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About Ivy House Garden
Ivy House Garden was first mentioned in William Robinson’s Cottage Gardening magazine, in the late 1890s, when C.W.Groves nursery, now relocated to West Bay, Bridport, was situated in Piddletrenthide. The garden as it is today was laid out in 1986 by the current owners. The steep, chalky hillside presents quite a challenge both to the gardener and the visitor! Within the half-acre plot are different areas of interest, including two ponds, an organic No-dig potager with flowers for cutting, vegetables, a fruit garden and herbaceous borders. There are also two greenhouses and a polytunnel, the latter used for over-wintering perennials, growing early salad crops and in the Summer months for tomatoes, squashes and cucumbers.
A Spring woodland garden above the Summerhouse is planted with a dolly-mixture of tulips and a collection of hellebores and early flowering shrubs. In Summer swags of rambler roses bloom in front of the Summerhouse.
Back in 2004, 25 trees, mostly Leylandii, at the top boundary, were felled and a wildlife-attractant garden with many berrying shrubs, was created on the upper slopes, with far-reaching countryside views. Run on organic lines, the garden is fed annually with a mixture of our own compost and leaf mould with horse manure fed to the roses and clematis.
In 2018 a ‘Nectar Bar’ was developed alongside the ‘No-Dig’ vegetable and fruit garden to attract early and late season pollinators, which helps to produce good crops.
More recently we have developed a wildflower patch around the hives to provide the bees with ‘Instant Foraging’!
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