Having arranged to visit our son and dil who live near London, we usually just stop half way for lunch at a pub in a little village. Thanks to Jessica at Rusty Duck writing a post about the garden at Hauser and Wirth Gallery in Somerset, designed by Piet Oudolf, I realised that it was just off the A303 which we would be travelling along, so seemed the ideal spot for a break. It was a shame about the weather, we had rain all the way, but it didn’t stop our enjoyment of the garden.
I think these look like duck heads, but they are in fact seats or benches. On the other side there is a long ledge where you can sit and enjoy the view of the garden.
The whole area was designed by Piet Oudolf, but this is the Oudolf field, to the north of the Gallery. The planting reminded me very much of a visit we made to Sussex Prairies a few years ago.
There were lots of grasses waving in the wind, making a lovely sound. Loved all the Veronicastrum.
Big swathes of plants make such a statement.
The further we went, it just got better and better, love this grass.
By the time we had walked round all the garden, the rain was torrential, so we made a quick dash to the car and went and had our lunch at our usual pub which was on the other side of the A303. It made a lovely break in our journey and one that we will repeat in the future, maybe at a different time of year, to see what is there then.
Obviously this is the garden to visit at the moment, I got back from London and there was a post waiting for me from Alison at the Blackberry Garden showing her visit there a couple of weeks ago. It is well worth a visit if you are in the area or passing. There was plenty there to inspire me with the planting of the border by the field, but really, to do it justice, I would need to buy the field next door!
Wow, it’s nicely planted. You got some wonderful photos despite the rain Pauline.
The planting was superb Susie, to have a border like that would be wonderful!
It’s a wonder the rain doesn’t show on the photos, by the time we beat a hasty retreat it was very heavy indeed, the wonders of modern cameras!
It’s great isn’t it. I can see changes.. the Echinacea pallida is fading but the Perovskia and the grasses are stronger than a couple of weeks ago. So glad you got to see it, even in the rain!!
It is a wonderful garden Jessica, many thanks for telling us about it, we would have sailed past otherwise! I can imagine that the garden will still be looking good well into September, if not beyond. The rain didn’t spoil our enjoyment of the garden, but juggling a camera and the umbrella was a bit difficult at times!
A lovely garden Pauline! I wonder, inspired by Piet Oudolf? Or maybe the other way round!
Ooops! I mentioned Piet Oudolf in the tags, but completely forgot to mention him in my post! I have now rectified my shameful omission. The whole area was designed by him Denise and the garden where we were is called the Oudolf field, well spotted!
I’ve just been catching up with a lot of your previous posts, Pauline – I love what you’ve done to the Gravel Garden area and it was the little festuca that caught my eye in your photos! You’ve inspired me to grow ophiopogon in pots; it would lovely growing with monochrome plants. I love the look of this grass but thought it could get scruffy when covered with fallen leaves as it did at Capel Manor where I studied so pot grown could be the answer. The Hauser and Wirth garden is on my wishlist, I so adore Piet Oudolf’s planting style, so inspirational, but have only seen it at Wisley and at Bury Court Barn. Makes me want to rush home and get planting!
I’ve still a bit more work to do on the gravel area Caro, but it’s certainly looking better than it was! My big mat of Ophiopogon does get lots of leaves in it, mainly from the Pittosporum which is above it and I have to regularly comb through it with my little hand fork to remove them. Once done, it does look lovely, very shiny, like newly washed hair!
The Oudolf garden was a delight, such lovely large areas of planting, it was a real inspiration. I’ll certainly be adding more plants to the side border this autumn, trying to recreate the look.
Isn’t it marvellous? I love OF and this style of planting in general in all seasons and weather conditions. Word is there are unexpected maintenance issues, but no sign of trouble in your extensive gallery of great images.
Wonderful Kate! I thought maintenance with planting like this, was just a case of waiting for spring and cutting everything down to the ground! I don’t know how old the planting is, but it looked very good to me.
Thanks for the photos of a garden designed by one of my favorite garden designers! The dreary day apparently created good photo conditions. I love the great swaths of color that flow so beautifully onto one another.
A pleasure Deb! P.O’s planting is certainly inspirational, it made me want to rush home and start all over again! Instead of planting 3 or 5 of everything, I should multiply it by 10!
What a marvelous place to stop at, the planting are just lovely, and I did enjoy the duck head seats. What a shame about the rain though, hopefully next time it will be dry.xxx
It is a truly wonderful garden Dina and the rain didn’t really spoil our enjoyment, the journey to London though was a bit of a pain, fighting through all the spray. The planting was wonderful and I could see that there were lots of plants still to flower.
Oh, so gorgeous! As always with Oudolf, I have to love the mix of shapes and colors. What is the blue flower in the fourth photograph?
Jason, I was hoping no-one would ask me about the plants, nothing was labelled! I too love the combination of all the plants, different shapes and sizes, and the grasses were moving like waves in the wind.
You can’t really tell that it’s raining, Pauline, and it looks just as stunning as when Jessica visited. I smiled at the benches and you saying they look like duck heads, because Jessica said they resembled something else and to me they look like a pair of eyes!! It’s good to have this sort of stopping off place, isn’t it?
Stopping at this garden on our way to London Cathy, made the journey much more enjoyable. The rain doesn’t show on the photos, but everyone was huddled under umbrellas like us, trying to juggle cameras!
Wow! Beautiful.
I love the look but wonder how these gardens hold up over the years. I bet it’s probably easier to just replant when things start to overwhelm their neighbors but the large scale color is amazing.
I think everything gets cut to the ground in the spring Frank, so the wildlife can enjoy the seeds over the winter, it should be fairly easy then to split anything that needs it. I think planting in larger blocks of colour is so effective in a large garden, everything looked so wonderful.