Brackencote

About Brackencote

The beautiful country garden of Brackencote has been evolving since the 1930’s when the house was first built. It’s current owners have spent the last 25 years nurturing and developing it to include a wide range of features and planting.

The stunning wild flower meadow was begun in 2001 and is now full of Orchids in Spring and early Summer, including the Green Winged Orchid, and the Common Spotted Orchid. Different species ebb and flow through this area and these days the Orchids are accompanied by Yellow Rattle, Knapweed, Red Clover, Fox and Cubs, and a host of other indigenous plants.

The 1.25 acre plot is surrounded by mature trees, such as Limes, Oaks and Aspens. Phlox filled herbaceous borders enclose a large circular main lawn, which is left untreated with herbicides so as to create a tapestry of flowers and forage for birds, bees and other insects. Wildlife abounds here, from nesting grass-snakes in the compost heaps, to Pole-Cats trotting up the garden paths and toads in the veg plot! Bird species are plentiful, with green and common Woodpeckers, Owls and a noisy family of Jackdaws nesting in the chimney pots.

The garden has been designed to have a great variety of interest and colour throughout all the seasons. The front driveway to the house is particularly special in springtime, with Hellibores, Snake-head Fritillaries and Snowdrops underpinning scented Witch-Hazel and blossoming trees such as Crab Apples and Magnolia.

Very damp and slow draining clay soil has guided a lot of the planting choices, and has inspired the bog garden section, started in 2018, where Gunneras, Irises and Primulas find their home with Lysichitons (skunk cabbages).

Other sections include a re-designed and extended rock-garden, now 6 years old, and the original ’round garden’ by the house, at it’s best in the late afternoon sunshine. The large formal vegetable garden is often used as a ‘holding area’ for plants which have yet to find their ‘forever home’ in the garden, but it now seems that the Irises and the Roses are long-term residents of this area.

The most recent addition to the top of the garden is the turf and brick labyrinth, created during lockdown, and which the adults of the household seem to enjoy running around as much as the children!
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