The Rich Colours of NGS Tanglefoot

This is my 3rd year of photographing gardens especially for them, after which I donate my photography, to this very worthy charity. They have used my photographs in the last two copies of The Yellow Book and on their literature, which makes me very proud.

I had arranged to photograph the garden of Mr & Mrs Fratter, when I met them at the launch of this years yellow book at the beginning of spring. How time flies though and with summer gambolling onward, I contacted them to arrange my visit.

Tanglefoot which is on the edge of Crawley village, just outside Winchester, is so picturesque.

The village has a beautiful large duck pond, right at it's centre and every house I saw was so photogenic, with thatched roofs and roses round the doors, it was heavenly. The village pub, The Fox and Hounds, has the most wonderful character, with unusual windows and ornate woodwork around the eaves.

The garden which is approximately 1/2 acre, surrounds the 1970's built bungalow.

As you enter the garden, through a rose arch, you are greeted by a large bed, burgeoning with rich colours of yellow, gold, blues and oranges, synonymous with this time of year.

Stepping through another arch brings you to, on the right a wild flower bed, in front, 3 apple trees surrounded by herbaceous borders and to the left a fabulous herb wheel with a sun dial at it centre.

My eyes were drawn to the fruit and vegetable garden, with it's fruit trained in espaliers and remarkably a mulberry bush trained in this fashion too.

The vegetable garden benefits from a beautiful stone wall, which was once surrounding a victorian kitchen garden, belonging to Crawley Court. This wall has enabled Fred and his wife Sue to have a victorian style glass house built with matching cold frames and sits as though it has been there since the wall was built.

I love Fred's regimented rows of vegetables. It takes me back to a painting I saw as a child in a ladybird book of Rapunzel, which also had a wall around the garden. I hasten to add that Sue is no wicked witch, that is were the similarity stops!

Visitors are welcome by appointment in the summer, so if you fancy visiting Tanglefoot, you can find out details from the National Garden Scheme website.

In my garden, last week I was enjoying the wildness which had descended due to lack of time and attention spent but this week I just feel irritated by it.

A trip up to the top of the garden once injected pure pleasure as I brushed past the lavender but now it just annoys me, especially after the rain, when I come back with very wet legs.

The strimmer, secateurs and a rethink for next year is what's needed.

Are us gardeners ever satisfied?

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