Upgrades at Barnsley House

The Laburnum Walk at Barnsley House has been rehabilitated by the head gardener, Richard Gatenby. The picture above was taken while I was visiting in May 2014. During that trip, Richard told us that the iconic allee of laburnum and wisteria under-planted with alliums needed renovation and the best long-term solution was to remove the trees and begin again. 

In April 2015, Richard removed the laburnums. On his blog, The Gardens at Barnsley House, he wrote "Cutting the Laburnums was upsetting; but it had to be done and I wanted to be the one wielding the blade, I didn't want contractors professionally and clinically laying it low. It was important that the gardeners of Barnsley House invested in the garden and did their bit for it's future; not only the routine important tasks of brush and dust pan, sowing and planting but the hard bit too."

I didn't visit Barnsley House last year, so I was delighted to see the progress of the Laburnum Walk which Richard hopes will mature to its earlier glory in 5 years time. The new metal arch was made by a blacksmith named Michael Clifford. Richard was pleased with the way Clifford removed the galvanized shine on the metal to create a weathered patina. The increased light revitalized the under-planting beneath the arches. I am confident Richard's five year goal will be achieved.

"The Passionate Gardener" Tour May 22-31, 2016

For the last five years, I have been an assistant tour guide on "The Best of English Gardens" tour for my friend Michael Induni's company, Discover Europe. "The Best of English Gardens" is a wonderful tour, but it isn't exclusively a tour of gardens. The itinerary also includes Stonehenge, the city of Bath and two nights in Salisbury to see the local sites including the Magna Carta. I have been working with Michael to create a tour for the more discriminating gardener. I researched gardens from London to the Cotswolds. I wanted to visit classic and historic gardens, but I also tried to include contemporary gardens that illustrate the latest in horticulture and design. I thought spending a longer time in less locations would be a more relaxing way to see gardens, so we removed two nights in Salisbury and added time in the Cotswolds.

I came across a December, 2012 article that Penelope Hobhouse wrote for Gardens Illustrated called "25 of the best English gardens to visit throughout England" and cross-referenced that with Tim Richardson's 2013 book The New English Garden and created a new tour called "The Passionate Gardener" Tour. One garden I had been dying to see was Gina Price's private garden, Pettifers. So I scouted Pettifers and Rousham House last year and loved them both. Pettifers has deservedly gotten a lot of press (the cover of The New English Garden) in the last several years. It is a plants-person's garden with a clean modern design. The grouping of four "flask-shaped yew topiaries" have become nearly as iconic as the former yew waves in Piet Oudolf's garden, Hummelo. Her gardener, Polly, is both delightful and knowledgeable. In landscape garden department, I looked to the Hobhouse article and substituted  Rousham House, a privately owned, intimate garden designed by William Kent for Stourhead, a National Trust Garden with hundreds of visitors. As difficult as it was to exclude Stourhead, the intimacy of Rousham House, with about a dozen visitors when I was there, was hard to beat.

I will lead the tour May 22-31, 2016 which will also include the annual Gardens Illustrated Talk at the Royal Geographic Society in London. In the next several months, I will profile the gardens in more detail but below is a list of the gardens in chronological order of the tour:

The New English Garden by Tim Richardson NEG: Pettifers, Great Dixter, High Grove

  

"25 of the best English gardens to visit throughout England" by garden designer and historian Penelope Hobhouse. GI/PH: Sissinghurst, Great Dixter, Hidcote Manor, Iford Manor, Rousham House

"Best of English Gardens" Tour BEG : Great Dixter, Sissinghurst, Hidcote Manor,

Iford Manor, Barnsley House, Kiftsgate Garden, Chelsea Flower Show, Vann

 

Great Dixter NEG, GI/PH, BEG

Sissinghurst: GI/PH, BEG

Chelsea Flower Show: BEG

RHS Wisley: BEG

Iford Manor: GI/PH, BEG 

Rousham House: GI/PH

Pettifers Garden: NEG

Kiftsgate: BEG

Barnsley House: BEG

Vann: BEG

Barnsley Being Barnsley

The highlight of the trip to Barnsley House was seeing the Laburnum Walk, in the late Rosemary Verey’s garden, in full bloom. We had a tour with the head gardener, Richard Gatenby, who also authors a blog called The Gardens at Barnsley House. Richard worked under the tutelage of Rosemary Verey for the last two years of her life and has continued to develop the garden in her spirit after the house and garden were sold and became a boutique hotel.

We were particularly fortunate to se the Laburnum Walk looking so lovely because Richard is in the very difficult position of needing to renovate the allee of labrnum and wisteria, underplanted with Allium aflatunense, in the next year or two. The laburnum trees are in decline and need to be replaced. He noted that if the garden is serious about a long-term future, the five-year period required to rejuvenate the picture is a necessary evil.

This is not the first project Richard has taken on to keep the garden looking good for the future. Two years ago, the pavement in the Temple Garden, which was uneven and unsafe was redone. I visited the garden last year when the project was being completed. Now, you would never know anything had changed since Rosemary Verey's time.

A relief sculpture of a pair of Cotswold rams, carved from spangled Purbeck, by Simon Verity was also meticulously replaced last year, at Richard’s insistence. This year, he has been encouraging moss to grow on the sculpture to replicate the patina it once had.

The Potager Garden, which Verey created in 1978, was continuing to achieve her initial goal of productivity paired with the beautiful design.

The Cornus controiversa ‘Variegata’ tree in Parterre Bed no. 3 was looking particularly lovely.

