英国 花园屋 The Garden House – 教会花园与雪滴花收藏地

牧师住宅变成十英亩花园

The Garden House 在德文郡达特穆尔西缘，挨着 Buckland Monachorum 村。房子是 19 世纪初为当地牧师建的住宅，如今作茶室和办公室使用。这块地的来历更早：1305 年教区为神父修了宅子，修道院解散后旧屋只剩一座塔楼、螺旋楼梯和一间茅草谷仓，如今落在围墙花园的下层。1945 年，退休的伊顿公学教师 Lionel Fortescue 和妻子 Katharine 买下房产，一边经营供泰马尔河谷种植户使用的苗圃，一边养泽西奶牛，同时动手修园。1961 年夫妇设立 Fortescue Garden Trust，把房屋和花园交给这家独立注册慈善机构。

围墙花园、步道和林间空地

花园约十英亩，各区脾气不同。夏季花园种满多年生草本和观赏草，背后是开花的灌木树；茅屋废墟周围是自然式种植，顺着走道就进到野花草甸，那里适合坐下来听蜜蜂。长步道从房子一侧出发，穿过夏季花园和林谷地，通到石圈和那棵 Betula ermanii ‘Grayswood Hill’。两英亩的围墙花园从 7 月到 9 月底最热闹，大丽花和宿根植物撑起整个场面。旧网球场已经缩小让位，改成宽阔花境和一间颜色饱满的”花园房”。

树木收藏与长长的花期

2013 年由 Wessex 伯爵夫人主持开放的 Jubilee Arboretum 有一百多株标本树，其中不少是温带地区近年的新树种。Acer Glade 秋色最好，三月铺一层番红花，四五月杜鹃和山茶抽新叶。围墙花园之外，还有 Keith Wiley 当年扩种的六英亩植物，以及 Matt Bishop 留下的数量可观的雪滴和球根，从冬末一直开到初春。

三任园丁与学生岗位

Lionel Fortescue 1945 年请来首任园丁 Keith Wiley，他在 25 年里塑造了整座园子并扩地六英亩，2003 年离开后创办 Wildside Plants。Matt Bishop 接任，留下大量雪滴和球根，2012 年秋自立门户。Nick Haworth 2013 年起负责至今，此前在国家信托的 Greenway 工作。园子还和专业园丁协会合作为期三年的 Guild Diploma 学员提供岗位，学员在三个不同园子各待一年，其中两个带薪名额和每年安置由 William & Helena Heath 奖学金负担。

参观、餐饮与慈善支持

这里是 RHS 合作花园，RHS 会员凭卡在 10 月底到 3 月底的周五、周六、周日免票入场。开放时间内会员本人免费，还可带三位 16 岁以下的孩子；茶室和 Fortescue Room 可以办小型和私人聚会，园门口的植物区出售本地专业供应商的植株，也卖园内繁殖的品种。维持园子的是 Fortescue Garden Trust：个人会费每年 44 英镑（银行直扣），终身会籍 550 英镑起，长椅和树木认捐、遗嘱捐赠、志愿服务都是常年募集的方式。官方给出的年访客量在两万五千到三万五千之间。

From Vicarage to a Ten-Are Garden

The Garden House stands beside the village of Buckland Monachorum on the western edge of Dartmoor in Devon. The house was built for the local vicar in the early 19th century and now holds the tearooms and offices. The site itself is older: a house for the parish priest was built in 1305, and after the dissolution of the monasteries only a tower with a spiral staircase and a thatched barn remain, now sitting below the walled garden. In 1945 Lionel Fortescue, a retiring master from Eton, and his wife Katharine bought the property, running a market garden that supplied growers in the Tamar Valley and a herd of Jersey dairy cattle while they improved the grounds. In 1961 they established the Fortescue Garden Trust, an independent registered charity, and left the house and garden to it.

Walled Garden, Long Walk and Glades

The garden covers about ten acres and each area has its own character. The Summer Garden is planted with herbaceous perennials and grasses against a backdrop of flowering shrubs and trees, while naturalistic planting around the ruined cottage walls leads into the wild flower meadow, a good place to sit and listen to the bees. The Long Walk runs from the house through the Summer Garden and the Dell to the stone circle and a well-known Betula ermanii ‘Grayswood Hill’. Most of the two-acre walled garden flowers between July and late September, with dahlias and other perennials taking the lead. The old tennis court has shrunk to make room for wide borders and a flower-filled garden room.

Trees and a Long Flowering Season

The Jubilee Arboretum, opened in 2013 by the Countess of Wessex, holds more than a hundred specimen trees, many of them recent introductions from temperate zones worldwide. The Acer Glade is at its best in autumn and also carries a carpet of crocus in March, followed by young azalea and rhododendron foliage in April and May. Beyond the walled garden lie the six acres added by Keith Wiley and the snowdrops and bulbs left behind by Matt Bishop, which flower from late winter into early spring.

Three Head Gardeners and Student Training

Keith Wiley was the first head gardener, appointed by Lionel Fortescue in 1945. He shaped the garden for 25 years and enlarged it by six acres before leaving in 2003 to start Wildside Plants. Matt Bishop took over and left a remarkable number of snowdrops and bulbs behind before setting up on his own in autumn 2012. Nick Haworth has led the garden since 2013, coming from the National Trust property Greenway in Devon. The garden also hosts students on the Professional Gardeners Guild’s three-year Guild Diploma, a year in each of three different gardens, with two employed posts and annual placements funded by the William and Helena Heath Scholarship.

Visiting, Eating and Supporting the Charity

The Garden House is an RHS Partner Garden, and RHS members enter free with a valid card on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays from the end of October to the end of March. Members visit free during all published opening times and may bring up to three children under 16. The tearooms and the Fortescue Room take group and private bookings, and the plant centre by the entrance sells stock from local specialist suppliers along with plants propagated from the garden itself. The Fortescue Garden Trust keeps the place going: individual membership costs £44 a year by direct debit, life membership starts at £550, and sponsored benches and trees, gifts in wills and volunteering are all regular ways of helping. The garden expects between 25,000 and 35,000 visitors a year.

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