How Hill Norfolk

[Brian Ellis]

I have been prompted to share a few photos of the 'Secret Garden' at How Hill on the broads.  So called because it is well away from the house and the approach is through How Hill Woods (where the bluebells were looking fantastic).  Built by Edward Boardman as a holiday Cottage (!) the gardens were developed by the family in the Edwardian times, Peter Boardman, his grandson, lives next door and also has a super garden (his sister is Cecilia Coller so no surprise there).  First a picture of the house from the surrounding gardens below, the house is built on a Hill (there's a surprise) and is now a study centre, bought by Norfolk Education Committee, then Norwich Union and now it's How Hill Trust.
Then a view from the house over the surrounding gardens and a view from the gardens over to the windmill.

http://howhilltrust.org.uk/

[Brian Ellis]

Now the 'Secret Garden'

[Brian Ellis]

One for Maggi, and then another seat - this time made from reeds!

[Maggi Young]

Ooh, thank you ,Brian, I enjoyed that.  Either Fred has installed a scent programme on the quiet or I am getting better at conjuring up the scent from a photo. 

[Richard Green]

They are wonderful gardens Brian.  I was taken round several times as a boy in the late 1960s by my aunt.  I was enthralled by the Gunnera leaves which were, of course, several times larger than me at that time.  Come to think of it, that was probably where I gained my love of Gunnera, though mine do not grow anything like the size of those with their feet permanently in a peat bog.

I have recently had to sort through and throw out most of my aunt's sizeable 35mm slide collection, and I spent a wet Sunday recently skimming through many pictures of rhododendrons taken at How Hill.

My main recollection of visiting is of the heavy and overpowering scent of the yellow azaleas.  These brought on my hay-fever so badly during one visit that it turned into asthma and the incessant sneezing gave me a nosebleed.  How did I still manage to become a gardener?

[Brian Ellis]

They are wonderful gardens Brian.  I was taken round several times as a boy in the late 1960s by my aunt.  I was enthralled by the Gunnera leaves which were, of course, several times larger than me at that time.  Come to think of it, that was probably where I gained my love of Gunnera, though mine do not grow anything like the size of those with their feet permanently in a peat bog.

I have recently had to sort through and throw out most of my aunt's sizeable 35mm slide collection, and I spent a wet Sunday recently skimming through many pictures of rhododendrons taken at How Hill.

My main recollection of visiting is of the heavy and overpowering scent of the yellow azaleas.  These brought on my hay-fever so badly during one visit that it turned into asthma and the incessant sneezing gave me a nosebleed.  How did I still manage to become a gardener?

I'm glad to have brought your memories to life, and here are the gunnera - why is it I always have to photograph them I wonder?  Not quite so big as yet!

[Lvandelft]

Nice windmill Brian 

And an interesting nice garden as well!

[David Nicholson]

Many thanks Brian it's been added to my list.

[jomowi]

My lasting childhood memory of How Hill was the profusion of swallowtail butterflies.  Are they still in residence?