The Garden

“With Breathtaking views over the City of Wells and the Vale of Avalon, this six acre family garden planted sympathetically within its landscape, provides a stunning combination of vistas accented with wildlife ponds, water features, sculpture, and 1½ acre walled garden sunken garden, gazebo, potager, lime walk; borders planted to give colour and interest in every season, spring bulbs, irises, roses, fernery, salvias, and several seated areas to relax and enjoy the views and garden.

With this unique and truly unforgettable back drop, the garden has interesting sculpture artistically integrated into various areas as part of the creative design and  complementing many of the outdoor seating areas. Stoberry house, and its six acre garden to explore and enjoy add to the magic–a Jewel in Somerset

Whatever time you visit this extraordinary garden, take the time to really explore the dramatic views and the wonderful sense of space:…you won’t be disappointed, for this is one of Somerset’s most unforgettable viewing points.

Featured in National Garden Magazines, on BBC TV, in the ‘Gardens of Somerset’,   in Somerset Life and featured in various books and publications, also open for the National Garden Scheme.”

Short History of the garden

                               
We started gardening at Stoberry in 1997.  We decided to design the garden with three different areas:

The first area as you enter Stoberry is planted in a relaxed naturalistic manner, being careful not to detract from the spectacular views that this part of the garden offers.  The main feature in this area is the pond. When we arrived there were no water features, and by creating these we have attracted a variety of wildlife.  You will also find various sitting areas so one can enjoy the outstanding views.

As you walk up the drive, the walled garden on the east of the house is completely different and is divided into two areas: as you enter the walled garden, the right of the driveway used to be a very rough area with thistles and nettles that had been kept as a field and fenced to contain sheep.  This is now the open part of the walled garden with one area leading you through with a view to the next.  This links to the potager.

The sunken garden on the left as you enter the walled garden is a much more contained area, and you need to wander around the pathways and explore.  

When starting out to think of the design for the garden, the advice given to me by friends was to break the walled garden up into several ‘rooms’, which I know would have worked successfully, but I feel we are so lucky to have the space and because of my African background I wanted to enjoy this feature. So the design has evolved from that.  Gardening is great fun. The exciting reality about gardening is that everyone’s opinions of the way a garden should look, differ. I have always felt it is a bit like cooking….some people like spicy food, others bland, and who is to say which one is right!

I am trying to garden in a balance with nature, which requires a lot of patience!  For me a successful garden is one that has interest throughout the year.  That is my aim in this garden; that the freshness of spring daffodils leads through to tulips and iris’s, followed by the summer roses and so this progresses through the year to the autumn colours.  We are lucky to be seeing a transition between these different phases at the moment.   I do hope that you will gain some pleasure from the garden as it gives us a lot, and that in the years to come on other charity days, you too will be able to experience the garden as it changes and matures.

Frances Young