Part two of the Warwick gardens day organised by the Garden Media Guild took us to The Mill Garden. The oft over-used phrase 'hidden gem' is not an over-use of that phrase for this garden.
The Mill House Garden is owned by Julia Measures, the gardens were laid out by her father Arthur from when they bought the house in 1938. They gradually acquired more land for the garden and it is now around half and acre. This visit was the second part of our visit to Warwick organised by the Garden Media Guild, we walked from the Hill Close Gardens to the Mill Garden which took around fifteen minutes, skirting around the castle and down some very charming picturesque roads. We partly walked because it was a nice day, not all of us were in cars and the parking nearby is not plentiful. This is very much a private garden that just happens to open to the public.
The house next door is a castle, the garden nestles (there is no better word) in the lee of the castle. I at first thought that the castle would dominate the garden, be such a huge feature overlooking the space that it would be hard to get away from. In reality having established that this magnificent neighbour was there my eyes turned to the garden. It was the garden that was entrancing me more.
The mill that the garden is named after is part of the castle, the house itself was by the side of the main road to London that went past the house and over the medieval bridge that the ruins of are still standing in the river. The garden itself is boundaried by the River Avon. It is an idyllic spot.
The garden is expertly planted. The colours and textures work together brilliantly. You walk along some narrow paths and then into open areas of lawn and borders and just say 'wow'. It is a masterclass in mixed planting.
The house makes a perfect backdrop, with its origins in Elizabethan times and it is the most lovely pink. I do like a pink house.
I enjoyed this display of pots,
and enjoyed the dahlias that were in full flower.
The more I walked around the garden the more I understood why there was plentiful seating in exactly the right positions to sit and enjoy the views. It is a garden to sit it and just be for a moment.
You can sit, look at the planting, look at the castle and muse to yourself that time has stood still for a precious moment. Though in truth, we were all so excited about exploring the garden whilst we were there it was full of joyous chatter and we all made sure none of us had missed the plant, the view, the joy that we were experiencing individually.