Rosemary Verey believed in the importance of well-executed corners in her borders. She felt that people were less likely to cut the corner of a border when it was planted beautifully. Here Richard continues Verey’s longstanding combination of purple ajuga and echeveria. Richard acknowledges that this unlikely pairing is not correct in nature but asserts Mrs. Verey’s tendency for the hierarchy of beauty over ecology in certain circumstances.

I have seen Barnsley House for the last four years and it looks better with each passing year. I wish I had seen the garden when Rosemary Verey was alive but I am happy to see it supervised by such a talented and dedicated head gardener as Richard Gatenby.

Small Gardens Are Like Short Films

Quotes from  ‘The Oscar-Nominated Short Films 2014: Live Action’

“12 Years a Slave” Director Steve McQueen
"The structure of short film is all about narrative."

"You have to say a lot in a short period of time. You think, 'How do I do that? How do I have the maximum impact within a time restriction?' But it could be actually much more effective than a long film. All this thing about short and long--its all about whether it is good or not. Often a short film can be better than a long film. It has nothing to do with length. It has to do with intelligence."

Luciano Giubbilei Chelsea Flower Show Garden

 Matthew Modine Actor and Shorts Director
"As artists you have to find someplace where you can go and find quiet and hear yourself; to hear your voice, because it is small."

Peter Wooster's Garden, Roxbury, CT

2013 Shorts Winner Shawn Christensen
"You have one idea, one notion, and you can take that idea all the way. If it is a strong idea, you can just explore it and you don't have to worry about being complicated. You can do that one simple idea."

Sakonnet Gardens, Little Compton, RI

Peter Webber Director "Girl with a Pearl Earring"
"There can be a purity about a short film. You can take a very simple pure idea...and make it purely cinematic."

"There is something much purer about working with a smaller budget or working on a smaller canvas."

"Short film is a real skill. It is like writing a Haiku."

"You need to have a really good story to tell and you need to tell it really well."

Rosemary Verey's Potager Garden, Cirencester, England

Jim Field Smith Director "She's Out of My League"
"The constraints of making a short sometimes end up being the strongest points."

Michael Trapp's Garden, West Corwall, CT

The Best of English Gardens 2013

In less than a month, I will be returning to Britain to assist my friend, Mick Induni, on a tour of English gardens May 14-23. We will be visiting Great Dixter, Hidcote, Sissinghurst, Stourhead and Wilsey. We end the tour with the Chelsea Flower Show in London. I think of myself as the "color commentator" to compliment the exceptional British tour guides who will be leading the tours. My mission will be to give an American perspective on how to incorporate ideas from the English gardening tradition into the participants' own gardens back in the states. 

On one of our open nights in London, I have gotten tickets for the Gardens Illustarted lecture at the Royal Geographical Society. Peit Oudolf and Jinny Blom will be the speakers. I did this lecture a couple of years ago when Dan Pearson and Cleve West spoke and it was great. I am very excited to see Oudolf speak for the first time!

You can see the complete itinerary at Mick's website at The Best of English Gardens. He has a wide range of tours. For more information, see his website, Discover Europe.

The azaleas and rhododendrons should be at peak while we are visiting

 The White Garden, one of the many garden rooms, at Hidcote Manor

The modern pool at Kiftsgate Court Gardens

 The Grotto at Mill Dene, the private garden of The English Garden’s contributor Wendy Dare

The Palladian Bridge and Pantheon, at Stourhead

Rosemary Verey’s iconic Laburnum Walk at Barnsley House

Sissinghurst, the garden of poet/novelist Vita Sackville-West and her husband, historian Harold Nicolson

Great Dixter, the home and garden of the late plantsman, Christopher Lloyd

The Brewin Dolphin Garden, designed by Cleve West, won best in show last year at the Chelsea Flower Show

Tom Hoblyn received the RHS People’s Choice Award in 2012

Barnsley House at Last

 Venerable Boxwood at the Front of Barnsley House

Irish Yew Allee and Rose Rock Path

Richard Gatenby, Head Gardener since 1999,  leads our Tour

The Herb Garden

Simon Verity Obelisks at the Entrance to the Winter Walk

View Across the Lawn to the Herb Garden

Simon Verity Stone Gardener Right of the Gate Leading to the Potager

Stone Garder to the Left

The Huge Leaves of an  Ornamental Rhubarb in the Broad Border

The Potager

Apple Trees in the Potager

Barnsley House Lawn brought up to date with Sleek Modern Chaise Lounges

I have been wanting to see Barnsley House, the garden of the late Rosemary Verey, ever since her book, The American Man's Garden, inspired me to make a real effort at creating my own garden in the early 1990's. I was fortunate enough to meet her in person at talk in 1999 at the Glebe House in Woodbury, CT. She had a bit of her twinkle in her eye that lend one to believe that she wasn't entirely the staid English lady that photographs of her in flowered print dresses might suggest.

Since Verey died in 2001, the house and garden were sold and made into an elegant boutique hotel. Fortunately, the head gardener, Richard Gatenby, has remained on staff creating a link with the garden's creator. The garden is much smaller than one might expect after reading her book, We Made a Garden.

After a delicious lunch at the nearby village pub, also operated by the same firm that owns Barnsley House, we had a guided tour through the garden with Richard. He has done an excellent job keeping this famous garden intact while making the necessary changes that a garden of this maturity requires. He spoke with reverence about "Mrs. Verey" and continues to artfully carry on her legacy.