Alan loved visiting the quirky and creative moon garden, designed and conceived by owner Derek and inspired partly by Nic Howard from a blank canvas.
The Moon Garden consists of many surprising and unique features.
A main feature is the stunning Purbeck stone wall with a tremendous moongate opening bisecting the garden, creating 2 distinct halves. Step through the moongate to a less formal woodland area, with an immaculate large circular lawn, punctuated by a half moon of stipa tenuissima.
In the far corner, a fern-laden stumpery gives the appearance of a fairy glade, complete with a tiny fairy door set into the base of a tree.
In May, a haze of purple alliums is a major feature, summer sees swathes of verbena bonariensis and persicarias, while in September the stunning array of cosmos is supported by many unusual grasses.
There are over 16 different planting areas. These include the two ponds with a magical waterfall, vegetables and fruit cage, a stumpery, a fernery, woodland, vertical planting, calm and chaos areas.
The Mound Garden has cushions of plants sprinkled with a careful selection of white flowers, and considered a ‘calm’ area. In contrast, on the opposite side is the ‘chaos’ area. This is packed with a huge variety of grasses, perennials and shrubs.
A small Japanese garden can be found and links to a quirky eccentric surprise. Derek designed a hideaway he calls the ‘Happy Place’. There lies The hobbit house put it together like a 3D jigsaw puzzle. This has a curving sedum roof flowing down the side to a waterfall of planting cascading towards the tapestry of plants at the base.
The moon garden consists of many ideas one being the yin contrasting with the yan when circles connect with masculine straight lines.
Love Your Garden 