The blue flowers in the foreground are allium. A couple of red hot pokers to the left. And the lilac bushes with the manor behind
I am taking you on a tour around our garden and into our park and meadows. However, as the Covid-19 is surrounding us, it has to be an imaginary walk. We have had the privilege of owning Knightstone Manor for 20 years now (in December), and it is amazing how much has grown and changed since I first came.
I have placed this series of photos in my collection of portfolios, where I showcase my best photos. But are they that special as photos? Are they art? Maybe not in themselves, but they show an artist in action. The artist is Lewis Atkin, my estate manager and gardener, who has now been with Knightstone since 2003. He has created a most beautiful and interesting garden, full of variety but respectful of the heritage that Colonel Reginald Cooper has given us in his originally laid out gardens in the nineteen forties. And we have converted the surrounding fields into parkland and flower meadows considerate of the old history of the Manor and not introducing anything in the meadows that Lady Jane Grey wouldn’t be able to find on her walks in the fields!
Hawthorn
I will take you on a tour starting in the courtyard and then to the top of the stream and following it downstream. We will do a detour to the South Field, where the sheep have got lambs that are grazing now. and then we go to the Rose Garden (but this time of the year we have more rhododendron than roses!).
We will go back along the North Wing of the Manor to the stairs that lead to the Wildflower Meadow, which has changed considerably during the last years. And then we enter the park, where we planted more than a thousand trees some years back. We can now walk in tunnels in the woodland, where before it was open fields and come to exciting copses and see lots of wildflowers before turning back to Knightstone and walk up towards the front entrance.
Alongside the stream is viburnum (the white flowering bush) and red rhododendrons
The photos were all taken this third week of May. We have been blessed by lovely spring weather, and I had some enjoyable days with camera, lenses and tripod. In the captions I am telling you a little of the plants we are seeing. If you watch the slide show on a mobile phone, you cannot see the captions, so I highly recommend you having an iPad or a computer to watch the images.
If you are impressed by my knowledge of the different plants, I have to admit that Lewis was sitting next to me at my computer, when I was writing about the trees, shrubs and flowers.
Welcome to our garden and park paying homage to Colonel Reginald Cooper, who planned the garden, and Lewis, who has developed it with such great taste.
Slideshow. Click on Arrows to advance
The weather has been great the last month and here in the courtyard we are having lunch.
Today it was a dozen oysters per person (except Mikee who had a token of two small oysters) followed by chicken
Looking from our lunch place towards the north wing we see alstramyria in the foreground and phlomis ( the yellow flowers) and on top of the wall valerium.
We walk out through the courtyard gate (just visible to the left). The yellow bush ahead of us is Euronymus and to the right is a flowering Camelia (most flower petals have already fallen to the ground this late in season))
Next to the stream (hidden by the wall) is a lilac bush and the enormous "rhubarbs" are Gunnera. A weeping willow is towering above them
Lewis has put up bird houses everywhere including underneath the weeping willow. This house was inhabited by a bluetit. The damage on the bird house is caused by an energetic woodpecker
The bluetit is leaving his nest to catch some food. Photo: Lewis
Here we can see the stream with the white cow parsley flowering and a red barberry bush.. The big tree is a wild cherry.
Underneath the cherry grows a red rhododendron
Along the stream we have our breakfasts with the scent of the roses filling the whole area
Looking down the stream we see a rhododendron to the left and red lupins at the wall. The small house in the background is the privy and was once the only loo at Knightstone
We now cross the bridge and walk up towards the south field. Looking back towards the breakfast area we have a spiraea bush to the right
We enter the south field, where we have sheep grazing. But they are not ours. We are just happy to have them around. Here in the warm weather they find shellter from the sun under a rainbow ash
Spring is lambing season and the lambs have grown fast
They are both cute and curious
Two rams with massive horns are playfighting under a young oak tree (planted quite recently)
Back in the garden we follow the hedge separating the south field from the garden. You recognise the privy"ex loo" from previous pictures
Lewis dog, Merlin, followed me on my photo expeditions. To the right is another euonymus (the yellow leaves) and more rhododendrons
And we get the first view of the rose garden. A Janaese mabple to the left (the red tree). The bush with the yellow flowers is another rhododendron
Looking back we see our first view of the front of the Manor and the yew hedges surrounding the formal gardens
We continue our walk and turn right around the yew hedges into the rose garden
Alongside the stream is viburnum (the white flowering bush) and red rhododendrons
More rhododendron
A lilac bush with the white flowers. The red tree in background is a black cherry.
