Guest Author - Hellie T.

Abbey House Gardens - a truly inspirational five acre English Garden on the edge of the Cotswolds, near the old town of Malmesbury in Wiltshire.

Malmesbury is a lovely old market town dating back to Saxon times. It has a charter that was granted in 924, and claims to be the oldest borough in England. The Abbey contains the tomb of Athelstan, grandson of Alfred the Great, and the first Saxon to be recognised as the King of England.

The Gardens were originally used by monks for growing medicinal herbs and are beside the historic ruins of the Abbey and built around a 16th century house.

Now they have over 10,000 different trees, shrubs and plants set in a beautiful setting which slopes down hill to the river Avon.

Features that make Abbey House Gardens worth visiting

A Celtic Cross Knot Garden
Large lovely beds of roses - two thousand different roses were planted to celebrate the Millennium.

An arcaded fruit walk with pears, medlars, quince and grape vines.
Huge herbaceous borders
A laburnum tunnel.

A 'mediaeval' herb garden with over 2000 herb species.
Topiary.
A fernery.

Yew hedges.
Fish ponds and a waterfall.
Plus a woodland garden planted with thousands of Spring flowering bulbs

In Spring there are over 70,000 tulips, crocus, hyacinths,snowdrops, daffodils, irises and primroses, plus fruit tree blossoms.

These beautiful English Gardens have been featured on several television programmes.
The owners Ian and Barbara Pollard do alot of the gardening themselves and are known to prefer gardening in the nude but they do wear gardening gloves and shoes - they are known as the Naked Gardeners. There are days when you can visit the gardens when clothing is optional.

They started to recreate the garden in 1996 as the whole area was completely overgrown with weeds and brambles, which of course had to be cleared before they could start designing and before any planting could begin. It is an amazing transformation and well worth a visit.


To find out about the history and creation of the Gardens go to the Abbey House website which also tells you which flowers are in bloom at this moment
http://www.abbeyhousegardens.co.uk/

The gardens are open every day from March 21st to October 21st
11.00am to 5.30pm


Enjoy your English Garden!