The garden is a culmination of the work and ethos of three generations of the Wood family.
The family bought the place in 1965 to be ran as an Organic small holding.
Harold and Dorothy pursued an Organic way of life long before the term became established; in the early days it was better known as ‘chemical free’.
During the 1980’s, following very much along the same lines, Harold’s son Adrian returned with his wife Elsa and after an incredible amount of hard work set up one of the country’s first Vegetarian guest houses where Elsa put together sumptuous menus and Adrian supplied the kitchen with fresh organic vegetables, a winning combination.
They ran many courses such as yoga, art, teaching about living closer to the land etc. Elsa describes this time as the “Golden years.’
The garden as you see it now was a field that Harold grazed cattle in the 1960’s
In the 1980s after the cattle had left, Elsa and Adrian started embracing their passion for plants, so the garden began.
During the 1990s Elsa and Adrian ran an Organic plant nursery stocking one of the largest collection of Organic culinary herbs in the Uk also an extensive range of herbaceous plants and shrubs.
In 1996 Gemma returned from University and had a vision of turning the garden into a celebration of art, plants and wildlife.
In 1998 Gemma began major landscaping work on the main circle.
There have been a number of distractions along the way for me, namely renovating the Dovecote next to the main house, raising a family, running a landscaping business but every spare moment has been spent, digging, building, driving machines, chain sawing, sculpting, mowing and planting in this garden.
There is so much more I wish to do but I have to remember to look back and think about those cold cold winters, adverse weather conditions, moving every rock by hand, designing and carving every piece of sculpture to realise how far I have come.
