Welcome

The Farm was purchased in 1987 and now covers 43 acres of garden with water meadows and woodland.

About Us

The Garden was started in "Strawberry Valley" in 1991. Excavators were used to landscape the hillsides and to create the lake and several ponds which are linked by waterfalls. The garden includes many camellias, rhododendrons and magnolias.

Our Services

The Nursery features a wide range of shrubs, herbaceous, woodland and waterside plants. Some of our most unusual plants are hand collected by botanic expeditions to far flung parts of the world and are not generally available to the public. A successful garden design and planting service is also run by the nursery.

The Garden

There was already an existing small stream and lots of springs rising. We undertook to excavate a large lake and several smaller ponds and plant them out with a mixture of native and exotic plants. Three years later we built a rockery on the side of the hill, and since that time we have continued to plant and extend the garden. We have deliberately kept it a 'wild' garden, allowing native plants room to grow, in fact we have definite policies about leaving the grassy banks wild and encouraging wildflowers to seed about.The garden is at it's best in the spring. Each year we open at least once in February for visitors to enjoy the drifts of daffodils and the early flowering camellias. Early May is when the garden is at it's peak with the rhododendrons in full flower and everything set off by the wonderful backdrop of the carpet of bluebells through the woods. Because of the mild climate in this part of the country we are also fortunate in being able to grow many Mediterranean and Southern Hemisphere plants not normally hardy in the rest of the country. The garden itself covers about 12 acres with further areas in the woods partly planted.

The Woods

THE WOODS.... about 30 acres of the farm is classified as 'Ancient Woodland', it was mostly planted in the last century and comprises mostly beech, oak and chestnut. In the gales of 1990 we lost the whole of the western edge of the woods, this has been replanted and is maturing well. We have provided walks throughout the woodland areas and in early May the whole area is a carpet of bluebells. In the past year through the Countryside Stewardship Scheme we have re-instated some of the woodland ponds too.
The farm has also been extensively planted with young trees in many areas. a 9 acre field above the garden has been taken out of arable and planted as a new mixed wood and a large shelter belt of young trees has been planted on some of the higher land. There are plans to replant and extend the woodland areas in the future.

The Nursery

We are a small specialist nursery growing a large part of our own stock. The garden being the source of much of our plant material.

We have a wide range of acid lovers such as camellias, rhododendrons and magnolias - many of which you will see flowering in the garden in spring.

We also grow many more unusual shrubs and herbaceous plants - southern hemisphere plants being a specialty.

Some of our stock is grown for landscaping work we undertake. However the public are always welcome to visit and buy available plants.

The nursery stock is also exhibited at shows around South West England and regularly win awards for our displays.

We also sell at Dartmouth market every Friday and local farmers markets too.