Gardens to visit
A hidden GEM
Dawn Kingsford met up with head gardener Graeme Watts to discover the secrets behind Belmont Park.
For those of us lucky enough to live in Kent, Belmont Park is “a hidden gem - as good as Great Dixter and Sissinghurst, but without all the people”, according to critics.
Laying deep in the heart of the Kent
countryside, near Faversham, head gardener Graeme Watts describes his 12- acre horticultural empire at Throwley as “the most peaceful place on earth”.
Owned by the Harris family since 1801,
the 3,000-acre estate is now run by a charitable trust, thanks to the foresight of the fifth lord, who signed it over for the public good in 1995, before the family bloodline ended.
Features include the fabulous Belmont
House, the Georgian backdrop for the gardens and grounds, with the saddlery, shell grotto, pinetum, Victorian walled herbaceous borders and two-and-a-half acre kitchen garden. Specimen trees play natural protector to the mansion house, with the help of a ha-ha, before
the ground opens to parkland and the estate beyond. It is a magic, stately and serene place to visit.
As Graeme Watts says: “The beauty
of Belmont is that it remains much as the Harris family intended, and you can imagine the lords walking the grounds.”
His cottage overlooks the fabulous
kitchen garden – redesigned by Chelsea award-winner Lady Annabella Lennox- Boyd in 2000 – with its Victorian greenhouses and walls dripping with trained currants, top fruit and grapes in season.
Quintessentially an English country
garden, with roses, perennials and climbing shrubs, it bestows the family’s grace upon visitors, with the gates to the gardens open all year round from 10am to dusk and “honesty boxes” in use for plant purchases and at the tearoom when the house is not open. Dogs on leads are also welcome to the gardens and all events.
Guided tours Book your guided tour (April-Sept) and explore:
The grounds, with head gardener Graeme Watts: Monday to Thursday, priced £7.
The house: Wednesday, Saturday and Sunday, with a garden-stocked menu available from noon.
The clock collection: Last Saturday of the month. A courtyard tearoom is open weekends 1-5pm.
Call 01795 890202 for tour bookings.
www.belmont-house.org.
1. What’s your top gardening tip?
Mulch! I spend the winter loading our “no-dig” borders.
2. What’s your least favourite job? Pruning the roses.
3. What’s your favourite flower?
There are so many, but I love tree peonies.
4. Flowers, fruit or veg?
I love all types of gardening but with fruit and veg, you get to eat it!
5. What’s your busiest month?
There’s enough to keep three people busy all year.
Our gardener’s question time!
Images: Courtesy of Belmont and Gary Neave
Mid Kent Living 25
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