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Art In the Potting Shed Garden, Benenden, UK, Post Four

A Garden Gate at the Potting Shed, Benenden, UK

Well let’s go through this extraordinary garden at the Potting Shed once last time! First go through another garden gate. Charlotte has made gates into an art form, that’s for sure!

Another Outdoor Eating Area at the Potting Shed, Benenden, UK

In the Garden, The Potting Shed, Benenden, UK

And Through Another Gate, The Potting Shed, Benenden, UK

Into the Vegetable Garden at the Potting Shed, Benenden, UK

Art Throughout the Garden at the Potting Shed, Benenden, UK

Look up, look down, we don’t want to miss a thing! And then into the Cutting Flower Garden!

Into the Cutting Flower Garden at the Potting Shed, Benenden, UK

Through the arbor!

Through the Arbor, The Potting Shed, Benenden, UK

We must stop by and see the turtles!

The Turtles Pen, The Potting Shed, Benenden, UK

The Turtle Pen, The Potting Shed, Benenden, UK

And the turtles up close!

The Turtles

Through another gate!

Through Another Gate at the Potting Shed, Benenden, UK

Onward to the bee keeps.

The Bee Keeps at The Potting Shed, Benenden, UK

And then to the Artist’s Retreat!

An Artist’s Retreat, The Potting Shed, Benenden, UK

Through another gate!

The Last Gate, The Potting Shed, Benenden, UK

To the last Retreat!

Another Artist’s Retreat,The Potting Shed, Benenden, UK

Don’t throw away anything! Charlotte has re-cycled everything in her garden from thrown away treasures! See what you can do with them? Old gates, old doors, old odd windows here and there! Save the fallen branches too!

The Artist’s Retreat,The Potting Shed, Benenden, UK

You can see what an unusual gardening experience this is! It was an absolutely charming and very restful garden and lodging to come back to at the end of a touring day!

Don and Charlotte at the Potting Shed, can be reached Here.

PS…. I took photos of Don and Charlotte, and you can see why this garden is so magical, just by the look of them! But…….. they requested their photos not be published on the blog…….so I am honoring their request!

Tomorrow we’ll be touring a garden on the National Garden Scheme! See you there!

JNW’S Halloween Challenge: Broom

Witch on Broom, Covent Gardens, London

OK, how do they do this?

Have a spooktacular time with JNW’s Halloween Challenge! Enjoy!

Thursdays Doors: Windsor Castle

Windsor Castle, UK

Today we are strolling around Windsor City and Windsor Castle! I Love the old bricks and stones, and the REPAIRS!

Windsor Castle, UK

This is one of my favorite photos. There is something about the doors! There is this huge building and yet the doors are side by side!

Windsor Castle, UK

God Save the Queen!

This is just one of many photos in the Thursday Door Collection featured by Norm2.0! Won’t you join in or take a peak at all the doors?

A Walk in the Garden at the Potting Shed, Benenden, UK: Post Three

Through Another Garden Gate, the Potting Shed

The Gardens at the Potting Shed, Bebenden, UK

The Gardens at the Potting Shed, Benenden, UK

Today we are exploring the property of the Potting Shed, a good five acres to get us up and about! Don and Charlotte are the proud owners of this beautiful property and lovingly take care of it. As I mentioned yesterday, Don was a farmer, and then the head gardener to Collingwood “Cherry” Ingram on his estate called ‘The Grange’ in Benenden. When Ingram died in 1981, ‘the Grange’ was divided and sold in parcels. This is where the story gets very interesting……… you just never know what you are going to stumble upon when looking into gardens! Don bought a parcel of five acres of ‘the Grange’ that also had the original gardener’s cottage on it and that is where he and Charlotte lived. What a keeper! And that original cottage, where they still live, is very much as it was when it was built in the 1930’s. Tiny, small rooms with huge fireplaces, slate floors and an old fashioned kitchen with a stove that was built before the AGA, I envied! I wanted to take pictures so badly, but how do you say, “Wow I might never see another cottage like this again and I know this is your private abode, but can I take about 500 pictures?” So I kept my mouth shut and just oggled and awed.

Now at the time I knew nothing about Cherry Ingram, so I had to find out more about him, so Don and Charlotte explained.

Collingwood “Cherry” Ingram (30 October 1880–19 May 1981) was an ornithologist, plant collector and gardener, who was an authority on Japanese flowering cherries.

