Braglands Barn - Garden Overview

Geranium 'Ann Thomson' - much more compact and freer flowering than 'Ann Folkard'.

Overview & Brief History

The site is about two acres in size and opened to the public for the first time in 1997 with about 15 other gardens as part of ‘Stogumber Gardens Open’. A year later it was opened as part of the National Gardens Scheme (NGS) – Yellow Book and we continued to open it for both these bodies until 2003. We then had two years off as the garden had, in places, got out of hand and we had to make a number of changes. These involved altering the balance between shrubs and perennials and using mulches to reduce weeding. The mulching (chipped bark) has been very successful; so much so, that the balance has again been shifting back slightly towards perennials, especially those that do not need a lot of maintenance. We also take full advantage of the differing soil types in the garden (varying from dry sand to wet clay) and, for the most part, plants are next to each other because they enjoy similar conditions. This keeps the time spent on watering to an absolute minimum.

The purpose of the site is

to share our successes and failures in making the garden
share our experiences of those plants we have found to be successful in our climate and conditions, and those which we have not (there are some surprises here)
provide regularly updated photographs of the garden at various times of year
encourage you to visit the garden on one of our open days.

As far as we are concerned the digital age of photography began in September 2005 so, sadly, there are no photographs on this site of the early days.

The long border in June 2007 when the garden opened for Stogumber Gardens Open.
The soil in the foreground is clay, the background red sand.

Grasses are at their best at the late summer opening.

Braglands Barn Garden

Overview & Brief History