Friday 21 June 2013

Garden visits


Such a busy time in the gardening calendar, even so I've been neglecting my garden, gallivanting - visiting inspirational gardens in Cheshire in the company of the Friends of the Botanic Gardens.


Norton priory walled garden



Who could resist venturing in to this Georgian walled garden at Norton Priory via this amazing garden gate?





I saw some wonderful planting and garden layouts  which have made me reconsider parts of Pablo's garden. These may be jobs for the autumn as the borders  currently are filling up with wonderful colour, so much so that the plants that I just had to buy on my travels will be really hard to insinuate into the borders currently.



How to create a vista - at Levens Hall


 
However, it's a task which I will relish once I finally finish planting tubs and hanging baskets - I wasn't exaggerating when I said I'd abandoned my garden temporarily for unfamiliar gardens, but how glad I am that I did.


It is so refreshing, as well as life-enhancing to wander, in brilliant sunshine, through glorious landscaped gardens that you haven't had to weed and tidy! Despite many of the plants being familiar, seeing them in different planting schemes and hence contexts allows you to really see and appreciate them.

 

The glory of the every-day, oriental poppy

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I'll leave you with inspirational words from Fletcher Moss's Parsonage Garden near Didsbury where, incidentally, the inaugural meeting of the RSPCA took place  as a result of a local lady's objection to the use of bird feathers to decorate womens' hats.

Birds of a feather...



A garden for all