In the early 1900s, Sir William Ingram employed Wilfred Stalker to collect bird skins in Australia for Collingwood to identify and catalogue at the London Natural History Museum, resulting in his first major publication. In 1907 he collected in Japan and for his work there he was made an Honorary Member of the Ornithological Society of Japan. However, his main interest was in the field study of birds; he made the first record of marsh warblers breeding in Kent. He was an accomplished bird artist. A planned book on the birds of France was interrupted by World War I and never completed, although part emerged as Birds of the Riviera in 1926. His 1916–18 journals record his war experiences and also his off-duty bird observations and sketches behind the lines in northern France. His published war diaries are packed with his pencil sketches of birds, people and landscapes. He interrogated pilots, on the height at which birds fly, resulting in a short paper after the War. He was member of the British Ornithologists’ Union for a record 81 years!

The Birdhouses, the Potting Shed

After World War I, horticulture took over from ornithology as Collingwood Ingram’s dominant interest. He created his famous garden at ‘The Grange’ in Benenden and collected plants across the world. His outstanding plant-collecting trips were to Japan in 1926 and South Africa in 1927.

By 1926, he was a world authority on Japanese cherries and was asked to address the Cherry Society in Japan on their national tree. It was on this visit that he was shown a painting of a beautiful white cherry, then thought to be extinct in Japan. He recognized it as one he had seen in a very bad state in a Sussex garden, the result of an early introduction from Japan. He had taken cuttings and so was able to re-introduce it to the gardening world as ‘Tai Haku’, the name meaning ‘Great White Cherry’. In March 2016 a book on his contribution to the survival of Japanese cherries was published in Japan: the title Cherry Ingram: the English Saviour of Japan’s Cherry Blossoms. He introduced many Japanese and species cherries to the country, as well as a number of his own hybrids. His 1948 book, Ornamental Cherries, became a standard work. Ingram introduced many other new garden plants, the best known of which are probably ‘Rubus Benenden’ a vigorous, medium sized deciduous shrub. Its white flowers have a yellow stamen at it’s center, and five saucer shaped petals. Its fruit are similar to those of the Bramble. The Rosemary, ‘Benenden Blue’ was also his work. Oh wow!

So now we will walk around the property and see what Don and Charlotte have added to it, besides the wonderful Potting Shed! Remember they are both artists, as well, and have added many cottages for their craft.

The Cactus Cottage

The Cactus and Succulents

The Weaving Room

Inside the Weaving Room

The Artist’s Studio at the Potting Shed Property

The Chickens at the Potting Shed, Benenden, UK

A Walk Through the Garden at the Potting Shed, Benenden, UK

Don and Charlotte at the Potting Shed can be reached Here. I am writing many posts on the Potting Shed so be sure to check them all out! Tomorrow we’ll learn more about this fabulous garden! Until then ……..Enjoy!

The Potting Shed, Benenden, Kent, UK, Post Two

One of the Gardens at the Potting Shed, Benenden, UK

As some of you know this is my second year for my England Garden Tour, where I pick out spots in the UK to spend a few weeks and then visit lovely gardens, including local gardens sponsored on the National Garden Theme and homes and gardens on the National Trust. I had a little rough start to my visit to St Ives, but as most things do in the end, it turned out even better than I expected. Now, we have made our way to The Potting Shed in Benenden, which I have been anxiously waiting for. This time we would also be staying/living in a garden too. What would it be like?

I booked The Potting Shed over a year ago to make sure I could get accommadations to stay there at the time I wanted. My better half always asks me, “where do you find these places?” Well, I do a lot of homework looking for unusual spots for lodging and I like things off the beaten track and things not typical of what everybody is doing.

The Potting Shed fit the bill. It truly is a Potting Shed in the yard of two very prolific gardeners! I would say Charlotte, one of the gardeners, is a cross between Beatrice Potter and Tasha Tudor! Don was originally a farmer and has spent a lifetime gardening ( more on that in another post) But, between the two, they truly live off the land, thrive in it and a motto for them might be “waste not, want not.” Invited into their cottage for wine one evening, we got a look at how one lived in the early 1900’s, the period their cottage was made, and I can’t say many updates have been made to ruin it! I couldn’t take my eyes off the magical wonder of their lifestyle and how it would truly be living like that. No modern Ikea stuff here! Charlotte is also an artist and painter, everything she touches is made beautiful, so they enjoy scouting the countryside for finds and then bring them home to enhance their gardens! While we were there they were looking for more old doors!

