Month: January 2022

Back in the summer we traveled down the A49 trunk road through Ludlow and almost reaching Leominster we find one of our favourite gardens of all time, Stockton bury in our neighbouring county of Herefordshire. I hope this reminder of a summer’s day in a beautiful garden will drive away any cold and dreary winter weather.

We visit this garden a few times every year and enjoy every one of our explorations around it. There are so many interesting plants grown around an old cider mill, the garden itself being divided up into distinct areas. Join us as we look back at our August visit in warmer times!

Walking from the carpark to the cafe in the tithe barn we enjoy views of one of the most beautiful old cider orchards, thousands of trees in long rows all equally spaced out.

The buildings around the garden entrance soon give away its heritage.

These beautiful old red-brick farm buildings provide a wonderful foil for interesting plants.

Longer views of borders rather than plant portraits show the atmosphere of the garden.

Thoughtfully pruned shrubs always have such character, displaying its character and soul.

The large pond and bog garden near the grotto are a delight all year and we always enjoy walking all around their banks, alongside the marginal plants.

I shall finish off this post with three of my favourite photographs from this visit to Stockton Bury.

The garden is now closed until the spring of 2022 when I feel sure we will be back.

I have already published a post considering our visit to an NGS garden in our neighbouring county of Herefordshire.

I want to return now to just look at the garden sculpture we enjoyed discovering there, which ranged from simple sculpture which can be found at garden centres right up to beautiful exclusive bronze pieces.

These two modern bronze and stone pieces worked well together round a short set of stone steps.

After looking at this selection of all sorts of sculptures featured so far, I will now move onto the collection of beautiful bronze sculptures. Each is elegant and so full of character.

I want to finish with a set of smaller bronzes that we found around a set of stepping stones crossing a shallow stream.

We really enjoyed the way these sculptures add such richness to this garden that was wonderful in its own right.

It is always exciting to find gardens to visit which we do not know anything about, especially if they are National Garden Scheme gardens which allow us to support such worthwhile charities at the same time as having a satisfying day out. The gardens on the Lower Hope Estate were described as 5 acres which included rose gardens, herbaceous borders, and Italian, Mediterranean and Japanese influenced areas.

We parked the car up in the field abutting Lower Hope Gardens and we were both delighted to spot some interesting perennials for sale, gown at a local nursery. Temptation got the better of us and we bought a dozen or so healthy looking plants before we took a step into the garden itself.

We entered the gardens through a wooden gate and followed a path through a small woodland area, and it soon became clear that this garden had a lot to offer. There were clues as to what we might expect to find.

The Italian influenced garden had a gentle feel to it with stone pillars, several seats and water features.

We left the Italian Garden behind and soon found some impressive mixed borders. The selection of dahlias was most impressive!

After admiring the borders with their impressive selection of dahlias, we wandered off around a small lake to find the Japanese area.

We finished off our tour of the garden by making our way to the lake with its native planting around its edges. We found plenty to catch our eyes along the way.

I thought it would be fun to finish off with this photo of Jude sat on an oversized garden chair. She found it extremely difficult to get back out of it! We love gardens that show a touch of humour!