About 19 Waterdale
The garden has evolved over the last 30 years from lawns, surrounded by conifers, to a plant crammed jungle of winding paths and unexpected discoveries. The terrace and verandah provide a home for exotic and scented plants and a lion head fountain. From here steps descend to a wide lawn, with a sunny rock bank on one side and a bed for shade lovers on the other. An arch, smothered in roses, honeysuckle and clematis, leads through a fernery to the folly, festooned with roses and ivy. The path then opens out into the oriental garden, with acers surrounding the Japanese tea house. The newest part of the garden features a moongate framing a planting of hydrangeas and roses. The return journey takes visitors over a little bridge and through a pink and purple themed border to the gothic summerhouse (featured in George Clarke’s Amazing Spaces 2014). Steps behind the summerhouse go down into the shell grotto created out of an old air raid shelter hidden under the rock bank. The garden has many unusual plants, luxuriant foliage and colour themed borders – all packed into a sixth of an acre town garden.