Categories
garden design garden furniture garden photography garden seating gardening gardens open to the public National Trust Powis Powys The National Trust

Are You Sitting Comfortably – 15

Another of the lost garden seat posts – no 15!

This is my 15th post in this occasional series dedicated to the humble garden seat, a garden feature I am fascinated by, by the huge variety of designs, by the large number there are around and by how varied they are in comfort level!

This first selection are all at Powys Castle close to Welshpool. What a variety!

               

I am ready now to search for another fascinating collection of seats to try out in the gardens we plan to visit. See you with Collection 16!

 

Categories
garden furniture garden photography garden seating

Are you sitting comfortably? No 14 of a very occasional series.

Here we are back with another of my lost episodes of this series, no 14

Here we are back with another selection of garden seats we have found while visiting gardens. I hope you enjoy them.

I will begin with seating we spotted at this year’s RHS Tatton Park Flower Show, in displays and in show gardens. Few  show gardens at RHS shows are without at least one bench for two, so there is a wide variety of styles to suit the variety of garden styles. In the show gardens the seats are designed to be looked at by judges and visitors so do not need to be either comfortable or practical.

      

Let’s move on now to seats we discovered in open gardens either through the National Garden Scheme or open all year. These should be comfortable to use and perhaps worn out from too much use or too much exposure to the elements.

This first batch of photos were taken at a local garden, Wollerton Old Hall, a truly remarkable garden because of its strong design but also because of the plants there.

 

This final group are all seats we found at a garden surrounding Harvington Hall where we visited for traditional English afternoon tea.

We hope you enjoyed this selection and we will soon be back with more examples for you to look at.

 

Categories
architecture garden design garden furniture garden photography garden seating gardening gardens gardens open to the public

Are you sitting comfortably? – Part 7 in this very occasional series

When checking through my past posts in this series I actually found 4 that I had prepared but never posted, so here is the first rather late as it is No 7! Enjoy anyway!

We will began my seventh selection of seats found in gardens I visit with Jude the Undergardener aka Mrs Greenbench, with a selection we discovered while exploring the wonderful Lake District. We will begin in the garden at Hill Top, where the seating was all very rustic.

2015 06 05_2467 2015 06 05_2481

The selection at Ruskin’s Garden, Brantwood was even more rustic and fitted well in their environment.

2015 06 05_2492 2015 06 05_2506 2015 06 05_2509 2015 06 05_2517

The seat we loved most of all at Brantwood was a big throne of slate slabs which was Ruskin’s Seat where he sat and thought and did much of his writing.

2015 06 05_2532 2015 06 05_2531

In complete contrast the seats at Holker Hall were very varied both in design and materials they were constructed from.

2015 06 05_2677 2015 06 05_2661 2015 06 05_26582015 06 05_2676 2015 06 05_2660   2015 06 05_2646 2015 06 05_2643 2015 06 05_2632 2015 06 05_26302015 06 05_2668 2015 06 05_2650

So that is it for my 7th post in this very occasional series of posts on garden seating. i hope you found them comfortable and enjoyed the views from them. I will be compiling number 8 as soon as this is published so we have lots more seats to sit upon.

 

Categories
garden design garden furniture garden photography garden pools garden seat garden seating gardens open to the public nurseries

Are You Sitting Comfortably? – No 18 in an occasional series

Here we are with the 18th post in this series all about garden seats which we discover and like on our many garden visits. I will cover gardens we visited in the spring, beginning with Whitlenge Gardens and Nursery, a garden designed to spotlight the owners garden planning business. I hope you enjoy looking at the selection.

We visited our friend Julie’s garden with our Hardy Plant Society mini-group and found a few chairs there too, including a set of four pieces made by her son, beautiful simple pieces sitting in a shaded woodland area.

 

Categories
garden design garden furniture garden photography garden seat garden seating

Gardening in lockdown – Sitting Comfortably at Avocet

I have occasionally shared posts for years now called “Are you sitting comfortably?” where I feature garden seats we find on our exploration of other people’s gardens. As we are in “lock down” now we are not visiting any gardens other than our own here at Avocet, so I thought it would be fun to feature all the garden seating in our Avocet garden.

We hope you enjoy sharing them with us! I have taken a photo of each seat and then one or two of the view from each seat. This lock down period means that we have no visitors to sit in our seats – how strange!

Let us start in the front garden where we have a pair of purple chairs and a seat under an arch.

Here are the views from the arched seat…….

…..and from our purple chairs.

Moving into the back garden the seats become harder to find as they are situated in each area sometimes well hidden away from paths. The first seats, a pair of wooden folding chairs are alongside the Conservatory Garden give us views over the Conservatory Border.

 

Nearby is a set of metal table and four chairs sitting alongside the rill in the Rill Garden. The view from here looks out across the Rill Garden towards the Winter Garden.

 

If we then follow the central pathway and take the first grass path on the left we find ourselves in the Hot Garden where we have two hand crafted wood and metal seats made for us by sculptor Nik Burns. We like his work as he uses wood selected fro woodland local to us. They are so beautiful being made for us using local elm and burr oak, so special!

These seats afford us views around the Hot Garden.

Next to the Hot Garden is a path that we can cross over to enter the Japanese Garden where we find just one seat a cold concrete bench, from where we can get a good look around this part of our garden.

 

If we then wander past the Wildlife Pond and the Bog Garden we can visit Arabella’s Garden where we have an old Victorian Railway Platform seat made from cast iron and wood. From this seat we can see the plantings in Arabella’s Garden and also look out across the farmland beyond our garden.

 

Brightly coloured table and chairs sets are found in the final two garden rooms, The Secret Garden and The chicken Garden. The orange set is in The Chicken Garden and the pale blue set in The Secret Garden.

