A break from gardening

The last few months we seem to have been gardening non stop, working hard on getting our new garden finished and keeping up with the allotment. So I decided that now the weather was improving it was time to have a break from doing the garden and do the next best thing-- do some garden visiting and have a look at other peoples gardens. It's good to look at other gardens whether they are big formal gardens or small private ones part of the NGS. We often get some good ideas for our own garden from them.

Last weekend we visited an NGS garden called Hazlewood which is in the village of Bretherton near Leyland in Lancashire. This is the sort of garden which I like because it was made up of different garden areas so that you can't see all of the garden at a glance. 

The garden was  one and a half acres in size and included a hardy plant nursery. When we arrived we were pointed to the start of the garden which was  a small enclosed area.

Shrubs, trees and a wall gave the feeling of being completely separate from the rest of the garden. There was paving and gravel, a seating area and lots of plants in lovely terracotta pots. 

I do love a gate.

and steps

One plant in the border caught my attention. It looked like a phlomis with a smaller leaf and pink/lilac flowers. I learnt later that it was a phlomis, but wasn't available in the nursery to buy so that's one to look out for. There were interesting features as we came out of the gravel garden.

A folly with a bottle wall.

The Victorian fern house made me want to go out and buy lots of ferns.

Moving on to the rest of the garden we walked along  a wide path which had big rose arches and herbaceous borders. The new wooden arch in our garden was nothing compared to these. 

In the main part of the garden the borders were very cottagey. Beds of blue salvia, campanula, geraniums and nepeta, lovely gentle colours.

Across the lawn we followed a woodland path over a stream past the pond.

At the end of the path we found this massive spider's web made out of wire.

Out of the woodland we admired the pond.

There was a beach garden with a hammock. It looked very inviting but I don't think we were allowed to try it out.

Finally at the end of the garden was the hardy plant nursery where I bought a pink hardy geranium--'Russell Prichard'

I always get ideas from the gardens we visit, things I can do in my own garden, plants I could use, planting schemes, colours. I loved the pastel shades in some of the borders. I loved the many quirky things we spotted around the garden using old rusted gardenalia. One thing I liked was a rustic arrangement of little terracotta pots in a bigger terracotta bowl. It was so simple but looked really good.So now I know what to do with all those little pots I have at the back of my potting table.