After the horribly wet winter, doesn’t it feel like we’ve been living enchanted lives these last few weeks? And when spring is springing this good – visiting favourite gardens is my happy place. The sun has been shining non-stop and everything is dancing into life all around us, a light shower or two would be good for the garden but I am definitely not complaining.
My favourite garden to visit is Great Dixter in East Sussex. It is only twenty-five minutes from our home and the perfect place to seek outdoor inspiration and moments of calm (with moments of pure childlike excitement) in magnificently planted but natural surroundings.
This post is a bit of a photo fest as I was snapping away the entire journey around the garden, I hope you’ll enjoy wandering with me.
We spent a beautiful afternoon here last week and wandered the maze of different garden spaces, got down on our hands and knees to be submerged in the abundance of spring foliage and eyed the greenhouses and cold frames with only the faintest whiff of envy.
I always find when I discover a new variety of plant that I then see it popping up all over the place, do you? After learning about Camassia in last months issue of Country Living Magazine, I have seen their delicate blue blooms waving at me from all over town, they are especially attractive under the trees in the orchard at Great Dixter. Now, of course, we must have some of these beauties for under the apple tree.
We joined up to become friends of Great Dixter on this visit, as I want to make the effort to visit as many times as we can this year, taking in the gardens hopefully at least once a month or every six weeks to see the shift and changes as the planting evolves and each flower and vegetable has its season. The operation of lifting a gazillion tulips looked like the most epic task!
The vegetable garden is a thing of absolute beauty, the ancient hedging hides secret chambers of planting beauty and the prairie and orchards will take your breath away.
Everywhere you look or turn there are tiny worlds from all the plants that peep out from cracks in the steps and walls to whole micro gardens growing on a tree trunk.
Ancient fencing holding everything together, bright peonies, forget-me-nots and alliums.
A perfect time to see the wisteria in full bloom, draped around the house walls and trickling into the garden below.
We also dared to walk around the nursery and shop but rationed ourselves to two plants each – and no more!
All the steps have their own special terrain, tiny delicate gardens in themselves with flowers and foliage of all shapes and colours.
I think the perfect end to any garden wander is peeking into someones greenhouse. Humid and earthy, filled with new life and green magic of all kinds.