The photos below show on the left the view from the orange seats and on the right the view from the pale blue seats.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Categories
garden furniture garden photography garden seat garden seating gardens open to the public National Trust ornamental trees and shrubs The National Trust Uncategorized Wales

Are you sitting comfortably – no 14 in a very occasional series

Back with another set of garden seats for you to enjoy. Imagine yourself taking a seat for a rest, to take in the view and appreciate the comfort of the seats themselves.

Firstly let me share a few seats from the gardens at Ivy Croft in Herefordshire, a garden open for its huge snowdrop collection and interesting winter plants.

We recently visited John’s Garden attached to Ashwood Nursery in the West Midlands, and being in February seats became very obvious features. They varied so much in style!

Next I want to share with you seats from the gardens at Erddig, a Welsh National Trust property.

So that is it for this collection of garden seats. More to follow in the future!

 

 

Categories
flowering bulbs garden design garden furniture garden paths garden photography garden pools garden seat garden seating gardening gardens gardens open to the public hardy perennials Land Art light light quality ornamental grasses ornamental trees and shrubs outdoor sculpture pathways shrubs spring spring gardening village gardens Yellow Book Gardens

Moors Meadow – a romantic garden full of magic

We had not visited the magical garden at Moors Meadow for several years so we were really looking forward to exploring it with my brother Graham and sister-in-law Vicky.

The garden here was pronounced Britain’s most romantic garden by a national gardening monthly. We were so looking forward to finding out if it lived up to this and if it still felt as magical as we remembered.

It didn’t take long for us to discover that it was indeed a garden full of surprises, artifacts, unusual plants, amazing seats and wandering pathways through changing moods of garden.

   

I shall now share a gallery of photos showing our walk around the gardens.

So there is my gallery of photos of our journey around the magical and romantic gardens at Moors Meadow. I hope you enjoyed sharing our journey and our enjoyment.

Categories
garden furniture garden photography garden seat garden seating gardens gardens open to the public

Are you sitting comfortably? Part 16 in a very occasional series.

It seems a while since I shared a post with you in this very occasional series about garden seating, so Ithought I would check back over this autumn and summer garden visits to see what we discovered on our various garden visits. I hope you enjoy this widely varied selection from very varied locations.

The first pair of seats is from a visit to a woodland garden in Powys with the wonderfully strange name of Gregynog.

The first seat is created from the remains of an old massive fallen tree, whereas the second is a quite common garden bench but with an exceptional view out over a lake.

 

We then move to Herefordshire to the amazing Picton Gardens, home of Asters, where seats are welcome as there is so much to see and appreciate you need time to sit and take it all in.

In our home county of Shropshire a young couple have created a garden and nursery in an old walled garden attached to Milllichope Hall. This is a garden with so many unusual herbaceous plants as well as more well known ones all mingling with ornamental grasses. It is an exciting new garden which looks set to get better and better. Just look at this matching pair of simple wooden benches.

On a much larger scale are the gardens at Ness Botanical Gardens up in the Wirral near Liverpool, a great wandering garden that needs a full day to appreciate all it has to offer.

Way down in Somerset is a Piet Oudolf garden designed to soften the area around farm buildings now converted into gallery spaces. These simple metal chairs in the enclosed courtyard fit so well.

Still in the South West of England we next visit the RHS garden at Rosemore, a garden with many different areas of changing character.

 

I shall finish off this selection with a visit to The Japanese Garden down in Cornwall.

It feels to good to finish this seat selection with some unusual seats set in an unusual garden. Next time we visit this occasional post it will be number 17.

Categories
garden design garden furniture garden seat garden seating

Are you sitting comfortably? No 14 in an occasional series.

Back for the 14th time for another selection of garden seating for you to enjoy, to look at and imagine the comfort or lack of it! The first photo is of a new pair of seats from our own garden situated in a new border called “Arabella’s Garden”.

The following set of four photos were shot in the beautiful village garden of our friend Von, although we doubt she has much time to use her seats. Von gardens in the countryside to the East of Shrewsbury where she has amazing countryside views.

Another village garden but this time a much larger affair is Cruckfield House south of Shrewsbury, and this garden to has a selection of seats to enjoy.

So there we have it a selection of garden seats from two very different sized village gardens. We shall be back before too long with another set of garden seats, the 15th set, for you to enjoy.

Categories
garden arches garden design garden furniture garden garden arches garden paths garden photography garden ponds garden pools garden seat garden seating gardening gardens National Garden Scheme NGS ornamental trees and shrubs outdoor sculpture pathways sculpture trees village gardens water in the garden Yellow Book Gardens

Ruthall Manor – well worth the wait.

We go for years intending to visit a garden but sometimes circumstances dictate otherwise. This is what happened with Ruthall Manor, a Shropshire Yellow Book Garden. After years we finally visited earlier this year in June. The wait was so worth while!

First impressions count for a lot when you visit a garden, and a good garden can quickly reveal its qualities and general level of care. Atmosphere, special places and surprises will reveal themselves later and more slowly. A good garden will keep on giving.

Ruthall Manor soon made us feel warmly welcomed and involved in the plantings and design. It had the added bonus of some original interesting sculptural pieces beautifully positioned within plantings or out on their own as centres of attention.

 

Pathways, arches and gateways encouraged us to explore further, around the next corner, through a hedge or border or into the next garden area.

    

I thought that the best way to share as many pieces of sculpture and artifacts as possible I would create this gallery for you to enjoy.  The variety of pieces was so large that we just did not now what to expect around the next corner.

In the end of course good plants well chosen, cared for and partnered thoughtfully are what gives a garden its true quality.

So Ruthall Manor was certainly worth waiting so long to go and visit. What an enjoyable afternoon!