I had wanted to visit Audley End House and Gardens for some time. I knew that Garden Organic had taken over the running of the kitchen garden some years ago and I was interested to visit. I confess, I had no idea the scale of the rest of Audley End.
Audley End is one of the few houses that English Heritage stewards. It is an extremely grand stately home built in the 1600s. It was briefly owned by King Charles II who returned it to its original owners in 1701. The house was originally much larger, but two wings were removed in the 1800s. It is still huge, making it hard to imagine how grandiose, how imcredible it must have originally looked like.
The house sits within a Capability Brown landscape, complete with temple
and bridge.
It was a warm day when I visited to I set off to see the kitchen garden first. My reasoning if I got too hot/tired I would have seen the primary reason for the visit. Firstly though I had to stop off to see the waterwheel. Sadly looking like it has not worked for a while.
and a nip down the path to find the Ellucian garden with bridge.
I liked this area, it felt calm and peaceful. I could have sat on the bench on the bridge for some time.
The kitchen garden beckoned so on I went. There is a small garden on the entry to the kitchen garden with these wonderful rocks. I wondered if they were pulhamite and a quick google told me that they were. This garden was built in 1867.
There is this pond with this curious hump.
which turned out to be a curious water feature. Again google tells me that the ponds were used to house a pet otter, as you do.
The kitchen garden is huge.
and is carefully laid out and maintained. I was interested to see explanations of how they deal with gardening problems so that when you spotted bindweed, you saw a sign saying that they are going to deal with it and how they would do so (organically, obvs) I liked this.
Behind the glasshouses is the bothy.
I loved the very smart tool display.
There was a good corner display of container planting,
and fabulous meadow area,
full of bees.
Then I stopped to see the amazingly grand stables, complete with horses.
Then it was time to wander back towards the house. Walking through the shade was nice. As I walked along this path I passed two huge concrete blocks either side of the path. They looked like they may have formed some sort of barrier/gate and I wondered if they were relics from WW2 when the house was home to many Polish soldiers. I thought I had taken a photo of the blocks, but apparently not.
After a quick pitstop for tea and cake (good cake), it was time to enter the parterre which was behind this wonderful lumpy bumpy hedge. I love a lumpy bumpy hedge.
The parterre is seriously wonderful. A great mix of perennial and annual planting.
The island beds were excellently planted,
with good use of height and colour.
The gardens are clearly very well cared for.
I had such a great visit and decided I must visit again. This is one of those gardens I would like to see in other seasons. As I walked back to the car I pondered that surely they must have snowdrops? My friend google confirmed that indeed they do. So I definitely predict a return.
Oh, how fascinating--the history, the structures, and the gardens! That tool display is truly impressive...and very neat and tidy, too!
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