Monday 10 May 2021

Exploring :: Bourton House Gardens

Hi there everyone 😀

We had hoped to visit Bourton House Garden last year when we visited Sezincote, which is literally just up the road. We’d seen the garden on Gardeners' World and thought it definitely looked worth a visit.

Sadly it was closed at the time ... due to a Covid outbreak, so we added it to the list for later.

Having recently been allowed to travel a little further afield, and on the back of a bit of a glorious Easter weekend we got all enthusiastic and planned a day out with mum for our first garden visit of the year.

Well, the weather had took a bit of a turn for the worst and it was a little bit bleak and sooooo cold, but it was good to get 'out out'.

We managed to use our 2020-21 Gardeners' World 2 for 1 ticket for the first time ... on the very last day that it was valid for and we were looking forward to having a good look round.

I have to say I don't think for one minute that we saw the garden at its best. There wasn't really that much going on at all. There was some pretty good topiary to start us off ...

It was soon clear that we were right to feel the chill ...

In its current state the garden did feel quite formal ... with not an awful lot to soften the edges ...

... though it clearly wouldn't be long before the tulips were doing their thing ...

There was a one way system in place to help with social distancing ... but we didn't need to worry too much about that ... I think we were the only people there ...
There were most definitely a few glimmers of the promise of spring ...
... and the abundance that was promised for the summer ...
We huddled for a while on the terrace at the back of the garden ...

... taking in the view looking back at the house ...

I'm not sure whether some of the garden's topiary has been hit by the dreaded box blight, but remedial work was most definitely under way, with some very severe pruning having taken place ...

There were a few very interesting, and colourful bits and pieces going on in the Shade House ...
... but the real star of the show had to be the Fritallaria Imperialis Aurora ... which were just absolutely stunning, bringing real pops of zesty orange and yellow ...
It wasn't just us that needed protecting from the bitter chill ...
The topiary round the front of the house was in good shape ...

There were just a couple more bits of colour to finish off our visit ...

All told we probably spent about an hour in the garden, though I can see that it would be easy to spend far longer during the summer months. In fact, Adam Frost, from Gardeners' World, described the garden as being ... "probably one of the best summer gardens I've seen".

Definitely need a revisit in the summer ... but even with the cold, it was lovely to get out and about for a while.

I'd packed us up a picnic lunch, with soup, and after a quick wander round the Batsford Garden Centre, we sat on a picnic bench and enjoyed our lunch ... the soup was just the ticket 😀

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3 comments:

  1. Looks like a lovely garden & hope you can visit again in high summer & take lots of photos for a blogpost. Hope it's warming up now for you. Take care & hugs.

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    1. Thank you ... it is warming up a bit ... finally ... we now need it to stop raining for a bit ... I’m itching to get planting outside ... I need to get my seedlings out of the kitchen 😃

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  2. Nice to go somewhere new. Those aurora flowers certainly look interesting. And I like the topiary. X

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