The white lilac bush again with the red peonies in the foreground.
The blue flowers in the foreground are allium. A couple of red hot pokers to the left.
In between the hedges the shade-tolerant hostas are growing happily and in the background rodgersia, which will be flowering in late summer
In the other garden, where we had the playground when the children were younger, the wall is covered by wisteria. In the foreground a choisya shrub is growing with its white flowers. It is native to southern North America.
Next to the hedge geraniums are growing with the blue or purple flowers. The yellow tree is gleditsia
We walk alongside the north wing of the Manor and turn up the stairs. Turning back we have a Tibetan cherry, who has seen its best days. We may have to change it to something else.
We have reached the wildflower meadow. But the grass is hiding many of the flowers, when they come out. All the trees are fairly newly planted. In the background is an enormous bench that Lewis designed and built.
Eric sitting on the bench looking out over the meadow
And this is what Eric sees! The meadow and the Manor protected in the valley below . Our park is beyond the trees at the far end of the image to the right
Eric is walking back nearly disappearing in the meadow
Lewis has planted some hawthorn trees in the field. Their pink flowers created an excellent foreground for my photo with the Manor nearly hidden in the valley below
Hawthorn blooms
Further down towards the dam is a copse of newly planted silver popplars. On the other side of the dam are our sheep fields
Walking back on the meadow, we come to a part where we created a sports field. I set up the camera to have both the hawkbit (the flowers in the foreground) and the oxeye daisies in the background in focus, and then Merlin came and lied down just beside the hawkbit, and an aeroplane passed by overhead and I just clicked!
Oxeye daisies are growing along the bank separating our sports field from a storage area and composts behind the hedge
We have now walked back from the meadow to our park. At the entrance is a black cherry
The same black cherry tree with the sun behind it and to the left two weeping silver birches at the entrance
The two pigs stand proudly guard at the entrance but none except our dogs seems to be scared of them
Looking down into the park with the stream to the left
Our stream continue through the park and the banks are filled with buttercups at this time of the year. It has been very dry and it isn't much water in the stream.
We are in the middle of the park. The bush with the white-looking leaves is a dogwood. To the right is a cypress and to the very left a katsura tree (with some red leaves). The dry leaves turn orange or pink in the autumn and smell of burnt sugar.
Rhododendrons in the park
The red campion, which has pink, not red flowers. In the background more rhododendrons
We planted more than a thousand trees in the park and after a number of years we can now walk (and drive a lawnmower) in a tunnel in the woodland
At the end of this walkway is a copse of silver birches. They have now grown quite tall, but even Eric remembers, when we first planted them
Bluebells in the park
Climbing up the little hill we get to another area, where we have sown wildflowers. The copse at the end has a bench that we built 20 years ago
The view from the bench towards the Manor
More buttercups
Red campions at the end of the park walk
Foxgloves. Digitalis
We are back at the entrance to the park with the Manor in the background. In the foreground two hawthorns either side with the pigs underneath the left one. Two weeping silver birches behind the hawthorns on either side of the gates.
Walking up the entrance between the yew hedges protecting the formal gardens.
Turning right we walk along the Manor. Underneath the windows in the flower bed are geranium plants and allium (the darker purple plant) at the stem of the climbing rose. Behind the geranium is a buddleja plant
We are back at the privy with a fern tree in its huge pot in front of the privy
Loooking back a ceanothus shrub to the right with its blue flowers and a Siberian iris under the drawing room windows in front of the Manor
The north wing gable is covered by different roses that are already in bloom. The wall will be covered in blossoms for months to come now and the scent will greet every visitor. Inside the drawn curtains, Mikee was working in the library.
