Sudbrook Cottage was pretty but busy

I had visited Sudbrook Cottage a few times and, knowing what to expect, I squeezed a visit to it at the end of a busy afternoon looking at local gardens.

Actually I only knew what to expect from the garden, I had not expected it to be so busy with visitors and with Pimms and cake on offer most people there were treating it as a picnic rather than a chance to explore the garden. It was warm so I helped myself to a Pimms too but it was the garden that I was there for and I picked my away around the picnickers to enjoy the structure of the garden and the planting within it.

There were a few differences from previous visits but nothing to get alarmed about. A neat stone bench had been repaired (I liked it broken) and a small greenhouse had appeared next to the house, and that was about it.

As before, the classical pond was the centrepiece and I waited patiently to take this picture of it, just as the garden was closing, with nobody in it, which is how I like my gardens.

Sudbrook Cottage was not a large garden, though it was by no means small either and the name "cottage" was somewhat misleading, and I was able to walk around it two or three times in the half an hour or so that I had. What made it worth walking around two or three times was the sheer amount of stuff to look at with lots of borders and beds all packed with plants and ornaments.

Sudbrook Cottage was a very explorable garden and the Pimms added a nice little touch to that exploration.