Great gardens even in April showers
Time for the first EBTS UK garden visits of the year and the good old British weather brought us heavy April Showers! Still this didn’t stop us enjoying three gardens in Surrey.
Headley Court
The first was Headley Court, the Defence Medical Rehabilitation Centre, where up to 120 service personnel go through serious physiotherapy and psychotherapy after they have been treated for their wounds. Their recovery is helped by being in an a beautiful environment as we found when we were shown round by Sargent Major George Dent & Military Liaison Officer Andy Apps.
Caxton House
After a great lunch in the welcoming environment of the Cock Inn it was time to visit our second garden of the day.
Caxton House is the home of Mr Bob Bushby who along with gardener Richard were on hand to escort us around the garden. This is a large garden with collections of spring flowers including hellebores, an arboretum and two ponds. The visit was rounded off with a nice hot cup of tea and cake.
The Old Rectory
The rain continued unabated but so did our resolve to enjoy the third garden. Home of Mr and Mrs Procter, it a Georgian Manor House and we started by walking across the front lawn whilst hearing about the house and gardens history from Trudi (Mrs Procter) who is the driving force behind all that has been achieved at the Old Rectory. After a visit to the walled garden where box cuttings are grown on to line the beds that are slowly being reclaimed we went round the side of the house to see the main garden. As we turned the corner we all went ‘Wow’ as we saw the Italianate topiary garden, parterres, statuary, an ancient moat and other features that have been reclaimed in this four acre garden.
As if all this wasn’t enough Trudi then invited us into her house and allowed to wander round with our cups of tea and cakes.
The Old Rectory is a wonderful garden lovingly created and looked after by the owners and was a great end to the first day of garden visits of 2016.