With the picturesque parish church on one side and views out to the old deer park on another, the Old Vicarage in Whixley, North Yorkshire is blessed with a tranquil village setting whose atmosphere continues inside the delightful garden which combines quintessential English romanticism with understated but impressive plantsmanship. Join Garden Owner, Biddy Marshall as she walaks you round her garden as it begins to blossom, telling you of her sources of inspiration and her aspirations in making the garden.
The National Garden Scheme gives visitors unique access to over 3,000 exceptional private gardens in England and Wales, and raises impressive amounts of money for nursing and health charities. During the lockdown of 2020 our ever resourceful garden owners created films of their gardens so we could keep the garden gates open online.
For many of you this view of the garden here at the Old Vicarage in Wixley will be very familiar
and during this most difficult and for so many of you very tragic year we are really so sorry
not to be able to welcome you to our garden at this time. We should be opening in early May
but I thought perhaps I would show you a few areas of the garden which are looking particularly
pretty at the moment and then we can sort of build on that and perhaps tell the story of the garden
throughout the summer. This is the secret garden on the north side of the house. It was here
that I used to come and sit and think about what I could do with this garden. There's a bench and
on it is a description that reads, if I could put my words in song and tell what's there enjoyed
all people would to my garden throng and leave the city's void. There are lots of pots of tulips
in the garden and this one is just beginning to show some colour. Copper image mixed in with cario
so I'm rather hoping that against the brickwork that this is going to look particularly nice.
The garden on the south side of the house is approached through a gate in the east wall
and if you turn left there's a long path down to a seat at the bottom. This always reminds me a bit
of the advice that Sybil Spencer gave me. Her son Robin designed and made the most wonderful garden
at York Gate in Leeds. She always said that paths should lead somewhere and when you arrive there
and turn around the view back the other way should be equally enticing. I've tried to do this
in this garden because it's not very large and I've tried to create the views both ways.
Running along the front of the house we built a terrace because the house rather looked as
it was flying off into the sky and then of course decided to make a garden in front of this terrace
which actually was probably an old carriageway. So I had a pick and some knee pads and off we went.
This border here is bone dry, fantastic drainage and the perfect place for growing those slightly
tender shrubs and perennials. On either side of the seat are two pots of a lovely tulip
just coming into its own called Havren. On the west side of the house there's a gravel path
and a long border with views out over the park.
A hazel structure made to support a rose called Tuscany which would blow about in the wind
if it was allowed to. And the last few flowers on a magnolia leather vessel and a structure we call
the Temple to the Four Winds because when we put it up the hedge behind didn't exist and
it was very very drafty down here and underneath you could see the circular stones
which is a typical bit of York Gate inspiration. This connects the border on my right
to what we call the river path which runs off to the left. This is actually at the bottom of the
garden where you saw the seat before and this is the view back up towards the east gate.
I planted Narcissitalia in between these squares. Walking back towards the house
we find the Quadrant Garden which is where we normally sit in the summer.
This was started about four years ago. Still not entirely happy with what I've managed to do.
In the middle there's a large terracotta pot. Four beds surrounding underplanted with
little Primula Wanda in blue and purple just to make it a bit more cheery at this time of the
year when the lavender is looking rather drab. Looking the other way over the Quadrant beds
in the distance is the urn which is viewed through the Temple to the Four Winds
and beyond is our orchard and the park.
