Abbey House Gardens

Having worked at a busy herb nursery for the last couple of years, the frantic growing season usually passed me by in a blur of watering, feeding, propagating, potting and pest hunting. Now that I find myself with a (hopefully short) hiatus between jobs which has happened to fall at the tail end of the summer, I'm trying to make the most of the opportunity to visit some gardens in the area before the blooms fade.

So yesterday I headed off with a friend to Abbey House Gardens in Malmesbury. Right in the heart of the hilltop town the gardens surround the beautiful grey stone Abbey House, home of the Pollard family since 1994. The gardens were once cultivated by Benedictine monks and Ian Pollard's work in developing them has successfully combined these historical influences with more contemporary garden design.

We let the garden lead us and ignored the map in the leaflet, making own our way round - I much prefer to explore a garden bit by bit. First we came to the knot garden, satisfyingly neat, clipped box hedges were filled with bright colour. An intricately clipped square knot of box and germander at the base of a standard tree really intrigued us.

We then passed through the carved stone 'Saxon Arch' onto the upper lawn, overlooked by the walls of Malmesbury Abbey and with every border gloriously filled with roses. We followed the hedge around behind the lawn, passing crab apples red and yellow, and carried on down between herbaceous borders full to bursting with summer exuberance. The stew pond full of enormous koi carp held our attention for a while, and although I'm sure these aren't destined for any stew it's an interesting demonstration of the monastic history of the garden.

The herb garden of raised beds is enclosed by 'cloisters' of climbing plants, a staggeringly effective mass of flowering clematis, roses and fruit cordons. We were compelled to sit for a while and drink it in, although as herb growers we were itching to dive in and cut back the perennial herbs which had finished flowering.

On the far side of the house the character of the garden instantly changes. The control and precision of the lines and planting in front of the house relaxes into naturalistic woodland sloping down to the river. We meandered along the shady path downhill, crossing the River Avon on stepping stones. Following the path we came to a deliciously secluded waterfall before emerging into the sunshine at the summit of a little hill looking across the river and back up towards the house. Heavy rain the day before had given the river water an eerie opaqueness which contrasted with the blue of the sky.

I could keep writing, but I'll end by saying that the garden will be worth a visit when the autumn colours arrive, and again in spring to see the laburnum tunnel in full glory. Filled with unusual sculptures, inspired planting and even with its own resident tortoise, this garden reminded me of the power of a great garden to influence mood and induce calm, even in a town centre.