2023 Garden Ramble
Garden 1
Take a moment to enjoy the views over the fields before you walk up the long drive to Garden 1.
Beneath the lych gate, you enter aworld filled with lush foliage and flowers, with a wildlife corridor as a backdrop. One side of the garden has an open, grassy area, bordered by gardens, with a little paved seating area surrounded by a large kiwi vine.
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Gin Tasting by Dawning Day
Garden 2
Just around the corner is the second garden. You are sure to be inspired by this well designed formal garden which is open and sun filled. Heritage roses are a feature and more roses climb the arbour adjacent to the sunny courtyard.
Fruit trees, vegetables and flowers mingle successfully. One corner has a more relaxed area, with plants sprouting through mulch. This favourite space feels “almost as though it hugs you and keeps you there”.
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Performance by The Ukesters, 2pm Sat. 28
Garden 3
A much-loved favourite this garden is open for a final showing. Featuring garden rooms full of flowers, trees and shrubs, sculpture and garden ornaments abound.
Down at the bottom of the garden, behind a row of espaliered fruit trees, is a children’s delight. A cluster of toadstools gather beside a secret door, while a white rabbit sits beside a clock waiting for Alice near a shady sasanqua tunnel.
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Books for sale
Garden 4
A large, eclectic garden filled with a plethora of plants. This garden is a real horticultural gem, with myriad species. Roses feature strongly.
Different plants are grouped to create special areas, one of which has a Japanese theme with a crooked bridge over a gravel “stream” and plants native to Japan. Mound gardens surround trees and seating is arranged to take advantage of special features throughout the garden.
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Garden sculptures by the Rusty Gardener for sale
Garden 5
A sweeping vista greets the visitor as you walk down the drive of this park-like front garden. Border garden paths reveal hidden gems of natives and exotics.
The back garden is more densely planted, with paths meandering through a grove, leading to a rustic bench in a small grassy circle – the perfect place to sit and enjoy the serenity of the garden and the wider views beyond.
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Lions Club Cafe
Garden 6
Revisit this woodland favourite where ceramic totems and other beautiful ceramic pieces, created by the owner, are featured throughout the garden.
Hellebores cluster around tree trunks, with many perennials and shrubs growing alongside. At the back a wisteria arbor is the perfect place to sit and contemplate. It is a calming, peaceful garden, filled with birdsong.
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Ceramics for sale
Garden 7
Colour plays a large part in garden seven, from the coloured-pencil picket fence beside the garage, to the variety of plantings throughout.
A purple magnolia spreads its limbs over a garden planted with yellow and red mixed flowers below, whereas in the Zen garden red, a lucky colour, is the choice for landscape and flowers around the raked gravel with its rock “mountain”.
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Gelato Van
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Scottish Piper Performance
12 noon, Saturday and Sunday
Garden 8
New to the Ramble but an old garden with a large, gnarled ‘Sir Robert Peel’ rhododendron that has stood guard beside the driveway for generations. Behind a path leads to a sheltered woodland garden where fairy doors nestle in the old tree trunks.
A gigantic, sculptural pine stands proudly at the back fence, shading a pizza oven and fire pit. Trees, shrubs and flowers grow prolifically in the open, sun-filled spaces of the backyard.
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Exeter Plants