The Potting Shed, on the other hand, was meant to be quite modern in comfort and cozy. The appliances are up to date and there is Wi-fi and a TV. The furniture has been re-designed in fabrics and style with Charlotte’s eye for the bohemian flair, nothing fancy, but very stylish. So without further ado, let’s look at the inside of the Potting Shed!

The Potting Shed, Benenden, Kent, UK

The Potting Shed, Benenden, UK

These stairs are called Paddle Steps. I had never heard of them, but they are great for saving space in small spaces!

The Potting Shed, Benenden, UK

The bedroom was in the loft! Loved it!

The Potting Shed, Benenden, UK

One of the Many Bouquets in the Potting Shed, UK

The Potting Shed, Benenden, UK

The kitchen had everything you need, even a dishwasher!

The Gift Basket at the Potting Shed, Benenden, UK

Charlotte and Don also left a very generous welcome basket of local wine, cheeses, chutney and crackers. There was also fresh picked salad greens from the garden and eggs from their chickens!

The Potting Shed, Benenden, UK

More Flowers from the Potting Shed, Benenden, UK

Out into the Garden, The Potting Shed, Benenden, UK

Charlotte made all the topiaries and trims them herself on a very tall ladder! Oh MY! Well there are some that are quite near the ground too!

Out into the Garden, The Potting Shed, Benenden, UK

She has left their footprints in the garden, so to speak!

In the Garden at the Potting Shed, Benenden, UK

There are over five acres of gardens and other delights at the Potting Shed! Both Charlotte and Don are very savvy gardeners and have a list and knowledge of other gardens in the area. So many in fact, that I was not aware of, that I added them to my “must see” list. So tomorrow we will be taking a stroll through other parts of their garden and I am sure you will not want to miss it! Let’s go through this gate and see what is in this garden!

The Next Gate, The Potting Shed, Benenden, UK

We have stayed many places in the twenty years of our travels, but have never been received or taken care of so well as we were at our stay at the Potting Shed. If you love gardens and gardening and would like to experience a “once in a lifetime” find, this is the spot for you! Don and Charlotte at the Potting Shed can be reached Here. I am writing many posts on the Potting Shed so be sure to check them all out! Enjoy!

The Garden That Fairy-Tales are Made Of; Post One

St George Church, Benenden, UK

This is the story about a beautiful garden, where the birds sang so sweetly, and a fairy cottage filled with vases of fresh picked bouquets from the garden. But, first we have to find this garden…….. take a narrow road to the Weald of Kent….. turn into the horseshoe lane around the cricket pitch set on the village green…..……

The Cricket Pitch, Benenden, UK

Turn right at St George Church with the lichen-covered wall, onto a much smaller lane……..

St George Church, Benenden, UK

The Lane, Benenden, UK

Go past the public walking path, down the graveled lane and turn into the gate.

Public Foot Path, Benenden, UK

The Smaller Lane. Benenden, UK

Follow that lane unto you come to the gardeners’ house and then follow the path into the garden of the Potting Shed. Then follow the path through the arbor……….. are you still following me?

The Path to the Potting Shed, Benenden, UK

Turn to the right and follow the path through another garden gate……….

The Path to the Potting Shed, Benenden, UK

You have discovered paradise! The Potting Shed!

The Potting Shed, Benenden, UK

Outside the Potting Shed, Benenden, UK

The Potting Shed, Benenden, UK

One of the Many Gardens at the Potting Shed, Benenden, UK

The Front Garden at the Potting Shed, Benenden, UK

Step outside the cottage and follow the gravel paths. There were the vegetable gardens, and the flower gardens, intermingled with sculptures of all sizes and textures, and finely scissored topiary gardens. So much to see!

The Sculpture in the Garden, Everything Has a Use

The Sculpture in the Garden, the Potting Shed

Walking Through the Garden, The Potting Shed, Benenden, UK

Walking Through to Another Garden, The Potting Shed, Benenden, UK

The First Vegetable Patch, The Potting Shed, Benenden, UK

There was a private spot in the garden with a table and chairs where one could remanence about the day over a bottle of wine, and watch the sun sink below the clouds. Or you could follow path, after path, going deeper into the gardens.

The Outdoor Dining, The Garden Shed, Benenden, UK

One of the Topiary Gardens, Benenden, UK

I LOVED the little round balls cut into the hedge of massive boxwood! And what about these giant topiary birds!

The Topiary Garden, Benenden, UK

Turn the key! I can’t wait to go inside!

