Wiveton Hall Kitchen Garden

I’m a creature of habit, and once I find a fantastic garden, I can’t help returning to the scene, again and again. The stylishly unkempt walled kitchen garden at Wiveton Hall is always a lure, and combined with great coastal walks and big big skies, it’s a fantastic reason for sojourning in Norfolk (along the north coast to be precise!). I have blogged about the garden before, but I find that with each new visit comes a fresh wave of inspiration. I mean, what can beat the elegance and delight of a gnarly old pear tree surrounded by such flinty gorgeousness.?

Or a field full of Fennel (aka Florence Fennel if you plan on buying seeds)?
This most perfect of spots is attached to a 17th century Jacobean manor house and a cafe, whose chefs forage daily in the garden. For full immersion, you can hire a wing of the house (or one of their nearby cottages) or have a delicious meal at the cafe, overlooking the surrounding marshes. Alternatively, just pay your £2 in the shop (next to the cafe),

and pop in for gentle wander.

Mid October, and there are still a few blooms in flower. Above, pink Nerine bowdenii and the daisy like Erigeron karvinksiannus hug the base on the wall,
and parsley is supplying dainty lime green umbellifers as it goes to seed.

Eslewhere in the garden,  there are still plenty of herbs and veg to keep the restaurant going until it closes for the season on November 3rd. (Reopening around Easter 2014).

Along with the planting, I was rather taken by this fine trio of compost bins.

I love their simple but brilliant construction and the fact that they too sit happily amid the flint surroundings.

Whilst it seems like a quiet time in the garden, the walls are awash with trained fruit trees,

and fruit canes (not sure if this is a Tayberry or Loganberry?) have been beautifully positioned for the year ahead.

More forward planning and propagation can be seen in a patched up cold frame,
in the greenhouses,
and nestling in other corners of the garden. My idea of heaven.