Scottish Rock Garden Club Forum
General Subjects => Travel / Places to Visit => Topic started by: Brian Ellis on June 15, 2009, 10:02:54 AM
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Well I must stop all this gallivanting about and do some gardening! But before that, yesterday we visited friends in Shotley and had a short trip to Beth Chatto's inspiring garden at Elmstead Market. Essex is one of the driest parts of the East of England and the sun shone on us yesterday. When we first visited this garden many years ago the following two sets of pictures would have been full of Fords, Vauxhalls, VWs etc as it was the car park. Then began the experiment, amazingly you can park your car, wander round this bit and go into the nursery and tea rooms without charge! Our friends want to make a gravel garden, but somehow I don't think it will quite turn out like this! One thing to note Paddy, is that I was quite wrong in the Glen Chantry thread as the fifth picture is of Ornithogalum pyrenaicum, my apologies.
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Of course when I say you can go into the nursery without charge that doesn't mean that you get out again without having spent money ;D ;D
More after I have done some work!!
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Great start Brian !
Looks like you're going to show us another one of British gardening marvels !! Look forward to that !! :D
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Brian, thanks for the lovely shots of Beth Chatto's gravel gardens - I am a great admirer of hers and her books are inspirational. One day I will visit there I hope :)
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More after I have done some work!!
Not TOO much w---, w---, w---, (No, I can't spit it out), Brian ... Robin, Luc and I (among many others) are eager to see more please?
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More after I have done some work!!
Not TOO much w---, w---, w---, (No, I can't spit it out), Brian ... Robin, Luc and I (among many others) are eager to see more please?
I second that Cliff !! ;D ;D
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Well restrained of you, Cliff: ...... I will take this opportunity to remind the english-speaking forumists that we frown on the gratuitous use of four letter words that might cause offence. :-X ;)
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Cracking start Brian, it looks something special.
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Right, back to business. For those who have never visited this wonderful garden the layout is along a valley where a stream was dammed to make a series of ponds through the middle of the garden. The entrance is from the gravel garden which you have already seen. The land surrounding the gardens is agricultural so you do see glimpses of fields through the mature trees. You enter at the 'right hand' end with the house to your left and the stream and ponds running down to the left. I was amused to see the barleystraw which was in the ponds to reduce algae growth producing growth of its own.
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I think the first picture is of roots, but then I thought perhaps it was weather worn rotten trunk, whatever it looked good. We walked round the top pond and looked back to the house, here is some of the planting in this area.
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On the opposite side of the ponds to the house is a largely woodland area with island beds.
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Of course Beth began to garden seriously because she was a flower arranger and was looking for unusual plant material. Her artistic eye is obvious everywhere and her flower combinations are a joy. Generally we walked across the pond, down the far side, back up past the island beds and across and round each pond.
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This brought us back up to the house and here are a few things that caught my eye.
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Brian
more wonderful pictures of a lovely garden.We too visited when the gravel garden was a car park. It has developed amazingly but I still prefer the area around the lakes which seems so calm.We always buy loads of plants which are totally unsuitable for the north west and which die gracefully the first winter after planting.
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There is a small private area near the house but you are able to go up to the side of the house. The first picture is up the private steps, the rest as we went up to the house where there was a collection of succulents (one in particular I liked the look of) and raised beds in the area between the garden and the nursery. It looked as though Beth was having a glasshouse either renovated or constructed in this area.
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Tony I know the feeling, I often think I should put all the labels from the dead plants in the garage on the wall as a warning to me. Thankfully I have not yet done so ;D Like you I like the area round the ponds for the tranquility, I would love to be able to spend real time there reading, gardening, mooching around - just heaven. The last ones take us past the garden 'proper' as I call it into an area with more huge island beds which lead to the woodland garden (which we did not enter this time). Odd things caught my eye like the dictamnus peeping out of the shrubs. If you come to Eastern England, this garden is a must
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I think the first picture is of roots, but then I thought perhaps it was weather worn rotten trunk, whatever it looked good. We walked round the top pond and looked back to the house, here is some of the planting in this area.
Brian, What a garden - especially the 'dry part'!
Your roots near the pond are socalled 'cypress knees' of Taxodium distichum, the swamp cypress. Their function is unknown but perhaps they may help in providing oxygen to the tree (Wikipedia). The German expression is 'Atemknie' which means knees for breathing.
Gerd
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This famous garden has often been featured in TV programmes but I can honestly say I have never had a proper "flavour" of the place from those but you, Brian, have brought a true feeling of the garden to us, for which I am most grateful.
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This famous garden has often been featured in TV programmes but I can honestly say I have never had a proper "flavour" of the place from those but you, Brian, have brought a true feeling of the garden to us, for which I am most grateful.
I absolutely agree with Maggi on that score Brian - through your photos you convey what you were thinking when you took them so they are living images of a really beautifully designed garden. Beth Chatto wrote a book when she started the garden called 'The Green Tapestry' and you can see exactly how she has woven these ideas into her planting schemes - everything looks so effortless and sweeps from one place to another instilling a sense of calm - no sign of pests here...how does she grow hostas to that size without a hole or two ;)
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Brian-- Thanks from me too.
Like many I suspect,I have purchased plants from the gardens by mail order ,but have never visited.
Must now put this on my visits list.
Eric
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Many thanks Gerd for putting me right, I think they look amazing. Thank you all for your comments, but all I did was click the camera, the garden and its creator are the stars. It was interesting as I was going round that I really was impressed with the vistas and the combinations, it was all very subtle. Glen Chantry had a totally different effect, I was knocked out by the plants far more. I am glad you have enjoyed the garden, perhaps one day you will see it in the 'flesh'.
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Stunning, Brian. Thanks for the tour. The Taxodium "knobbly knees" (as they were first introduced to me as) are very cool aren't they? They almost look a bit like old polished wood. They are very cool. Thanks for all the wonderful pictures of this garden. You have so many fantastic gardens you can so easily visit. :'( Yes, I am jealous again. :-[
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You are welcome Paul, as to being jealous, that's a funny thing when you grow all those amazing southern hemisphere plants which we have never heard of - it's reciprocal 8)
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Thanks for the hard work Brian ! ;)
A truly wonderful garden - it is now on my list of places to visit !
Thanks to this glorious forum, this list is now reaching a size that is far too long for my spare time hops... :-\ :-\
It was a wonderful stroll Brian !
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Great report and photographs, Brian.
It is, indeed, and excellent garden.
Many thanks, Paddy
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Thank you Brian for your superb photos of a great garden ,which brings back fond memories of my two visits to it and its creator. I was indeed fortunate to have been invited to stay with Beth and Andrew for a few days in april 1991 and I visited again in june 2001 when the carpark had changed into the much talked about and now often copied Gravel Garden .
Beth and Christo Lloyd came to Australia in 1989 for a lecture tour and stayed here .
that tall stem of Lilium martagon with so many blooms - although it grows well enough here and selfsows - but never bears more than 25- 30 or so flowers .
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I am so pleased Otto, you are indeed fortunate - a wonderful plantsperson. Here is a better photo of the Lilium martagon from him upstairs :)
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Such a nice Lilium. Striking.