sea of blue. She enjoys the thought of so transitory an experience: a twist on an English bluebell wood in May.


The farm is in the lush green farmland of North Somerset, overlooking Blagdon Lake in the Mendip Hills


At the entrance to the gardens lies an area of more native meadow planting: the Somerset Garden. In spring wild flowers create


a tapestry beneath pollarded willows, reminiscent of the Somerset Levels. But these are willows with a difference: they are the orange-barked Salix alba ‘Britzensis’. The meadow theme is picked up again across the drive where clouds of ornamental grasses, Calamagrostis ‘Karl Foerster’ and Stipa gigantea are punctured by spires of burnt apricot Eremurus ‘Cleopatra’, and blue Iris sibirica.


Opposite the meadow lies the entrance to the potager, Sarah’s “posh vegetable garden”. The passages into and through the formal beds are marked with decorative ironwork arches. Giant metal artichoke heads and sunflowers echo the archways and the flowers beneath.


The raised beds are constantly being worked, planted and cropped. Compost from one of the huge heaps by the car park is worked into the soil as often as possible. And James feeds the soil with Holt Farm’s own home-brewed ‘compost tea’. This evil-smelling liquid is nectar to all the soil bacteria that condition the ground, break down the nutrients and make them available to the vegetables. The proof that it works is visible to all.


The resulting health of the crops means that they are much less vulnerable to pests and diseases. But nevertheless precautions are taken. Slugs and snails are every gardener’s enemy. At Holt Farm every bed or row of vulnerable veggies is surrounded with ground oyster shells. Slugs and snails do not cross this barrier. It demonstrably works. Oyster shells are readily available from agricultural stores sold as a constituent of chicken feed.


When any of the raised beds lies fallow between crops, a ‘green manure’ is sown. According to the species used, the crop is either turned into the soil within six to eight weeks of sowing, or left to occupy vacant ground until the spring. It conditions the soil and there’s little chance for weeds to invade. Those that do are relentlessly and regularly hoed before they become a problem.


All along the broad beans, runner beans and peas French Marigolds (Tagetes) are used to raise generations of Hover Flies whose larvae and adults eat aphids for breakfast, lunch and tea. And in the nearby glasshouse where young vegetables, tomatoes and peppers are raised James uses biological controls. Encarsia Formosa is a parasitic wasp that predates Whitefly, and Phytoseiulus persimilis feed voraciously on Red Spider Mite.


Eventually these delicious vegetables find their way not just to Sarah’s kitchen but to the magnificent new cafe overlooking the potager. Sarah would tell you that the cakes are diet-breaking. And even the loos hide a surprise. There’s no doubt about it. Holt Farm is a ‘must-see’.


16 Lydeard House the restored pergola draped with climbing roses


Charming 18th century bridges, a single span at the north end, and a second triple arched bridge at the south, add elegance, as does the 163 foot-long pergola dating from 1870 and which runs parallel to the canal.


It’s only from studying the photographs cataloguing the restoration project that one understands how much work was done in such a short time by the Wilkins and a team including Mike, their handyman and gardener. In 1999 it was possible to run across the silted up lake, and even after a major dredging operation, it silted up again.


The remedy was to completely renovate the canal and construct a silt trap. The pergola alongside it was then tackled. At its northern end the edge had to be rebuilt, but Mrs Vaun Wilkins has a good gardener’s eye and instinct for these things and guessed accurately where the curving edge should be.


Country Gardener


Location: Holt Farm Organic Gardens, Bath Road, Blagdon BS40 7SQ. 12 miles S of Bristol, off the A368 Weston- super-Mare to Bath road, between Blagdon and Ubley. Entrance to Holt Farm approximately half a mile outside Blagdon, on the left.


Open for NGS: Sundays 13th June & 26th September, 2pm – 5pm. Visitors also welcome by appointment only, Thursdays only, 17th June – 30th September, 2pm – 5pm.


Admission: £4, children free. Cream teas, and plants for sale. No dogs.


Telephone: 01761 461650


Photographs of Holt Farm Gardens from ‘Ornamental Gardening’ by Sally Gregson. Published by Crowood


Lydeard House gardens Eleven years ago the historic gardens at Lydeard House were run down and overgrown, the stream and lake silted up, and the once grand pergola in a ruinous state.


Today that is hard to imagine. Thanks to Mr. and Mrs Colin Wilkins, the owners who arrived in 1999, the gardens are once again pristine and a delight to walk in, with a clear stream and lake, the restored pergola draped with climbing roses, and entire new areas of garden being developed.


Lydeard House dates from 1740, with further additions in 1787 and the west wing and clock tower added in the Victorian era. Water is the main focal point of the garden which lies in a small combe, with a lake overhung by a willow tree (another was lost during last winter’s hard weather), and a canal running into it.


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