I have talked many times about gardens on 'the list' and East Ruston Vicarage Garden is on this imaginary list. It is a schlep from where I live so I had already thought that a visit would have to include an overnight stay or two. A couple of weeks ago a visit to Norfolk became something that was going to happen for a family visit. It was a gathering of the clan and once we'd established where we would be spending Saturday night I started to look for gardens to visit on the way home.
I realised that East Ruston was about thirty minutes from where we would be staying so this seemed a good plan. Then I rethought the plan: I thought how about if I travel the day before and visit East Ruston on the way, adding an extra night somewhere not too far away. This seemed a fine idea and I mooted it to my younger brother to see if he fancied joining me.
The sun shone on the day. We arrived mid afternoon and had a good wander around.
The oohs started quite quickly. Look at these amazing brugmansia. I love brugmansia and marvelled at their height and spread. One of the team told me that these were taken under cover in the winter and I mused about maybe having to use a forklift to do this.
The garden is made up of different areas and is huge. I mean really huge, 32 acres of huge. This was a little overwhelming and we did agree that this garden might need several visits to get the best from it.
We moved around from focal point to focal point.
We were lured to this feature by the sound of running water,
We caught glimpses of the next vista we wanted to explore, but saved the thought whilst we finished our wander where we currently were. I didn't want to miss anything but diving down different paths felt like it could lead to missing more.
The different areas all have characters of their own, I liked this.
This is the Desert Wash garden, it felt dry and scorched unlike my soggy Leicester garden that has been soggy all year.
I really liked the Maltesers Gate. I don't think they call it the Maltesers Gate, but it looks like Maltesers to me and if I owned it then you can be certain what it would be called. This is probably why no one would let me near owning a 32 acre garden.....
I might have loved these elephants more than was reasonable.
As the sun was getting quite low at this point the shadows added some drama to the garden.
The Vegetable and Cutting Garden is stupendous. Again I reflected on my own meagre plot and felt briefly inadequate. This is a masterclass on what a vegetable garden could be and I admire it but know I could never achieve a fraction of this as I don't have a commitment to perfection.
But it was rather wonderful. You know I am not going to show you the whole garden, looking at the website I am not certain I saw the whole garden so I will have to return.
I spent some time trying to focus from the grand scale to the detail,
enjoying the individual plants as much as the bigger picture.
We became a little obssessed with trying to get a good picture of Happisburgh Lighthouse that is framed through views from the garden. This might (did) involve at one point standing on a well positioned bucket to take a photo over the hedge. We were certain that the bucket was there specifically for this purpose.
Many attempts led to this one which I think I like the best of my efforts.
and we had to drive past it to get to our hotel for the night so it silly not to park up briefly and get a nother photo.