East Lambrook Manor

When we made our third garden in our previous home, we really caught the gardening bug! We read so many books and visited many gardens to learn the best way of combining plants, textures and colours.

Among the female garden designers we were inspired by were Rosemary Verey, Penelope Hobhouse, Beth Chatto and Margery Fish. We also visited the locations where they had spent many years gardening. East Lambrook Manor in Somerset was the home of Margery Fish. She wanted to create a garden that had continual seasonal interest throughout the whole year, in a variety of conditions where the maintenance was simple and the garden was dominated by cottage garden plants. Although she died in 1969 the legacy she left both in her garden and her books has lived on. Many cottage garden plants had fallen out of fashion and she managed to save many varieties of plants including geraniums, astrantias, lamiums and vincas, so we are still able to enjoy these plants in our gardens today.

Astrantia Major

The garden is full of little rooms that demonstrate the use of colour,height and ground cover. There are so many small details that it takes time to take it all in. We haven't visited here for many years but with creating a new garden and East Lambrook being closer we will become more frequent visitors.

In the silver garden 

 Plants for damp conditions - there is a stream in the midst of this planting! 

 The white barks of the silver birch are always eye catching.

An amazing mass of blue and purple including cat mint and salvias,

The pink flower is crucianella a perennial creeping herb that looks so good combined with pulmonaria and hellebores.

Many plants were planted in slightly raised beds that allow you to admire the plants at eye level.

Does anyone know the name of the plant in the bottom right-hand corner of the collage above? It's stalks reminded us of rosemary. I have been searching for it on the internet but have failed to find it!

This wonderful garden has a lovely nursery too with many unusual plants, so it would be extremely difficult to come away empty handed wouldn't it?

Are there any gardeners that have inspired you, in your garden too? Although I mentioned the women above we also picked up good ideas from Christopher Lloyd, Geoff Hamilton and Monty Don and in the last 10 years Sarah Raven has given us so many good plant recommendations that have stood the test of time.

Sarah x