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. It is hoped that the planting of the mulched borders will take place in spring 2010 and the garden can be admired by visitors over the 2010 season. We are grateful to the following generous sponsors for this project : Bucks County Council |
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