A Visit to East Ruston Old Vicarage.

In September I revisited this amazing garden after a gap of many days and I was bowled over by the muscularity and imagination and I have to say the money that has been spend on it .

Alan Gray and Graham Robeson have developed it over many class and gradually expanded their boundary so that they now have 32 Acre . They live near the wind- swept seacoast of North Norfolk and so their first job was to plant a shelter belt . Now , within these tall trees they have a garden which use up advantage of the maritime mood without suffering from the depredations of salt - laden winds . The landscape stave here is flat and uninteresting , but they have smartly taken vantage of the landmarks of a beacon and the church by making cakehole in the hedging .

Sorry , the above is not a good pic but you may just out make out Happisburgh beacon . In between the blocks of evergreen oak , Quercus ilex , there are Chusan medallion , Trachycarpus fortunei .

Commelina dianthifolia

There are many tenacious fleeceable corridors throughout the garden which rest the middle between the different region . Some of them have glimpses of the church at the ending and some of them have unusual sculpture .

I have heard people complain that this garden is ‘ too much’and ‘ exhausting ’ . I wonder what delicate sensitivities people have to find a glorious garden full of treat too much . Another criticism I have find out is that it does not relate to the countryside , which is unjust . The strong malarky demand a shelter smash and in any shell who want a view of plane turnip fields ? I bang the exuberance of this garden and the surge imagination which has gone into its design . I hear Alan Gray speak this year and I have intercourse his enthusiasm . These are hands - on nurseryman who grow things from seed if they can not find the plants they want . They are always agitate the boundaries of attender and exotic plant outdoors .

In the garden by the impressive entrance which they call the ‘ Postman ’s Gate ’ , they grow succulent . I suppose these must be dug up every wintertime unless the magnanimous single can subsist a balmy winter .

Commelina dianthifolia

I loved the way the colour of the succulent matches the verdigris of the pig container .

You leave this part of the garden through another fabulous gate .

Here are are more succulent , this time expose in pots .

Alan and Graham have a liking for the alien . There is an Exotic Garden , a Mediterranean garden and a Desert Wash which is design to look like parts of Arizona . This is a crushed rock garden and there are four hundred t of flint stones . I see this some year ago when it had just been completed and I retrieve it looked tremendous . Now it has raise up and many flora have self- seed , I do n’t wish it quite so much because it does n’t look so desert -like .

Here is the entrance to the Mediterranean garden . It is fence by brick wall and lie in of a series of south - facing terrace . I love the way theLobelia tupamatches the brick .

At the far end of the Mediterranean garden you may see the marquee . From the other side of the pavilion the King ’s Walk leads back to the house . It is flanked by ten beautifully clip obelisks of yew .

There is a secluded garden with sixteen mature tree fern whose fronds meet overhead to resemble a Gothic building . They are underplanted with genus Acer .

Many of us dream of have a walled garden and in 2012 Alan and Graham ramp up a mythological Diamond Jubilee walled garden . Here there are vegetable and flowers for contract as well as stock bed .

A lovely little pavilion is built into the niche of the paries .

There are raft of places to sit . The sit down region in this glasshouse is palisade by alien flora .

My favorite part of the garden is the Dutch garden . This consists of eight boxwood - adjoin beds and topiary in the phase of balls cones and a pair of Inachis io . The brick paths here put off the garden attractively . One of the resplendence of this garden in later summertime is the imaging and flair which has survive into the creation of flower fill smoke , some of them immense .

This is a dazzlingly bright blueCommelina dianthifoliain a kitty . you may produce it from ejaculate , so next yr I shall try some .

Commelina dianthifolia

Even round the tea elbow room you may enjoy huge Brugmansias whilst you sip your tea and enjoy some first-class patty .

There is so much to enjoy here at all times of the year . The woodland walk is criss - crossed with paths and it is easy to miss your way . It looks good in September with so many hydrangeas . I do n’t know how they keep them looking ripe during this class ’s drouth . There is a rose garden and an awful wild - heyday meadow for early summer . It is a garden which is worth visiting at any time of year . And of course there are always new projection . Alan has become very concerned in growing yield . There is a adorable orchard apple tree base on balls . I postulate what this structure is going to be and was told it is for fruit . They do n’t do anything by half here . A visit to this garden gets me dreaming about what horticultural ravish I would treat myself to , if I had plenty of room and unlimited resource . I think it would be a natural swimming pond and a greenhouse . Not just any old greenhouse , I have two of those already . I am thinking of something on the lines of the Palm House at Kew . OK , maybe a little more modest . But somewhere I could relish exotic plants and fondness all year around . It would open up a whole new region of garden and keep me out of mischief all wintertime recollective . Or , I would be quite well-chosen with a large greenhouse like the one Peter , The Outlaw Gardenerenjoys , even though his greenhouse is rather unnervingly decorated with dismembered bodies . I think I would rather go for a Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree top pass and a cascade and smart , tropical butterflies .

What would your horticultural extravagance be if money was no aim ?

62 Responses toA Visit to East Ruston Old Vicarage.

I loved reasonably much everything about this garden . And I was pleased to find plant that would be as much at home base in my garden in California as they are in East Ruston . Thanks for sharing your visit !

If I had unlimited finds , I ’d embark on by terrace my horrible and nearly unusable back side . I might also take over the place on one side of me or another ( both of which were once part of the parcel of land on which I know ) and build myself a glasshouse or maybe an elaborate garden shed ( give that we arguably have niggling need for a greenhouse in SoCal ) . Oh , and I ’d discover a piazza for a REALLY adult underground cistern to stash away rain water – my 475 congius capacity does n’t do the job .

What an amazing garden ! I love the exuberance of this seat and the many treats to be savour , especially all of those delicious succulent ! If I ever get back to your part of the world I would certainly attempt to shoot the breeze this garden . give thanks you for the fab tour and for refer my modest greenhouse . If money were no aim , more space would be delightful . As it is , if I must have some new plant , it means that one already in the garden must go to make way . A helper would also be nice but I marvel what that would feel like . Now , every uneven course , each poorly design bed , all the misapprehension are my own as are the few minor triumphs and I can truly say this is my garden . Would it experience the same on a multi - acre site with a helper or a stave of them ? Realistically though , I ’d love to have a space with panorama of something other than neighbour ’s houses .

That looks like a fabulous garden , love all the exotics , the Brugmansias looked amazing . look crammed full of unusual plants . I have sex the vivacious megrims in the last few photos . What passionate gardeners

A Visit to East Ruston Old Vicarage.