Time Off - local garden visits Gardens to visit around Dorset during March


Spring is certainly on the way – and it’s time to get out and about to see the displays of spring flowers. We advise readers to make contact before making a long journey. There may be a special event on which could help you plan your visit – such as the Crocus Week at Forde Abbey, or their gardening fair.


Q, 113 Bridport Road, Dorchester


The name of the garden was coined by friends of the owners, who called it a little ‘Kew’


Witty word play makes this garden stand out in any list. The name of the garden was coined by friends of the owners, who called it a little ‘Kew’, referring to the famous gardens, and so Heather and Chris Robinson decided to call their garden ‘Q’. It’s a town garden for all seasons where every inch


is made use of and counts in the overall scheme. There are themed rooms created by imaginative planting and design, making the garden appear bigger than it is.


The owners have been hard at work renewing areas of the garden. There is a collection of more than 60 clematis giving almost all year round flowering at Q, and two new arches have been built to accommodate new varieties while also bringing in height to an area of the garden. Many new shrubs and bulbs have been planted and what the Robinsons call ‘pseudo-follies’ to liven up a ‘dead’ area of the garden. Many older trees have been pruned hard to let in more light.


At the bottom of the garden there is a new seating area, and alterations made to subdue an area where trees had been felled and where a wildlife habitat is being formed. Look out for Shoeless the cat, with four white socks and no shoes!


Location: Q, 113 Bridport Road, Dorchester DT1 2NH. From A35 take B3150 into Dorchester and Q is 300m west of Dorset County Hospital. Telephone: 01305 263088. Email: chriskingpin2@aol.com Open for the NGS: Sundays 13th March, 10th April, 8th May and 5th June, all at 2pm until 4.30pm. Home made teas available and plants for sale. No dogs. Visitors also welcome by appointment, please give two week’s notice.


Forde Abbey where there are ten acres of naturalised crocuses growing throughout the garden


Forde Abbey, Chard


March is a wonderful month for spring bulbs at Forde Abbey, the 850 year old former Cistercian monastery, where there are ten acres of naturalised crocuses growing throughout the garden. The Abbey’s free draining soil provides perfect growing


conditions for the carpets of purple Crocus tommasinianus and C. vernus, which, interspersed with the pretty yellow Lent Lily, form quite a spectacle. Visitors may also be lucky enough to catch the stunning display of pink Cyclamen coum.


In addition to Crocus Week, which takes place from 5th to 13th March, Forde Abbey will be holding its annual Plant and Gardening Fair on Sunday 6th March, 10am-4pm. Entry to the fair, together with the tearoom, Abbey nursery, gift shop and kitchen garden is free.


Forde Abbey’s renowned tearoom - housed in the atmospheric medieval Undercroft - will be open from 1st March onwards. Serving a delicious selection of home-cooked lunches and cakes (made with fresh fruit and vegetables grown in the Abbey’s magnificent walled Victorian kitchen garden), the tearoom is the perfect way to follow up a vigorous walk around the gardens.


The Cotley Hunt Hedgelaying Competition takes place on the Forde Abbey estate on Saturday 19th March, an event which attracts entries from as far afield as Yorkshire with a standard that is extremely high. Also on the same day, the Abbey will be hosting a meet of the Cotley Hunt.


From 1st April, the house will reopen and visitors should make a point of seeing the exquisite 17th Century Mortlake tapestries, which were woven from drawings made by Raphael for the Sistine Chapel. The tapestries were ordered by Sir Edmund Prideaux when he remodelled the Abbey as a palace, but he never lived to see the tapestries installed.


Location: Forde Abbey, Chard, Somerset TA20 4LU. For further information, call: 01460 221290 www.fordeabbey.co.uk


House open: 1st April to 31st October, 12-4pm, Tuesday to Friday, Sunday and Bank Holiday Mondays. Gardens open daily, 10am-4.30pm (last admission).


Special interest heritage and garden holidays in the UK and Europe 0845 1212863 www.brooklandtravel.com


Country Gardener 43


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40  |  Page 41  |  Page 42  |  Page 43  |  Page 44  |  Page 45  |  Page 46  |  Page 47  |  Page 48  |  Page 49  |  Page 50  |  Page 51  |  Page 52  |  Page 53  |  Page 54  |  Page 55  |  Page 56