Some Details at The Newt

I have already done a couple of posts about the gardens called The Newt that we visited last week. Today I want to show you a little more of the detail that we noticed on our visit. The attention to detail and the craftsmanship is quite evident around the site. This picture shows the intricate work and patterns even in all the gutter grids. 

The apple symbol reflects the importance of this fruit in the garden. When the garden is open fully there are daily apple pressing demonstrations. Home produced apple juice and cider is on sale to add to your preordered picnic. The nucleus of everything apple is in the egg shaped Parabola where a maze of apple trees consists of 250 varieties. The trees have been trained into shapes as young saplings either around frames or fanned against the walls. 

You can see from the following pictures that espaliers of young apple trees are trained all around the exterior walls and interior walls of the Parabola.

The stonework in the walls, paths and features has all been immaculately constructed. The ironwork is the creation of truly skilled craftsmen. Look carefully at this gate. Can you see the hand incorporated in the ironwork of the hinge?

Then lastly here are a couple more items for the SPSH. Who can identify this tree? It’s leaves just about qualify for No. 8 A leaf longer than my hand. (Fortunately my hands are quite small!)

 The social distancing queue system for picking up your picnic speaks without words for a rule that we are rapidly becoming familiar with and is my first find for No. 7 Something that displays a rule.

Amphibious Animal Statues

Today I am taking you on another visit to The Newt, a garden in Somerset which has been renovated and added to in the last year or so. There is in fact still work in progress as you walk around.

 The artisan work and architecture that has gone into the garden is quite extraordinary. The stone work is all to a very high standard. This wall depicts a statue of the creature that the garden itself is named after. A Great Crested Newt.

A possibility perhaps for Alternative A of the SPSH, a statue of an animal....

It could also qualify for No. 18 Something that can go in water. 

There are more of these delightful creatures to be found in the vicinity of The Cascade.

I believe that at times there is a bit of a water fight going on here with sensors which trigger the water to squirt when you are passing.

You can see that there is a lot of intricate floor work made from pebbles.

I am not sure I want to meet one of these on a dark night.

They might be cleverly designed and made but you can’t call them pretty.

Union Jack Colours

Each summer I join Mary-Lou at Patio Postcards with her Summertime Photo Scavenger Hunt which you can find the details of  here. Mary-Lou has chosen carefully to reflect that we cannot necessarily go far from home.

No. 3 is Something with the colour of your country’s flag. We have not been out much but as I mentioned yesterday we did visit some gardens called The Newt on a very quiet day. There are a series of gardens called the Colour Gardens which are ideal for this prompt.

The three gardens are red, blue and white to reflect the colours of the British flag. It also says that these same colours cover several other national flags too.

The windows and doors in the fencing give the visitor the chance to view through to each of the other gardens.

The red was particularly vibrant.

We had a social distance chat with the gardener who explained that the white garden has  to be continually trimmed to keep the silver and white colours removing for example dead allium heads as they go yellow and ornamental thistle tops.

Here is Farmer Husband showing off his lockdown hairdo!

Finally a little bit of the blue room.

5 in 5 : A New Garden

Today I am joining Sandie at Itchifingers with her meme 5 in 5. The idea is that on the 5th of each month you take your camera and take photos for 5 minutes and then choose 5 of them. This month I took mine at a local garden called The Newt near Bruton in Somerset.

We are just taking baby steps back into the outside world so going out for the afternoon was a big deal. We went just for the afternoon and equipped ourselves with a flask of tea and cakes. The weather was slightly drizzly so we thought there was a good chance that our chosen location wouldn’t be too busy. Our niece had been the week before and assured us that there was plenty of open space and most importantly that there were adequate clean toilets.

The Newt is a relatively new garden that has a massive amount of work done to it. I shall be showing quite a lot over the next few days. Today however here are my five taken near and in the Cottage Garden.

1. Looking from the Victorian Fragrance Garden down the cascade.

2. The above mentioned Victorian Fragrance Garden

3. The traditional cottage in the middle of The Cottage garden.

4. A close up look.

6. Red hot pokers give a spectacular show in the Cottage Garden.

A Few Raindrops

We have actually had some rain! What better timing is that? The hay is all done and gathered in and the shearers have been. We actually haven’t had a great deal but some is better than none. This morning I noticed the raindrops settled on quite a lot of the flowers. I had a few morning jobs to do first but then I lifted my camera before the flowers all dried.

I bought this aeonium at a plant sale at a local open garden last year. It was about 6ins tall and about 2ins diameter. It is now about a foot tall!

I bought this Alstroemeria (Peruvian Lily) last June. I am delighted with the display it is giving with multiple blooms.

You may recall that we had a lot of these poppies in the quarry a couple of years ago on a piece of ground that had been cleared. I collected some seed and spread them around the flower borders. It’s great that they are still appearing.

This is another type of poppy In the garden.

I am unsure of the name of this one.

Roses are looking particularly good this year.

This is a David Austin climbing rose called Tess of the Durbervilles. It is giving a fabulous display this year. It is positioned Just outside the door to the shed where we sell eggs. It does concern me slightly that many people can’t resist smelling it when they get out of their cars to purchase eggs. I just hope that they all grab a different bloom to sniff. Can a beautiful rose harbour this ghastly virus on it? I hope not.

Then of course the foxgloves are at their best at the moment.