NGS 2013 Garden Visits

[johnryden]

I thought it might be a good idea to start a thread for people's visits to NGS open gardens this year?  I have been to several over the last few months, but the one which has impressed me the most is MILLRACE GARDEN AND NURSERY (http://www.millrace-plants.co.uk/index.htm) which I visited last Sunday.

This is a specialist perennial nursery with attached large show garden which is used to provide plants for the nursery.  The garden is a surprising find in a suburb of Leeds off a major dual carriageway.

The area to the front of the house is set off with curving perennial borders, full to bursting with herbaceous plants and shrubs with highlights of ornamental trees.  Theme plants are provided in the borders - iris, huge poppies, a range of alliums, geums and hardy geraniums.  The overall colour scheme is a range of purples, reds and blues with occasional dots of yellow and orange.  The sweeping beds wind across the lawn creating 'cul de sacs' encouraging the viewer to pause and enjoy the feast of colour.  To the side of the drive, with more borders, is a woodland walk under mature trees with hostas, ferns, pulmonerias and other shade-loving plants.  Behind the house is an upper paved terrace with sinks of alpine plants.  A lower walled courtyard is paved with an ankle high shimmer of plants that seed themselves in the interstices between the paving slabs - erodiums, thymes, poppies and geraniums.

Steps down from the courtyard lead to another garden space with an imposing laburnum tunnel dripping with blossom and 'walled' on either side by alliums.  More borders then surround another lawn, with a productive vegetable plot to one side.  A beech hedge with an ornamental gate screens a wildflower meadow interspersed with specimen trees, lilies, geraniums and the remains of daffodils and buttercup and clover.  The mown path leads down to a damp garden  densely planted either side of a ditch crossed by a small bridge that allows one to admire the planting of damp-loving plants.  The path then winds round one side of extensive pools which presumably have some link to the "millrace" for which the garden is named.  These are surrounded by mature trees and edged with yellow flag.  The water was a rather murky brown, but supports some waterfowl.

Overall an interesting and exciting garden which took us a couple of hours to explore fully.  The only problem I found was that none of the plants were labelled and since the garden included just about every hardy geranium you could imagine this made "wish-listing" for a geranium lover like me very difficult!  The nursery was good and not too expensive.  Of course, we bought some plants including a Sambucus Black Lace to replace an acer which we lost to the bitter winds of "spring" this year and an Aegopodium podograria variegatum which having read how invasive it can be has now been banished to a pot on the terrace!

The garden has a photostream on flikr  http://www.flickr.com/photos/millracenursery/ which saves me putting up any of the photos I took.

Full details:
Millrace Garden and Nursery
84 Selby Road,
Garforth, Leeds
LS25 1LP
www.millrace-plants.co.uk

Anyone else been on a garden visit they would like to share?

[trishs]

I am ashamed to admit that this garden is just about within walking distance of our house but yet we have still to coincide motivation to visit with a time when they are actually open for visitors!  We've bought plants from the nursery a couple of times though

[ideasguy]

A great idea John and thanks for starting the ball rolling with Millrace.
I would enjoy a walk around that garden myself. The photos presentation on the website is very good.
In the photos, I can see they use Perovskia a lot. That electric blue looks really good in photos.
You've done a very extensive writeup John - it must have taken ages. Its very much appreciated!