Revisiting my Visit Seven from 2020

Back in February 2020 when celebrating seven years of my blog I set myself the challenge of visiting seven gardens that year. At the time Coronavirus was something that was happening in the world, but none of us quite knew how it would go, or how long it would go on for, so there was no indication that my garden visit challenge would, well, be challenged. But as we know, quite a lot changed and pretty quickly.

We did get to visit some of the gardens on the list in 2020, both before and as the restrictions eased, but we postponed our Lake District holiday for a year and so my Visit Seven was also delayed.

We had that Lake District holiday last summer - and it was great - so I thought I’d take a look to see how I got on with my Visit Seven challenge, and I realised that I’d been pretty poor in editing my photos, and discovered - and relived - our visit to Holker Hall this past few evenings.

There were some changes along the way too as we didn’t get to Yorkshire - that will hopefully be in our plans for this year. Our Yorkshire trip was for a wedding which is now expected to take place this year, but the holiday we’re hoping to tag on will be different so it may be a while before I can tick that one off my list. Like the bride and groom I’m hoping the wedding will go ahead - third time lucky as they are both saying.

Taking a look back at my Visit Seven for 2020

The dates shown are the dates of my post, not the date of the garden visit.

1. RHS Wisley, Surrey

• The Giant Houseplant Takeover

• Enter through the hallway, February 2020

• Chess in the living room, March 2020

• A bed of dreams, March 2020

• Kitchen houseplants with bite, March 2020

• Dining room delights, March 2020

• A shower over the tub, March 2020

• Flaming Dogwoods in the sun, February 2020

• Love this #91 A Cardboard 'vase', February 2020

• Topiary at RHS Wisley, March 2020

• Wisteria at Wisley, May 2021

2. RHS Hyde Hall, Essex

• Succulents at RHS Hyde Hall, June 2020

• The Rose Walk at RHS Hyde Hall, July 2020

• Sunshine and Rain, August 2020

3. Houghton Hall, Norfolk

• Calm and swirls in the Mediterranean garden, January 2021

• Love this #92 Shell Art, February 2021

4. Nymans, West Sussex

• Nymans in the fog, January 2020

• My new room crush, January 2020

• The ruins at Nymans and a peek inside the house, February 2020

5. Sizergh, Cumbria

• Views of Sizergh Castle, June 2021

6. Holker Hall and Gardens, Cumbria

• Discovering stunning plants at Holker Hall, January 2022

X 7. Scampston Hall, North Yorkshire

• I’m keeping this one on my list, we may make it there but it’s likely that we won’t. If we don’t then at some point I think there’ll be another trip to be planned.

So, slow and steady wins the race right?

That’s my mantra for this challenge clearly! I recommend all of these gardens, so if you’re close to any of them do try and get along and see for yourself. Let me know how you get on.

Views of Sizergh Castle

This was close to our cottage in the Lake District, and was one of the gardens on my Visit Seven in 2020 but what with our plans changing because of Covid, it wasn’t until this year that we made it to our rearranged 2020 holiday. Sizergh is an ancient Scandinavian name meaning ‘summer pasture or dairy farm’ and from our first view that’s a fancy dairy farm.

The whole place is impressive, and I was quickly distracted by the plants growing in the wall and then just as quickly distracted by the typical ‘castle’ style wall. I’m easily pleased. After this we headed up into the stumpery which led to the limestone rock garden.

The honeysuckle here was basking in the sun, unlike the tree fern in the next picture which seemed to be relishing the spray of the hose. I’ve many pictures from this part of the garden, but I’ll save those for another day.

As we walked through the garden the castle kept showing itself and it looked great with the garden in the foreground.

Once we’d walked almost every path at least once in that section of the garden we made our way towards the building we’d spotted from various vistas around the garden. The steps up with their lichen and fleabane were another draw along the way.

But turning round to see the water lily filled water gardens was another spectacular view, this time complete with the scent of the honeysuckle.

As we walked down to see more the walled gate on the left caught my eye, and looked a little odd.

We headed down and along and enjoyed the views of the countryside heading towards the tall gates we could see at the end.

They looked grand, but when we got closer we could see they were made of wood rather than iron, and behind them were rows of yew pyramids - I’m not sure what I was expecting, but I’m pretty sure it wasn’t this. Having come from Levens Hall, I was pleased to notch up my second topiary spot of the day.

And looking back towards the castle, the views were just as impressive. You really can’t beat a castle, can you?

A shower over the tub

After the last post, from the dining room, you’ll know that the bathroom was MOH’s favourite room. It’s the last room in the ‘house’ and it was pretty spectacular. It was also hard to photograph, but that didn’t influence my decision, the dining room was my favourite. After seeing each of the rooms we dutifully dropped our tokens into the respective perspex boxes (a bit like you do in Waitrose).

It’ll be interesting to hear which room is overall most popular, I suspect it might be this one as it did have the wow factor. And it’s the last room of the Giant Houseplant Takeover.

As soon as you enter this room, you know it’s going to be special. Not only as the bathroom sink is the first glimpse you get, but also because people are reluctant to move on and vacate their viewing position. It’s understandable, but frustrating though I’m sure I did exactly that too.

I was surprised that MOH opted for this room as his favourite as he’s really not a fan of Mind Your Own Business, which I’m cultivating very happily in our garden to soften the edges of the slate and paving, and the edges of the sleeper raised beds. He’s all for ripping it up, and I’m sure is more enthusiastic about any ‘pruning’ that I authorise than I intend him to be. I’ll be able to remind him that he was a fan, next time he rolls his eyes at the MYOB though, won’t I?

The shower over the tub, as I’ve titled this post, was the main and spectacular centrepiece for this room. But it’s not just about the cascading water, which is pretty cool, look at the detail of the shower head, and how the plants behind the cascade echo the downward movement. It’s very clever, and not something that’s been thrown together.

I was fascinating by the bath structure too, and as you can see from the photo above it’s supported by a couple of posts, which gives it that ‘floating’ feeling. The blue also helps it both stand out and blend in to its surroundings. The plants throughout the exhibition were fantastic, but it was here (along with the leaves on the bureau in the living room) that my interest was really piqued.

A BIRD’S NEST FERN

I’ve not seen plants like the Bird’s Nest fern above before (it’s ‘Crispy Wave’ if you want to know more) but I’d very happily see much more of this, and seeing it closer to home (i.e. in my back garden) would also be welcome. Though the fact that it was in the hot houses at Wisley, probably means it won’t be so happy out side in all weathers.

Once again it pays to look up, as there were these quite large plants and their bound root balls above our heads. These reminded me of the snitch (or ball) used in the quidditch games in Harry Potter. I’m sure they’re probably supposed to represent something else, but that’s the first thing that came to my mind. I’m not quite sure what that says about my mind though…

It was good to end the tour of the house with a pop of colour from these Birds of Paradise-like plants, especially for me, you know how much I love colour. You already know which rooms were mine and MOH’s favourites, but which is yours?