Turn the Key, The Potting Shed

The flowers picked from the garden are waiting to greet us! Tomorrow there will be posts from inside the Potting Shed and details on how to make reservations to stay there! See you in the garden! Just the first of many gardens on my Second English Garden Tour!

One Bunch of Welcome Flowers

Don and Charlotte at the Potting Shed in Benenden, Kent, can be reached Here. I am writing many posts on the Potting Shed so be sure to check them all out! Enjoy!

Reason to Love St Ives #8: The People Are the Salt of the Earth

The GuildHall, St Ives, Cornwall

St Ives Thursday Market, St Ives, Cornwall

I can’t leave St Ives without telling you how I have enjoyed talking to all the people! I can’t remember a time when I had so many interesting conversations with others while on vacation. We talked in the restaurants, sometimes for hours, with people, who were strangers when we met, but I thought old friends by the time we left! And never the beady eye from the proprietor, many times they joined in on the conversation, while still serving away! We talked to the locals at the beach and to English tourists as we sat on the benches and watched the world go by. And we talked to lots of folks at the Thursday Farmers Market! Oh my, lots of booths set up in the guild hall and lots of food and drink to be had! It was just a soooooooo Agatha Raisin day! Exactly the kind of scene we watch on many British TV programs……… the towns folks, the fete, the gossip, the pride! What fun! And I must tell you about Graham. We met Graham at the Cornish Sea Salt Booth set up outside the market. I learned so much about Cornish Sea Salt and sampled many varieties. Graham was so nice and knowledgeable, we spent many, many minutes chatting and then came back to chat some more! I left with some of the finest products I have ever bought on a vacation! The salt and salt combinations are the BEST! I loved them, my friends loved them, and we will be buying more when we return to the UK in November! I can’t say enough about Cornish Salt! Read more about their wonderful products Here.

The Folks on Thursday Market Day, St Ives

Well it’s time to say goodbye to St Ives and Cornwall. What started as an uninspired week, with the knowledge that I wouldn’t go up and down that hill everyday to get my car and jaunt off to the places on my lists of “must sees,” turned out to be one of the best times we’ve had on a vacation! We loved our lodging, (except the parking arrangement and pirate noises, but hey it’s St Ives) the scenery, the history, the restaurants, the shopping, and the people! No wonder this is a favorite tourist spot!

My Cornish Sea Salt, Well Some of it Anyway, Bigger Tubs Are on the Other Side of the Counter!!!!

But, we must move on……. going on now to Kent…… Have you ever wanted to stay in a garden shed in a beautiful garden? Well I did and had to wait a year just to get the reservation. Other gardeners must have had the same thought in mind, but we’re off and I can’t wait to see what’s next on the horizon!

PS, the last day in St Ives we did the most responsible thing and called a taxi to take us, our luggage, and all the goodies we bought back up the hill, past the cemetery, past the BIG parking lot and to our own private parking spot in St Ives. Goodbye, but not forgotten! We loved St Ives!

Reason to Love St Ives # 7: Sculpture and Barbara Hepworth Garden

The Walkway Above the Gate at Trewyn House, St Ives

The Gate at Trewyn House, St Ives

The Entire Gate at Trewyn House, St Ives

Trewyn House, St Ives

During the Secret Garden Tour there was a lovely garden space that was the largest piece of turf that we saw in St Ives, that was devoted to a garden. The garden had a locked gate, and I got the feeling it was opened only on special occasions, hence for the Secret Garden Tour. Across from the garden a small lane divided the garden from one of the most unusual gates that I have ever seen. Behind that beautiful gate is the Barbara Hepworth Sculpture Garden or also known as Trewyn House.

Dame Jocelyn Barbara Hepworth DBE was an English artist and sculptor. Her work exemplifies Modernism and in particular modern sculpture. She was one of the few female artists to achieve international prominence. Hepworth was a leading figure in the colony of artists who resided in St Ives during the Second World War.

Barbara Hepworth first came to live in Cornwall with her husband Ben Nicholson and their young family at the outbreak of war in 1939. She lived and worked in Trewyn studios – now the Barbara Hepworth Museum – from 1949 until her death in 1975, from a fire in the studio. Following her wish to establish her home and studio as a museum of her work, Trewyn Studio and much of the artist’s work remaining there was given to the nation and placed in the care of the Tate Gallery in 1980.

