Discovering West Dean Gardens: Nature’s Retreat

Over the years, Ronnie, the former author of this blog, embarked on numerous visits to West Dean Gardens, capturing countless photos and sharing her cherished experiences.

Below is a compilation featuring her articles and photos about this destination.

West Dean Gardens Victorian Glasshouses

It is a pretty good bet that anyone visiting West Dean Gardens, near Chichester, will make for the Victorian Glasshouses no matter whether this is their first or one of many visits. On our recent visit we headed to the newly restored nectarine house.

The beautiful Glasshouses in West Dean were built in 1890 and 1900 and after sadly being allowed to fall into disrepair were restored in 1990. There are 26 glasshouses and the one above is number 25 – the nectarine house.

The most exciting thing I found on this early Spring visit was that all the nuts and bolts of the workings of a glasshouses were visible. The repairs to glasshouse 25 were completed mid 2017 and closed over the winter months, so we must have been amongst the first visitors now it is open. The gleaming white paintwork and the contrast of the delicate pink nectarine blossom against the stark white walls was awesome.

A glasshouse in West Dean costs on average £31,000 to £34,000 to repair taking two gardeners, two months to complete. The nectarine glasshouse used £900 of specialist durable paint and 264 panels of glass, all hand fitted. To help fund the restoration project West Dean launched a Save our Glasshouses Appeal in 2014. The glasshouses are repaired on a 4 year cycle and the next on the list are the tomato and peach houses.

You will see from the above notice that West Dean gardeners move things about to facilitate repairs. Instead of melons, we found a splendid display of pelargoniums, ferns and fuchsias. Again you could clearly see the amazing piece of machinery that open and close the windows.

In another glasshouse, we found a magnificent showcase of vegetables and herbs.

I have just upgraded my iPhone and am so impressed with the image quality. The photo below is one I took of purple pak choi. I apologize to my Nikon DSLR who will no longer come out with me on very many visits.

Just as we were leaving, I couldn’t resist taking one more photo of the mechanics of a glasshouse. The glasshouses were built by Foster & Pearson a Sussex firm established in 1841 and still in business.

Other glasshouses were filling up with with trays of seedling getting ready to be planted out in the next few months for summer delights in the borders. These particular houses are heated and sunk slightly into the ground, entered by steps down.

Just to give you a taster of what else there is to see at West Dean, below is the Kitchen Garden, complete with boot scrappers on the eastern of each bed – something else you don’t notice when everything is in full summer regalia.

There is also an excellent restaurant where we had delicious homemade soup served in small cast iron bowls with lids. The restaurant is always a great place for lunch before walking around the estate, and tea and cake afterwards.

Acknowledgement to the West Dean Gardens website, where I found lots of background information about the resplendent glasshouses, please take a look and you can find out more about them and a link to the glasshouse appeal. If you have never been I really do recommend a visit West Dean if you are near, it is a delightful place with lots to see, as well as the glasshouses.

Wonderful West Dean Gardens, West Sussex

During lockdown, along with many others, I was missing our monthly U3A garden group outings. A few of us poked our heads above the COVID-19 parapet, pre-booked tickets and on Tuesday we went to West Dean Gardens near Chichester, West Sussex. The visitor restrictions were extremely well managed in-line with government guildelines including signs adhering to social distancing rules. Distancing was cleverly shown as 2 Wheelbarrows.

As with all our garden visits, coffee was the first port of call. The entrance is to the side of the visitors building and welcoming signs to the garden and refreshments were very clear. We sat on the Terrace outside the restaurant, and our drinks came in disposable mugs. There was also a mobile takeaway drinks caravan on the lawn opposite the main house, with portaloo cabins, everything had been thought of.

The Walled Garden

In the walled garden there were not the copious vegetable beds usually found here, which was understandable. With the restaurant and house closed and, until recently, nofarmers markets, any vegetables grown may well have gone to waste. There was, however, a lovely display of Cannas and lots of dahlia beds, all in full bloom. I’m not sure why I didn’t take photos of the dahlias, but when you do visit you will be in for a pleasant surprise.

The flower borders in the walled garden were a blaze of colour, which was difficult to pick up on the camera because of the weather being overcast. It was bursting with hot coloured plants of red, orange and yellow. The vibrancy of the alstroemeria, crocosmia and phlox was really eye catching.

