Wednesday is the day when I go to Hidcote Garden. It closes in winter and is getting ready to open later this month. The link takes you to Hidcote blog; click on the main photo then click on photo gallery to see different areas of the garden. Do have a look at the photos and see where I spend Wednesdays most of the year (and also Thursdays in July and August).
Hidcote is a National Trust property and was its first garden. It's a glorious place and I love working there as a Garden Guide. I get to meet visitors and answer any questions they have whether about Hidcote or, in the case of overseas visitors, just about anything to do with Britain.
The garden was begun in 1907 by Lawrence Johnston. He lived with his mother and it was she who bought the property which is situated in the Cotswolds. Johnston and his mother were Americans but he became a naturalised Brit in 1903 when he went off to South Africa to fight in the Boer war.
After moving to Hidcote, Johnston began to create a garden. The original garden was relatively small but eventually Johnston converted over 10 acres of farmland into garden over a period of 20 years or so. Its heyday was in the 1920's and 30's.
Hidcote is an Arts and Crafts garden with small, strongly structured garden 'rooms' close to the house which get bigger and open out to a more natural area further away from the house. Beyond the garden is the Gloucestershire countryside, and very beautiful it is too.
Lawrence Johnston donated Hidcote to the National Trust in 1948 when he went to live permanently in his other house at Menton on the French Riviera. What a great gift to the British nation. Come and visit if you can.
The writers amongst you may be interested to know that Lawrence Johnston was a friend of Edith Wharton who also lived in the South of France.
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I've replaced my grin with the av I use on Holly Lisle's Bootcamp forum. I miss seeing it - and it reminds me I have a book to finish :)
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Do you know, I don't think I've ever been to Hidcote? We'll have to remedy that this year. :)
ReplyDeleteCome on a Wednesday and I'll give you a personal tour round :)
ReplyDeleteJune and September are possibly the best months. Thousands (literally) of tulips in early May.