Summer Round-up

It was a really busy year, and we decided to take the summer off from blogging to allow us to get some other projects underway (details of those to follow). But now we’ll be back to regular updates here on the blog. You may also like to check out our Facebook Page.

Garden Borders

This year has seen the redevelopment of a further set of borders as we continue our four year project to bring the softer, floral elements of Harold Peto’s garden up to the quality which his buildings now deserve.

Working with garden designer Alison Jenkins, the annual border from last year (which was an emergency measure owing to a late winter!) has been replaced by the planned perennial border. And following a prolonged summer, it came into its own bringing colour right through to the end of October.

Next year it should be even better as the hardier, slower growing plants will have established themselves properly.

Iford Arts - Cloister Centenary Season

This year was the 100th Anniversary of Harold Peto’s Cloister, a remarkable building from 1914 in the 12th Century style, which today houses our performances of opera, jazz and other events.

This year the season was entirely Italian in style. Productions included the charming love story of Puccini’s La Rondine, Donizetti’s comedy La Fille du Regiment (reworked brilliantly by Jeff Clarke to be set in a troop of Californian bikers) and an emotionally intense production of Monteverdi’s Ulysses. Keep an eye out for next year’s programme or sign up to the mailing list on the Iford Arts Website.

Wisteria Season - all year!

A most unusually dry, warm summer, ensured that the wisteria flowered not once or twice, but sporadically all through the summer, only losing its last flowers on the First of October.  Who knows whether this will be repeated next year, but we can only hope!

Hydro Plant Update

The downside of a great summer is that there's no water in the river from which to make electricity - so the Hydro Plant has been almost completely dormant for 5 months.  In recent weeks we have got it turning again and now we are back, thankfully, to generating some meaningful power.  We will still probably manage to make this an average year (the first quarter was jolly wet, after all), but it's a relief to have it running nevertheless.

Visitor Numbers

We found ourselves on television earlier in the year, as the garden designer Paul Hervey-Brookes asked the BBC to film his Chelsea Flower Show introduction here, which was very kind of him!  As a result we saw more visitors to the garden in June than in recent years, and a much larger number of 'pilgrims' who had travelled from across the country specifically to visit the garden.  

It is always humbling to be reminded of the meaning and value which people place in the gardens here which we seek to maintain true to Mr Peto's ethos.

Tea Room Success

Iford's Housekeeper, Sarah (The Crafty Housekeeper), made a great impression this year in the tearoom with a new range of cakes and tasty bites.  The Rocky Road was a particular favourite and one member of the family (yours truly) had to start exercising more as a result.

Other Events

Butterfly Day 2014 was a roaring success; various charity walks and sponsored events came through; our tiny caravan site has welcomed a small number of rallies and casual visitors; we hosted three motocross events; it was a busy year on the farm dealing with new cattle housing; we removed our crop of Miscanthus which was under-performing for various reasons; repairs to the cloister became urgent as was suffering some ground instability under one corner; and this morning the 350 runners on the annual "Over the Hills Race" forded the river and ran the half mile up the drive on their 8 mile cross country run.

Roll on the winter!  I wonder what it will bring.

Bedding out

Until the last few weeks the non-hardy borders have looked decidedly bare.  Finally with the warm weather we have been able to 'bed out'.  This year Robert, our gardener in charge, has produced some strongly scented displays with geranium and pelargonium and some less common additions.

Staking:

Tying in:

Historic Rose Border construction underway

Last time we discussed the terrace area, but an important part of the Iford replant is the border behind the manor where Peto had originally intended a Rose garden.  Working with Robert Mattock we have designed a scheme which will bring some wonderful older forms of roses back to the garden at Iford.  These will run along the left (and in time, the right) of the lawn below.

As the cypress trees have suffered on the terraces (the last one shown in the photo above has now died and been removed, sadly), a rose garden will bring renewed interest to this corner of the garden and help to lead the eye through to the patio garden beyond.

A large laurel is removed from the corner of the patio garden.  It had grown well beyond its appropriate size and was starting to damage the wall below. 

A lot of ground work has to be done because we are on a rather 'mobile' hillside - clay layers within the ground mean that the ground slips slowly and inexorably toward the river - not good for structural walls!

 Hence, these concrete plinths which will form the fixings for the uprights up which the roses will grow.

Keep watching for more updates!

Historic Replant Update

Today was a very important day for the gardens at Iford.  After much planning, deliberating, preparation and waiting (for the weather, mainly), the historic corrective replant has begun.

It is 45 years since Lanning Roper was asked to bring his experience to bear on Iford's gardens which were in need of significant work.  The brief was to produce a long-lasting planting scheme which could be easily maintained whilst providing colour through the summer months.  The legacy of Roper's successful work could be seen in many of the borders at Iford even in recent years.

But times move on and gardens change, as any living thing does.  What remain of Peto's earliest plants are now well over 100 years old.  The garden has evolved, as has the management, as these old forms (cherries in particular) succumb to old age and the planting schemes in the borders are therefore in need of a rethink.

New arrivals in the borders 

We approached Alison Jenkins with a view to redesigning the borders along the main terraces, and she has produced an exciting scheme which we will be implementing over the coming three years.  The key is to use plants which Peto would have had access to during his time here, or any modern form which is the equivalent thereof.  Where this isn't possible, the planting must be in keeping with Peto's critical ethos of balance.  What would he himself have chosen, were he in our shoes today?

“Old buildings or fragments of masonry carry one’s mind back to the past in a way that a garden of flowers only cannot do.  Gardens that are too stony are equally unsatisfactory; it is the combination of the two in just proportion which is the most satisfactory”

 X marks the spot
space is kept back for critical feature shrubs and plants

Over the winter the team has been preparing the borders, and whilst the cold weather has helped to sterilise the ground somewhat, it has held back our schedule for planting.  Today we got underway, and as the season progresses we will enjoy watching the borders as they evolve.