There Goes Summer #12

The last of my summer galleries so here are a few of my favourites this year

(click on an image to enlarge and scroll through the gallery)

Which one is your favourite?

I hope you have enjoyed my summer galleries and will stick around to see what autumn brings 🙂

Quex Walled Garden

In the most easterly part of Kent you will find the Powell-Cotton Museum, ( a fascinating private collection of 19th century natural history mainly from Africa and Asia ), Quex House and Gardens. The house at Quex is named after its owners in the 1500s who were the Quekes family and who prospered in the wool industry of Kent. My reason for visiting is the historic Victorian Walled Garden which is being restored.  It was an unseasonally cold day in July with rain threatening so I was quite pleased to be within the shelter of the lovely red-brick walls surrounding this garden, and to find a couple of glass-houses where I could pop inside.

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The first small wooden-framed glass-house was just inside the doorway to the garden and full of lovely terracotta pots and a variety of pretty pelargoniums.

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Some of the plants and flowers in the garden have a very tropical look about them.

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and colour was everywhere

I headed into the large glasshouse filled with cacti and succulents to get out of a squall.

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and loved the different textures and shapes

Pots full of red geraniums make an attractive collection

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and a final look at the garden

 And if you live in Thanet then maybe you’d like to volunteer in the garden and help bring it back to its former glory. I know I would.

Here comes summer #9

The White Garden – Sissinghurst

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(click on an image to enlarge and scroll through the gallery)

You can read more about Sissinghurst Castle Garden in my Garden Portrait.

Secret Gardens of Ludlow

Once a year in Ludlow gardeners open up their gardens to visitors; there are large gardens and small gardens and most of them are secret because you cannot see them from the street. Because of the medieval way the streets were planned most plots are long and narrow with the front door opening onto the street. Although many houses in the old town have pots of flowers and plants outside their front door some are lucky enough to have further outdoor space hidden behind like this Regency façade below with Wisteria climbing the columns.

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 I have used a few creative effects here as these photos were taken on a rainy day and the raindrops weren’t always beneficial 🙂 Continue reading

Pashley Manor Gardens

Pashley Manor Gardens is on the border of East Sussex and Kent. Famous for its Tulip Festival in spring regrettably I have never visited before despite my love of tulips. It is a garden worth visiting at any time during the open season from 1st April to 30th September as there are several different areas. Between the end of April and mid-May the woods are open for the Bluebell Walk when the woodland is carpeted in a magical mantle of blue. July and August is Lily time and each year Pashley exhibits the work of many eminent sculptors, including work by local sculptors, some of which is for sale.

There is also a lovely courtyard tea-room and summer terrace where you can sit under a parasol, eat quiche and salad, sip iced-coffee and admire the wonderful views over the lawns and old moat. And try to ignore the dozens of ducks underfoot.

The first area you enter are the herbaceous and  hot borders, full of roses, lilies, dahlias, clematis, monarda, helenium, fuchsias and penstemon.

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From here you can wander through to the woodland or enter the Walled Garden where you will find roses and a potager.

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Up some steps – stop to admire the sculptures – and into the walled swimming pool area which looks very inviting now that the sun has appeared. At the far end is a small greenhouse filled with pelargoniums, pretty Streptocarpus and ferns.

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Boy sitting

Boy sitting

Amongst the borders edging the lawns and summer terrace are dozens of perfumed lilies

Summer Terrace

Summer Terrace

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and my favourite sculpture:

wood-nymph

Wood Nymph

Here Comes Summer #7

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When I am an old woman I shall wear purple
With a red hat which doesn’t go, and doesn’t suit me.
And I shall spend my pension on brandy and summer gloves
And satin sandals, and say we’ve no money for butter.
I shall sit down on the pavement when I’m tired
And gobble up samples in shops and press alarm bells
And run my stick along the public railings
And make up for the sobriety of my youth.
I shall go out in my slippers in the rain
And pick flowers in other people’s gardens
And learn to spit.

Jenny Joseph (partial)

Ailsa of Where’s My Backpack is having a purple moment. Join in if you can.

Garden Portrait: Logan Botanic Garden

Logan Botanic Garden is situated at the south-western tip of Scotland in an almost island-like setting, where the warming influence of the Gulf Stream allows thousands of different species from the warm temperate regions of the world to flourish. There are two contrasting areas in the garden: The Walled Garden and The Woodland Garden. As you walk into the gardens from the Visitor Reception area, you have little idea of what awaits you. On the left pathways lead to the woodland, which is no ordinary woodland as it contains Chilean specimens, Australasian collections and a Tasmanian Creek and viewing platform. Not really what you’d expect this far north of the UK.  Walking through the entrance into the Walled Garden lies a complete surprise. Sheltered by 15 foot high walls are rolling lawns, groves of tree ferns and palms, water features and exotic plants. DSCF9015

DSCF9060 It’s all very strange and not remotely Scottish – even the sun is burning down making me feel as though I have suddenly been transported to the southern hemisphere.

There is even a Chusan Palm Avenue

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A formal pond with sculptures and irises

Cordyline Avenue

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Exotic Plants

Towards the Verandah

Asphodelus-ramosus and a bee on stilts!

Asphodelus-ramosus and a bee on stilts!

A Bug Hotel in the Castle Woodland

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And when you have exhausted the Walled Garden, turn your attention to the Woodland Garden where we met an Aussie from Sydney who was astonished to have come all this way only to find eucalyptus and palms and callistemons from New Zealand and Australia. DSCF9240

And before leaving (almost the last people there as usual, but that’s a good thing because then you get to photograph the gardens without people getting in the way) we headed to the Potting Shed Bistro (how could I possibly resist with a name like that? ) for a slice of key lime pie and vanilla ice-cream. We took it out onto the terrace and admired the lovely rock garden with its succulents and slate sculptures for one last time. DSCF9022

I hope you have been as bedazzled by this garden as I was.

More lovely walks can be found over at my friend Jo’s place.