Ampney Crucis visit
On Wednesday, 29th June 39 members of the Gardening Club set out by coach for an afternoon visit to The Coach House at Ampney Crucis. The weather forecast was poor but in the end proved to be over-pessimistic as the rain held off for the whole visit.
We were greeted by the owner Mel Tanner who gave us a brief history of the Coach House and the creation of the garden over the past 25 years. The garden covers about one and a half acres and is divided into rooms on different levels and is designed to provide interest throughout the year.
The house is surrounded by a York stone terrace with steps leading to a lawn with herbaceous borders and up further steps to a wonderful rose garden which in turn leads to the swimming pool garden. Beyond the herbaceous borders there is a green room with a pleached lime allée, which provides a calm area before entering the rill garden which has a golden border facing east and a west facing red border – these borders make the most of the sunlight at different times of the day and also through the changing seasons. Passing through the rill garden we come to the area growing vegetables and flowers for the house. Leaving the terrace from the end of the house is a meandering path which is planted for spring and autumn interest, with early flowering shrubs, trees with blossom and autumn colour. This area is under-planted with bulbs, hellebores and epimediums. Throughout the garden there are arches, arbours, urns and even a scarecrow in the vegetable garden with vistas that encouraged us to explore the rest of the garden.
After we had all had plenty of time to walk around the different areas and enjoy the pleasures of this wonderful garden, we had a very welcome cream tea before returning home.
