Date/Time
Date(s) - 18/06/2015
2:30 pm
Location
South Wood Farm
Categories
Dr Clive Potter’s 15 acres, 5 of which are garden, surround a listed 17th century farmhouse, set deep in the Blackdown Hills – a peaceful setting to die for! We were fortunate to have a guided tour by Will Smithson, the head gardener, whose passion for South Wood was evident. He told us that the acclaimed garden designer Arne Maynard, responsible for the changes to South Wood, strives to achieve a ‘sense of place’ with a particular harmony between the garden and house and, importantly, to have a productive kitchen garden. The first two years after purchasing South Wood were devoted to restoring the barns and courtyard and making a new driveway with sympathetic rusted fencing. Even the traditional Devon cobbled yard, although newly created, looked as if it was from a bygone era. The designer’s colour theme of purple hues was evident in the first part of our visit, the walled courtyard garden with its central feature of a diamond shaped herb carpet with a clipped bay in the middle. The climbing rose Cécile Brünner was out to perfection amongst the herbaceous plants and yew topiary. Will pointed out the lupin “Masterpiece” and the white foxglove “Pam’s choice”. We made our way through the serpentine path of 3ft grasses and oxeye daisies to a kitchen garden of sheer wonderment! Each raised bed was edged with wood, interspersed with finials, carrying on this theme with the most unusual pagoda-style artisan fruit cages. No cobbled together fruit cages like some of us have in Kilmington! At the back of the kitchen garden was a sunken greenhouse in the making which should be finished by the time of South Wood Farm wood’s first opening for the NGS on 19th and 20th September.
We trundled on through the formal plum orchard, nuttery and reflecting pond, the latter at present under repair, past a sunken stream bed back to the walled garden. Here we all sat on a huge, corner wooden settle enjoying the gentile experience of tea in china cups and saucers, befitting the atmosphere of South Wood. With gorgeous weather too, it was a perfect way to spend an afternoon out, enhanced by Will’s interesting guided tour of a very special place.