Honkas, woodpiles and Rocombe Farm

These are Honkas – proper name, Dahlia Honka Surprise – and who could resist such happy, smiley flowers?

Both of them live in Sue (Sue, as in gluten-free beer expert Sue)’s garden up behind Lyme Regis. Also in Sue’s garden, this very ‘Interiors’ table with a vase of montbretia …

and, very impressively, this very fine woodpile, built with her own fair hands! (She apologises for the plastic but because it is under the trees and the wood needs to dry it has to be protected from the elements.)

Maybe even more impressive and only a short walk across the fields away is the fabulous Rocombe Farmhouse garden created by Guy Woodhouse.

Admirers of Piet Oudolf, the Dutch  landscape designer who popularised the sweeps of plants concept (you can see his work not that far from Rocombe at the Hauser & Wirth Gallery in Bruton), would love Rocombe Farm. Created on an acre plot up a gentle slope, swathes of grasses and, at this time of year, rudbekia and michaelmas daisies sweep up the hill, dotted with tall waving purple verbena and intersected with tiny stone and grass paths. (For lots more images see Guy’s website or Instagram site.)

The flower garden takes up maybe half of the site. Up above it an orchard and and extensive and well fenced (against the local wildlife!) and beautifully maintained vegetable garden ringed with pleached fruit trees. How about this for a laden plum tree?

Rocombe Farm is Guy’s personal project but he also designs gardens (and maintains them), creates garden structures and works in wood himself. There are some beautiful wooden pieces in his shop on his site.