?

Both of these were in the Summer Cottage Garden (No 28) along with this low level box edged path - and while it’s not a flower, it’s too good to exclude.

These next photos are taken in the Gentleman’s Cottage Garden (No 4) and the first shows the benefits of having somewhere to sit in all weathers. We learnt this in our previous garden as you don’t always want to drag out the garden furniture, in that garden the raised sleeper beds provided the ideal place to perch with a cuppa.

The central point of the garden was this buried stack of terracotta pots - another effective idea which could easily be replicated in our own gardens.

As you’d expect the Cutting Garden (No 12) was full of flowers, but these tall flowering stems with the almost onion like seed heads were my favourite from this garden. The free flowing love in a mist reminded me that I have some seeds from my FIL’s garden which I should probably plant, though it turned out that the heatwaves this year scuppered my seed sowing efforts. I’d started with lettuce, which were a bit hit and miss so decided to pause any greater plans for this year, which turned out to be a wise decision.

I snapped this delicate looking rose in the Versailles Summer border (No 16) while the peony is from the Country Paradise Summer Garden (No 36), which also has the sign to beware of the hidden pond, which I wrote about after my first visit to the gardens.

It was no surprise to me that I fell in love with the layout and contents of the Plantsman’s Garden (No 27) and it was a good reminder to put this acanthus on my plant wish list.

And look, I’ve managed to sneak in another topiary into this post - oops! But what a shape!

The greenhouses throughout the gardens are fantastic, and what’s better is that you can mostly get right inside them, and this one looked dreamy from inside and even more so from the outside with these roses clambering up posts nearby.

In the Rose Garden (No 17) I had much sympathy with the drooping peonies, and loved them mixed with the deep coloured roses, that’s another design feature to remember for my own garden!

I also loved the textures in the photo below, which is in the Geoff Hamilton Winter Border (No 10) and a reminder that we need to plant our gardens for the whole year, not just spring, or summer when the flowers are the brightest.

I’m leaving you with this single astrantia, while the petals may well have fallen off there’s still so much detail. I have one of these plants, currently in a pot, and I’m hoping that when it gets into the ground it will do its best to self seed wherever it can - a girl can hope, right?

* With thanks to Barnsdale Gardens for inviting me to the gardens, and to Nick Hamilton for leading a tour through a selection of the gardens available. It’s a great space and I’m pretty sure I’ll be back to visit again.

In the Jardin des Plantes d'Angers

Angers is known as the green city and I was keen to explore some of the city’s green spaces on our visit, and our plan for our first day there was to explore the botanical gardens right in the heart of the city.

It’s website promised ‘a true oasis of greenery’ and it didn’t disappoint. Though when we entered we were quite bemused with how the tree had been secured, though it seemed to be doing the job - as that’s not a tree that you want to come down is it?

The garden dates back to 1905 and there was more to it than first met our eyes.

We meandered around the paths admiring the trees, and the planting and found ourselves crisscrossing the paths around the lake.

Each of them brought different vistas, that were the same but yet different. Moving away from the lake we stumbled across this arch to seemingly nowhere.

Soon after we found ourselves in a part of the garden which felt less like the English garden that we’d left, with its grasses, rock stacks and more tropical planting.

We welcomed the coolness of the shade, and admired the textures of the varied leaves.

Continuing to let our feet lead us amongst the paths until we were at another arch, this time of a jasmine in full flower - and full scent.

Before finding ourselves back amongst the cool shaded section again - we might have purposefully lingered here for a while.

Deciding to find a place for refreshments, a coffee at least, we ambled back along the pathways to where we’d come in.

But not without stopping to admire the acanthus - and adding it to my plant wish list.

And before long we had the grandiose gates in sight, where once again we paused before heading back into the city’s hubbub.