The sun shines at Capel Manor

Isn’t it lovely that the sun has finally come out? I don’t like the weather too hot, but so long as I have a nice breeze, I am very happy that it is bright and dry.

So where to get a nice breeze? Well, obviously not in my office. Even with the window open. So we have been having little days out.

A couple of weeks ago was the first warm spell, and we decided on the spur of the moment to have a walk around Capel Manor, which is not that far from us.

Capel Manor is not just a set of lovely gardens, it is a horticultural college, so there are lot of interesting landscape projects, rebuilds of old gardens, and general changing about that make it worth going to on a fairly regular basis.  (They have a good gallery of images at their website. Gives a good idea of what you will find.. but of course it changes all the time)
I have my favourite bits of course, but it is very relaxing to just wander around looking at what is in bloom, imagining how things might work or not in my own home, thinking what kind of garden I would have if money and space were no object…

The new Vincent Van Gogh garden is probably my favourite this year, pretty informal Provençal plantings around a deep yellow house, heavily influenced by Van Gogh’s paintings.

There is a row of ideas for front gardens that is quite exciting too, lots of hard planting here, the students have obviously been working hard.

The latest project is the Old Manor House garden, very new and bleak looking at the moment, but I guess it will age and mature and look as though it has been there for ever.

The lawns and the carp pool finished off the afternoon, and as it was a week day it was blissfully empty. The carp are terribly friendly, I presume they are fed all the time, as they come to nose and see what is happening if you stir the water.
 
Wouldn’t it be nice to have gardens outside the back door just like these…