‘Finding Trewyn Studio was a sort of magic’, wrote Barbara Hepworth. ‘Here was a studio, a yard and garden where I could work in open air and space.’ When she first arrived at Trewyn Studio, Hepworth was still largely preoccupied with stone and wood carving, but during the 1950s she increasingly made sculpture in bronze as well. This led her to create works on a more monumental scale, for which she used the garden as a viewing area.

The Garden of Trewyn House, St Ives

Most of the bronzes are in the positions in which the artist herself placed them. The garden itself was laid out by Barbara Hepworth with help from a friend, the composer, Priaulx Rainier.

“Figure for Landscape” 1959-60, Dame Barbara Hepworth 1903-1975

Garden Sculpture (Model for Meridian)1958, Dame Barbara Hepworth 1903-1975

“Conversation with Magic Stones” 1973, Dame Barbara Hepworth 1903-1975

Her eldest son, Paul, was killed on February 13, 1953 in a plane crash while serving with the Royal Air Force in Thailand. A memorial to him, Madonna and Child, is in the parish Church of St Ives.

Exhausted in part from her son’s death, Hepworth travelled to Greece with her good friend Margaret Gardiner in August 1954.

When Hepworth returned to St Ives from Greece, she found that Gardiner had sent her a large shipment of Nigerian guarea hardwood. Although she received only a single tree trunk, Hepworth noted that the shipment from Nigeria to the Tilbury docks came in at 17 tons. Between 1954-1956 Hepworth sculpted six pieces out of this guarea wood!

It was proposed at one time to take up the garden and use the land to build council housing! I for one am glad they didn’t, it is a calming oasis is a sea of tourists.

HEPWORTH Barbara, 1966, sculpteur (GB) © ERLING MANDELMANN ©

Thursdays Doors: St Ives Again

George Hicks Court Archway, St Ives

I just love this photo: the archway, the cottage and the worn lane!

St Ives, Cornwall

This gate has a charming house design on it!

Rose Lane Church, Now a Memorial, St Ives

St Ives

Beautiful arches, gates and doors here!

St Ives

Popincourt, St Ives

The Door at the End of the Lane, St Ives

Old Overhead Door at Hain Steamship Co, St Ives

Doesn’t that logo on the Hain Door look like the Hanes Socks Logo? Hmmmmm……..

The Seagulls’ Door, St Ives

A Door to a Secret Garden, St Ives

Another Red Door with Gate in St Ives

One of My Favorite Lanes in St Ives (and Another Gate!)

St Ives

Doors in St Ives tended to be blue, followed by red, followed by black.

St Ives

Norway House, St Ives

The Norway Grocery, St Ives

And then every once in a while another color is thrown into the mix. Changes things up a bit!

Maize Colored Door, St Ives

The Corn Colored Door, St Ives

Now the Traditional Butchers Shop door is quite regular.

Traditional Butchers, St Ives

It was what was brought in every morning through the door that I watched for!

Meat! St Ives

There were just so many great doors, nooks and crannies in St Ives! I think I got the best! See you tomorrow in St Ives!

This is just one of many photos in the Thursday Door Collection featured by Norm2.0! Won’t you join in or take a peak at all the doors?

Reason to Love St Ives # 6: The Cottages

The Anchorage B&B, St Ives, Cornwall

I could spend hours walking the lanes and looking at the cottages! And I did! Enjoy St Ives!

The Oldest Cottage in St Ives

The Oldest House Plaque, St Ives

The Waters Edge Cottage

Downlong Cottage, St Ives

The Grey Mullet Guest House, St Ives

A View from the Hill, St Ives

The Victorian Cottages

Street an Garrow, St Ives

Norway House, St Ives

Itsy Bitsy Cottage, St Ives

The New Cottage on the Hill, St Ives

With Garden, St Ives

On the Beach, St Ives

The Cutest Cottage, St Ives

The Narrow Lanes in St Ives

Cottage Row, St Ives

Over the Water, St Ives

The Ivy on the Wall, St Ives

See you tomorrow in St Ives!

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Posts tagged ‘UK’

Art In the Potting Shed Garden, Benenden, UK, Post Four

JNW’S Halloween Challenge: Broom

Thursdays Doors: Windsor Castle

A Walk in the Garden at the Potting Shed, Benenden, UK: Post Three

The Potting Shed, Benenden, Kent, UK, Post Two

The Garden That Fairy-Tales are Made Of; Post One

Reason to Love St Ives #8: The People Are the Salt of the Earth

Reason to Love St Ives # 7: Sculpture and Barbara Hepworth Garden

Thursdays Doors: St Ives Again

Reason to Love St Ives # 6: The Cottages

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