Visit to Midney Gardens

 On Sunday I made a quick check online using the NGS website to find somewhere to visit. Midney Gardens came up.  We had previously stopped here and enjoyed refreshments with excellent home made cakes but had not visited the gardens.  We are so pleased we made that decisions: as we were chatting with Dave Chase and Alison Hoghton after our tour, we found out that they had now sold their cottage and were moving within weeks. 

A rusted bent iron gate is as good as any artist would make on the entrance to a graveled area.

There were large numbers of interesting shrubs as well as perennials and bulbs, and such picturesque smaller spaces where Dave's expertise in positioning and using colour in shrubs and in the texture, shape and the many hues of green, made each space quite distinct and a joy to take in.  

Views through the labyrinth to a long path bordering the Wildlife pond.

I found Dave's positioning of short soft grasses at the apex of beds, when paths criss cross particularly pleasing.  

Quite honestly a walk in the opposite direction, and a second walk round would have been necessary to take in its many variations.  Mr S was however aware that we were cutting it fine for the piece de resistance: Tea and Cake!

You could but admire a rose with thorns this beautiful like shard of red glass shining bright., and on one corner, which I had to walk backwards to take in:  a rose with green petals, with such varieties as well as others, the name Plantsman's Garden is well deserved.

The various rambling and wonderfully scented shrub roses got me and Mr S playing the 'can you smell this rose, and what does it smell of' game.  We seem to be sensitive to different scents, and by the end we were 'nose blind'.  I cannot remember what the smell of this rose was, but its effect in the small round garden with its vitality and wonderful colour will remain with me. The colour here is true and not at all enhanced.  Dave thought it was probably Crown Princess Margareta, but I am not so sure.

Why oh why have we not visited here before!  We thoroughly enjoyed our banter with the owners and their helpers for the day as we sat over our delicious cake: Mr S had beetroot and chocolate cake, and I had courgette and lime and pistachio cake.  He had tea, and I enjoyed a freshly brewed cafetiere of decaffeinated coffee.