Private garden visit SOUTH WOOD FARM

By kind permission of Professor Clive Potter

renowned garden designer Arne Maynard to help design the garden around a 17th century farmhouse. The result is a spectacular garden that beautifully illustrates how contemporary design can be integrated into a traditional setting.

We are very fortunate to have the inspirational Head Gardener, Lewis O’Brien, give us a guided tour around the garden. He will meet us on arrival and take us first on a stroll through the glorious native wildflower hay meadows that encompass the garden, taking in the fragrance of the sweet vernal grass and viewing the early meadow wildflowers such as meadow buttercup and yellow rattle. Arriving in the cobbled yard, he will then introduce South Wood Farm in more detail, with a brief history of the garden’s creation and its ongoing development under his tenure. During the tour, we can expect to see a strong but sympathetic design that blends harmoniously into the landscape, and which uses local chert stone, from which the house is built, in its construction. The design features topiary specimens of native trees such as beech and yew, the use of trained fruit trees, a focus on native plants, skilfully constructed hazel plant supports, herbaceous borders, garden meadows, a wonderful kitchen garden featuring vegetable and salad crops alongside herbs and cut flowers, 2 glasshouses, one of which contains an extensive Pelargonium collection, cold frames, a nuttery and recently constructed wildlife ponds, all of which is curated to a very high quality. We shall also see plenty of plants raised from seed which soften the garden in an informal style, including biennial foxgloves and Hesperis, plus hardy annuals such as Orlaya grandiflora and Beth’s poppy, bulbs such as the white Camassia and Gladiolus byzantinus, and early perennials such as Ranunculus aconitifolius ‘Flora Pleno’ and Thalictrum aquilegifolium. 

This is a garden not to be missed.