Pretty things at Ormeley Lodge (June 2014)

Ormeley Lodge is another of the local houses that opens its gardens as part of the National Gardens Scheme and which I go to at every opportunity because it is so pretty.

It is also vast with lots of different sections so it takes quite a while to get round it all. It takes even longer if you stop for a cup of tea and a biscuit.

As expected, I took dozens of photos and had a hard time sorting them out for the various places that they got posted, e.g. Facebook, Flickr and this blog. For the final selection, i.e. this blog, I have chosen my favourite photos. These show just small parts of the garden and, deliberately, say nothing about the way it is shaped or constructed.

I chose the first one not just for the neat Box hedge but also for the glimpse of the house behind it.

The garden is divided in to sections by large hedges. These are attractive in themselves and they also form a pleasant background to more colourful plants, such as these Sweet Peas in the vegetable plot that runs alone the right-hand side of the garden.

At the back of the garden is the wild orchard. I took more pictures here than anywhere else and picking just one was maddening. So I picked two. I chose this one because of the sheer variety of the flowers and grasses.

This is the back of the house and here it is the combination of the different materials that I like and the way that the flowers bust out of the pot to show that life can exist among the stones.

The large lawn at the back of the house is surrounded by a thick border of mixed flowers and, behind this, a tall hedge. A gap in the hedge leads to the wild orchards and then to the back gate. Once this gave access to Richmond Park but now there is a golf course there.

The second picture of the wild orchard features the rhinoceros. The rhinoceros always gets featured in my photographs of Ormeley Lodge and there is no reason why this trip should be any different.

One of my favourite objects in the garden is hidden away. It feels as though it should be basking in Battersea Park rather than sheltering next to the tennis court.

Back to the lawn and a solid old table. This year it was joined there by an old dog, one of several that had been added to the garden since my previous visit.