Dowlish Wake - Part One

Well, wasn't the weather at the week-end just simply gorgeously hot! I'm not really a fan of hot weather but after all the rain of the past week it was lovely!

On our previous visit to Forde Abbey we had picked up a National Garden Scheme booklet from a table by the door and taken it back home with us to study. Many people out there in blogland have commented on visiting these private gardens which open for charity on certain days of the year.

We looked through the brochure and noted some gardens near to us in Devon that would be open. We spotted a garden that would be open in Dowlish Wake in Somerset - less than a 30 minute drive away.

We arrived in the village and parked where had been suggested in the car park to St. Andrew's Church and took the very short walk to the garden. We spotted the NGS sign. The garden belonged to a bungalow which appeared very unassuming - but the garden was anything but, as hopefully, the photos to this post will attest!

We were met at the gate by a lovely elderly gentleman who informed us that he and his wife had moved to the property some 16 years ago and that at that time the garden was virtually all grassed over. He gave no credit for the stunning garden to himself saying that his wife did it all, he only tended the lawn. The lawn was immaculate - it looked like a lush green velvet carpet.

Inside the conservatory there were photos of what the garden had looked like when the couple had arrived 16 years ago. Believe me some sort of miracle had taken place in this garden - it was a sight to behold. Nothing ostentatious just a simple, lovely garden created by someone with an eye for colour and a deep knowledge of what would look good planted next to what.

The garden looked stunning. The flowers were all at their very best.

I will let the photos do the talking!

I think that this is a variegated hosta - I remember trying to grow something similar in our old garden - suffice to say that it was loved by the slugs and didn't look anything like this!

Many of the flowers were being attended to by bees.

I loved this thistle type plant. The colour was very striking.

I don't know if this is a foxglove but isn't the colour wonderful!

Graded colour scheme - cream, buttery yellow and golden sun yellow! Perfect!

A similar colour scheme on this flower.

This is the back of the bungalow with some of the lawn. The flower beds were 10 feet deep and every inch was perfectly planted - no weed would dare show its face.

It had rained over-night and some of the flowers had raindrops on the petals - which to me enhanced their beauty.

There were many wonderful lillies.

Fabulous roses.

Delightful foxgloves.

Richly coloured poppies.

Delicate yellow flowers.

Tangerine coloured flowers.

A rain splattered rose - even this looked superb.

Pretty little  lilac flowers.

Lovely pink flowers.

There was so much more to see and smell in this garden and I will continue this post later in the week. After we had left the garden we had a walk around the village and ended up at Perrys Cider Mills where we had our lunch. There is a museum there and I think that it will be somewhere to add to the list of places to visit sometime in the future. We had sorted our itinerary the night before and agreed that as well as going to the garden in Dowlish Wake we would head towards Hinton St. George to see another four gardens open under the NGS scheme! On our way back to the car after our lunch we decided to pop into the Church for a quick look around before moving on to Hinton St. George.

Until next time.

June.