Moor`s Edge

Garden Visits 2

This group is now at maximum capacity. A third Garden Visits group has now started up. If you are interested, please sign the board at the General Meetings and the group leader will contact you.

JANUARY 2024
On January 27th, our group met for the first garden visit of 2024. We were a
small group of 6 and visited the Garden House near Yelverton to see the
wonderful display of snowdrops they have there at the moment, and dozens
more people had the same idea as the queue to get a coffee took us over
half an hour to get through! We were so lucky with the weather which was
sunny and calm which made our visit all the more enjoyable. Apart from the
snowdrops the crocuses were popping up in the grassy areas all around the
garden and will soon look a picture. Several of the camellias were in flower
and many more in bud so it won’t be long before the garden will look
different again. We eventually made our way back to the cafe with some
trepidation but were lucky as most of the crowds of the morning had gone
and we were able to have a quiet late lunch together whilst we chatted and
“put the world to rights” before making tracks for home.
Just to add that in November our group met at Otter Nurseries in Brixton for
lunch followed by a bit of early Christmas shopping before saying our
goodbyes. We did not meet in December.
&
Our next outing will be the 4th Friday of the month which will be 23rd
February.
Gail Parker

Garden Visits - Group 2
On 22nd September, five members of our group visited Stone Lane Gardens near Chagford.
These gardens were created by Kenneth and June Ashburner in the 1970’s who owned Stone
Farm. Kenneth was an avid traveller and collected many seeds on his travels and this was the
beginning of the arboretum we see today. His wife founded the open air sculpture exhibition in
1992 and it continues to flourish.
We had a lovely trip over the moors to Moretonhampstead, if a little protracted due to a tourist
coach ahead taking in the sights, lots of sheep sunbathing in the middle of the road, not to
mention the cyclists!
Having had a welcome coffee in the tearooms, we made our way to the main garden which is
actually more of an arboretum. As mentioned, there were a variety of trees and the sun shining
through the treetops made a very pretty picture. Not many flowers due to the time of year but in
Spring would look very different. There are 3 ponds dotted around and there were several
remains of what was left of the annual sculpture display that is held throughout the summer. All of
the sculptures were for sale. The one that stood out was a horse made from scrap iron.
After a few showers we managed to find shelter which was nice and dry to have our packed
lunch. We were also joined by an extra guest to help us eat it! (Robin) We then made our way
back past the tearooms and up a steep field to a lovely viewpoint (and thank goodness, a seat),
overlooking the moors across to Chagford.
Time to head back home and luckily we made it back a lot quicker than going. Another lovely day
with lovely company.
Gail Parker

MAY 2023

In May 9 of our group did something very different by visiting a very large private garden in Looseleigh Lane Plymouth, owned by a young couple who are working very hard to restore this wonderful garden back to its former glory. Their job is almost complete. We were given a guided tour by the very welcoming owners who gave us a brief history of the garden and the house, which was originally one of the owners childhood home. We were all amazed as to how beautiful it was. A large sweeping lawn led down to a wonderful horseshoe display of Rhododendrons, Azaleas and Magnolias, some of which were 30 to 40 feet high with many other flowering plants interspersed between them. The colours were spectacular. Behind these there was a large wooded area left to naturalise. There were at least 3 large wisteria trees which smelt fabulous and many more gorgeous shrubs, flowers and trees too numerous to mention. There was also a large pond, an alpine rockery and several bee hives too. Photos cannot really do this garden justice. We then returned to our Group Leader’s house who had very kindly laid on a super afternoon tea on her terrace. The sun was shining and the rest of the afternoon was spent eating, drinking and, as usual, lots of chit chat.
What a lovely afternoon!