the garden, but three years ago he was joined by artist and gardener Alison Everall.


With their volunteers, they have made a good team, with his plantsman’s knowledge and enthusiasm, and Alison’s artistic eye for colour and form. She does a lot of flower arranging for the house. Visitors will learn a lot from them as they lead the guided tours.


Neither has received professional horticultural training. Dave was in the building trade, has worked on National Trust properties and as a gamekeeper. But their practical knowledge is immense, as can be seen in the glasshouse and the garden. Practical common sense for instance, made Dave install ingenious hanging shelves for plants in the glasshouse to outwit the mice that come in to eat all they can.


Fan-trained peach and soft fruit trees now line the walls of the old kitchen garden once again instead of ivy. The one- acre garden has been divided into allotments for local people to use, a total of 18 plots are now in production.


Local people are encouraged to join the scheme, “they came from all walks of life – everyone is the same when they’re gardening,” says Dave. The place has to be kept orderly, with neatly trimmed edges and tools stacked tidily against the walls.


Every year a prize is given out, perhaps to the best newcomer or the best overall plot.


Different colours and forms in the changing seasons from delicate wood anemones to masses of rhododendrons


family dogs, many of them spaniels that worked with the guns.


The front of the house is planted for welcoming colour: roses, Madonna lilies, bearded irises. In a shady, moist corner by a north-facing wall, the vibrant blue Himalayan poppy, Meconopsis betonicifolia, grows among the border.


Dave has worked hard to propagate them, the seeds being kept alternatively warm and cold to make them germinate, as Frank Kingdon Ward found when he discovered them in the 1920s in the Himalayan region.


“They go in and out of the fridge,” he explains. “When one visitor saw them she burst into tears. She had seen them in the wild in the Himalayas and never thought she’d see them again.”


On open afternoons the little old stone tea room sells home made cakes and teas and plants are for sale. It’s all very relaxed and low key, nothing like large institutional historic properties.


You won’t see any evidence of the flooding of a couple of years ago, either. Extensive damage to some floors and the drive outside has all been repaired.


It’s impossible that so much work at Cadhay can have been achieved in so little time


The great volunteer in the garden and on the allotments was Eric Smith. Sadly, he died this year, and another trophy will be awarded in his name.


This year there is a new area in the ornamental garden for visitors to enjoy, achieved in only twelve months, transforming the old tennis court into a shrubbery with ornamental grasses, a circular stone area and interesting pieces of reclaimed wood ‘sculpture’.


As it matures it will complement the woodland walk beyond, where there are different colours and forms in the changing seasons, from delicate wood anemones to masses of rhododendrons.


Old clumps of Gunnera manicata drape over the water in the lake resembling sealions, but later they will form huge umbrellas with their giant leaves. In a corner by an old medlar tree you can find the tiny tombstones of beloved


16


Take a guided tour of the house as well as the garden on a Friday afternoon or a Bank Holiday. Simon Jenkins admired the “faded domesticity” of Cadhay, but his book was first published in 2003. It has been renovated without being too over done. The cobwebs he saw in the rafters have now been cleaned away, but the peaceful atmosphere still pervades manor house and garden.


Location: Cadhay, Ottery St. Mary EX11 1QT. One mile north west of Ottery St. Mary, on the B3176.


Open: Fridays, May – September, 2pm – 5.30pm, also late May and August Bank Holiday Mondays. For NGS: Friday 21st May, 4th June, 2nd July & 10th September, 2pm – 5.30pm.


Admission: House and garden, with guided tour, £6.50, children £2. Garden only: £2.50, children £1. Groups and clubs welcome (15+ by arrangement).


New for 2010: Loyalty Card season ticket for the gardens, £7 individual, £12 per couple.


Telephone for more details: 01395 222382 Website: www.cadhay.org.uk


Country Gardener


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