Victorian Greenhouses

We were lucky to come across Tom Brown, head gardener, who very kindly took a short time out to answer some questions. Actually, I think perhaps we trapped him coming out of one of the greenhouses but he was, as always, perfect charming. Tom has done a brilliant job over the lockdown period with no volunteers and sadly many of his plans for this year went by the board. He said he is now looking to sow wallflower seeds for the spring amongst many other jobs. A gardener’s work is never done!

The Edwardian Pergola

The 100 meter long Edwardian pergola never fails to take your breath away. The clematis and roses twining around the pillars are just beautiful.

The borders outside the pergola were full of Japanese anemones, echinops, eryngium, and acanthus along with other plants in cool, relaxing shades. A total contrast to the hot colours in the walled garden.

Spring Gardens

A visit to West Dean is not complete without a walk down to the Spring Gardens and pool. It is always so tranquil in this part of the garden. Often in the height of a hot summer the river bed runs dry but not this time. Whilst it was not flowing rapidly as it frequently does after heavy rain, it was good to see some water.

Visiting West Dean

West Dean is open seven days a week, 10.30am – 5pm. Tickets are available online. It is essential that you book in advance. This will require pre-payment and you will need to choose an arrival time slot. For further information click HERE.

We are so lucky to have West Dean about a 25 minute drive from us, but even if you have longer to travel I thoroughly recommend a visit, you will not be disappointed.

An Absolute Delight: West Green House, Hartley Wintney

I visited two gardens on Saturday, Dunsborough Park, which I have already written about and a dream of a garden at West Green House, near Hartley Wintney in Hampshire.

You will find West Green House in the National Trust handbook, but it is an oddity, it is not owned by the NT. When they decided to sell the house and garden in 1993, it was bought by Marylyn Abbott – a lady with a passion for gardens, gardening and garden design. She has made the historic walled garden what it is today and although it is privately owned it is open to National Trust members from 7 April until 30 September 2012 on Wednesdays, Thursdays, Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays between 11am – 4.30pm.

This is a garden that I had never heard of before last week and what a delight it was. The garden is entered via The Dragon Garden, and both sides of the path were packed with peonies. I can imagine that in the Summer when they are in full bloom, against the red garden ornaments and bench, these two beds are sight to behold.

Beyond the Dragon Garden you come to the Lake Field with fields around a lake which, at the moment, are a mass of Fritillaria, daffodils, with bluebells just coming through. I see Fritillaria everywhere in Spring and always tell myself buy the bulbs for my garden, but never do, this year I will.

As we walked around the path of the lake, there is a smaller pond bordered with wonderful display of Forget-me-nots and Pulmonaria – the bees were having a wonderful time.

This was my kind of garden  to enjoy, full of different areas of interest.    The next part of the garden is split into two sections,  one  for herbaceous plants, although there is nothing much to see at the moment and the other is a potager with an Oliver Ford fruit cage in the middle.   There were tulips and Spring flowers scattered about  and I suspect this part of the garden is going to look glorious and colourful in the Summer.

I took the photo above from the top of steps that have water flowing down either side,  these led up from a circle in the wall, which I understand is called a  Victorian moon gate – a great photo spot.  The photos below were taken either side of the wall and if you look carefully you will see the water edging the steps.

There is a lot to see and it was great just to wander around, coming across something new and different at each turn. What I was not expecting to see were fountains and waterways on raised ground which is called The Paradise Garden.  I am still not sure what I feel about this, I liked it, but not certain of its place in this garden.

Having said that, Marylyn Abbott is a garden designer and that is the beauty of West Green Garden, her use of imagination throughout the garden is evident. This can also be seen in the Alice Garden below with a variety of clipped topiary shapes around the borders. Red is a color that you can’t miss and it certainly stood out here, there is also a seating area with tables and chairs painted red – all very Alice in Wonderland all it needed was a pack of large cards.

I particularly liked the Walled Garden below and, again, this is going  to be one to revisit in another few months. The clematis supports placed around the garden were an indication that this is going to be a part of garden crammed full of color and plants. The hues are gentle and pleasing to the eye at the moment and after the red of Alice’s Garden, I hope when I come back  here it remains gentle.

I am told that there is also an abundance of Alliums which are a sight to behold when they are all out , although at the moment, this is where most of the tulips are to be found.

West Green House Garden is a gem and if you have the opportunity to visit, please do go.  I will certainly visit again, because it has whet my appetite to discover what colours and plantings await me in other seasons.

Before I leave you I have to share what I can only describe as “Garden Art”. I came across them hanging on the wall in the Orangery, I suppose like any art you either love it or loathe it, but I thought they were great, probably because I like quirky things.   I looked around for some idea of who made them but there was nothing, which was a shame.