Mark's Big Adventure: Coleton Fishacre Garden

11 Jul '08 6:36 am

This was the sixth garden we saw, located near Dartmouth on the Southern coast of Devon England. The Arts & Crafts style house, built in the 1920's, is said to have Art Deco-influenced interiors but I couldn't get out of there fast enough. The garden was what I wanted to see.

The garden covers 30 acres dropping to the sea. You can still see the remains of a stone walled bathing pool built at or just above sea level below the cliff. There are no longer any stairs leading there. I've concentrated here on the parts I liked best: the flaming red Terrace Borders in front of the house and the adjoining exotic planings leading down to an upper View Point; the walled Rill Garden; and the areas where those waters continue downhill - the Lily Pond (Upper pond/dam), a wilder area which I'm calling the Gunnera Pond (Lower pond/dam), the Tree Fern Glade, and finally the View Point out over the sea cliff where the stream plummets to the beach.

13 Jul '08 5:15 am

13 years on it is amazing how your words and pictures bring back memories, Mark... I remember in detail the old sea wall area, even the people I saw there and the smell of the sea... and yet other photos are quite unfamiliar. I think the red borders immediately below the house where being redeveloped for I have no memory of them other than their contour, and yet I remember much of the rest so vividly... Tomorrow I will go in to school and open up the photos to see them large!

16 Jul '08 6:58 pm

Hmm - between Coleton Fishacre and Hidcote Manor you are costing me a lot of money, Mark: looking at these photos is inspiring me to redevelop my Long Border (+- 5x80m and in need of redevelopment...) as a red border with the odd yellow, blue or purple contrast - and perhaps some white focus in the heavily shaded middle area... a project for 2009...
Having said that, my favourite photo is the quintessentially English and subdued photo of the entrance to the garden with the curved steps. Further inspiration...

17 Jul '08 7:44 am

Good lord Jack. An 80m long border - where in heaven's name do you find the time Question

Mark's Big Adventure: Coleton Fishacre Garden

Mark's Big Adventure: Coleton Fishacre Garden

Memories flood back

An expensive viewing

Crikey!