West Holme
Susy Varndell visits a rather different kind of garden
Published in March ’18
The Hot Borders leading to Surreys
‘Holme for Gardens’ at West Holme is tucked away on a back road, and surrounded by the Purbeck hills. Here there are plants to buy, food to eat in the Orchard Café or to buy in the farm shop, as well as a shop full of garden accessories to entice you. This in itself may tempt you, especially as your coffee and cake can be enjoyed outside in a choice of three patios, all of which are beautifully planted, with either a tranquil pond or a bubbling waterfall to entertain you.
However, once you have enjoyed all the above, you must visit Simon and Liz’s amazing creation – acres of glorious garden. You cannot fail to be mesmerised by their achievement, all created in a surprisingly short time. Each ‘room’ is a unique statement and is a tribute to their horticultural knowledge and experience.
Agapanthus ‘Torbay’ has mid sky blue flower heads
You don’t have to be a gardener to enjoy the ambience, the scents and the glorious colours of the gardens. Even if you are a proficient gardener, a walk around is sure to reveal some plants that you are not familiar with as well as planting combinations which will inspire you.
Simon says that the basic layout is strongly influenced by gardens such as Hidcote Manor and the Laskett. The garden is made up of distinct ‘rooms’ separated by hedges and areas of taller planting, linked by walks, which lead seamlessly from one area to another. Your eye will constantly be led to interesting focal points along these walks, and the urge to discover what is at the end and around the next corner is beguiling, and then surprising. Although the garden is still in its infancy, much of it looks as though it has been there for years, which of course is not possible, as it has all been created from farmland and PYO strawberry fields in the last few years.
The Canal Garden – the middle flower bed will eventually become a body of water
The main features of the garden comprise a hot border with over twenty varieties of both crocosmia and red-hot pokers, best seen between June and September. The long pink and purple borders, best seen between May and September, which contain the feathery foliage of bronze fennel mixed with catmint, spires of Campanula lactiflora, the beautiful single flowered rose ‘Dainty Bess’ as well as the gorgeous rambling R. ‘Laure Davoust’, are pleasantly restrained with this pallid colour palette. These exhibits are followed by colourful displays of perennials and annuals.
The highly ornamental Canna indica is grown for its architectural foliage
By now your senses will be reeling, but you have only just begun. The Cloister Garden, with its purple beech hedges and arched windows with orange roses, contrasting with the hedge, is stunning. The unobtrusive entrance to the Palm Garden does not prepare one for the architectural delights and vibrant colours within. The Pear Tunnel, with thirty varieties of pears trained onto a beautiful wrought-iron framework, is a work in progress, but the vision of what it will be like in the future is clear.
The kitchen and cutting garden is an effervescent horticultural feast. Its twelve formal rectangular beds contrast jubilantly with the wealth of colour and foliage, which tumbles from the strict formation.
A bed of cornfield annuals in the Flower Field
Stonehenge may be a famous ancient monument in Wiltshire, but here you will find an impressive folly replica. A stone circle, using menhir-shaped monoliths of Purbeck stone and known as Holme Henge, has been planted around with thousands of heathers and other plants to form an incredible ornamental heath.
The flower field, with its informal islands of annual flowers scattered around the grass lawns, is awash with bees, butterflies and birds in summer. A wildlife paradise where, no doubt, the birds feast on the seed heads in winter.
Future plans include a sunken walled rose garden, a Japanese garden and a Norman stone viewing tower, but in 2018 Holme’s appreciative horticultural followers will have to be content with a large grass amphitheatre, which is planned to open in June.
Liatris spicata, or button snakewort in flower, just like an exotic bottle brush, and loved by insects
Be sure to visit this horticultural masterpiece this year, so that you can enjoy this garden extravaganza and follow its development before it becomes a garden and arboretum of national repute. And if you are keen on tulips, you need to visit in April when the 12,000 bulbs, planted in various colour blends, will be at their best. The horticultural journey on which Simon and Liz have embarked is a wonder to behold.
www.holmeforgardens.co.uk
