A HISTORY OF THE GARDEN

There was originally a large sixteen bedroom house at the southern end of the garden which was burnt down in the late 1950’s. This has been developed into a garden pond. Stoberry must have had lovely gardens in Victorian times. But sadly when we arrived all that was left here was piles of rubble from the flattened house, and one lone palm tree, which is suffering from high winds now that all the Dutch Elms that used to protect it have died.

The rubble has now been cleared in this part of the garden, and while we were doing this we came across a 60 foot deep old Edwardian well, and an underground Victorian water tank. We have completed the rill and the wild flower maze, and the hard landscaping of the area around the pond is now bursting into life.

As you walk up the drive you enter a one and a half acre walled garden. The interesting layout of plants and shrubs now benefits from the maturing trees. This is described as the sunken garden.

On the right of the driveway as you enter the walled garden used to be a very rough area with thistles and nettles that had been kept as field and fenced to contain sheep. The design that we developed as you see is still young. I was told by a professional gardener that you can only start to visualise a garden when it is over five years old. The fruit trees against the wall are now maturing.

When starting out to think of the design for the garden, the advice given to me by friends was to break the walled garden up into several ‘rooms’, which I know would have worked successfully, but I feel we are so lucky to have the space and because of my African background I wanted to enjoy this feature. So the design has evolved from that. Gardening is great fun. The exciting reality about gardening is that everyone’s opinions of the way a garden should look, differ. I have always felt it is a bit like cooking….some people like spicy food, others bland, and who is to say which one is right!

I am trying to garden in a balance with nature, which requires a lot of patience, and this year I have lost a lot of young plants to slugs and snails even though I have tried Nematodes to control them. For me a successful garden is one that has interest throughout the year. That is my aim in this garden; that the freshness of spring daffodils leads through to tulips and irises, followed by the summer roses and so this progresses through the year.

Outstanding views over the valley of Avon overlooking Wells Cathedral: St Cuthbert's majestic tower, and St Thomas's spire, with Glastonbury Tor as a background: you will understand when one says how lucky I am to garden in such outstanding surroundings; everywhere one turns a different vista appears.

I wanted to share this experience with others and also raise money for charities. Macmillan Cancer Relief (Somerset), and the Children's Hospice South West.

I also let artists display their work within the garden, and in return allow you the Public to appreciate these works in a home environment that you can visualise in your own garden. This supports many of our wonderful local artists.

The garden season starts with daffodils giving way to iris's, clematis, roses, grasses, etc. This is a garden that everyone can aspire to. The garden design is not based around the usual rooms, but around vistas, with sculpture being used as accents. A garden with your every day plants and also some special little gems. This garden is not a garden run on a huge budget that so few can afford, but one planned for as easy maintenance as possible being in tune with nature (which at times is very frustrating)

The house and gardens are situated at the top of Stoberry Park, overlooking the historic City of Wells.

Landscape ponds, water features, sculpture and art for garden gourmets who enjoy magnificent views, close with easy access to a lovely arboretum, and where accommodation is offered in one self contained studio cottage.

 

www.stoberry-Park.co.uk