Astleham Garden Project |
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Around Astleham Manor Cottage at the entrance to the Museum we are currently working on a new historic garden to welcome visitors to our site. The garden has been inspired by the ideas and designs of Gertrude Jekyll. She was a famous gardener around the turn of the twentieth century, using colour and texture in the plants to create the same effect as impressionism in paintings. The Formal Garden The largest area of garden starting from the Ticket Office will centre around a main lawn and will be divided further into three spaces using both informal planting of herbaceous plants and shrubs and structures for climbing plants. The Orchard This orchard will be located at the far end of the Formal Garden and will provide a beautiful area of native meadow grass and flowers under the spreading branches of fruit trees. The Private Garden This garden will provide a relaxing area for Museum staff and volunteers. The garden has been designed by the Farm and Site Manager, Conway Rowland, and much of the work to date has been carried out by Museum volunteers, including the construction of the rose arbor and pergola. Teams of corporate volunteers have also kindly given their time to assist with the garden construction. We are very grateful to GE Healthcare, GE Money, Cadburys and Skandia Life volunteers for all they have done to help construct the hard landscaping features such as the brick paths or the relocation of the sculpture seat over the last few years. The Museum blacksmiths have also helped to construct the metal arbor seat for the garden and the iron guards to the orchard trees. The brick pavers came from H.G.Matthews brickyard in Bellingdon, Chesham and they have also provided some in kind assistance for the project. During 2010 the borders were dug over by the Earthworks Conservation group and planted up by Museum volunteers using only plants that were grown in gardens at the turn of the 20th Century. We are grateful to Ayletts Nursery for their support with this part of the project. Edwardian style forged metal benches now also complement the beautiful shrubs, plants and flowers. We are grateful to all those companies and volunteers who have supported this project and hope that our visitors continue to be delighted by this welcoming feature at the entrance of the Museum.
We are grateful to the following generous sponsors for this project : Bucks County Council |
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