The Newt in Somerset

 We'd heard a lot of people talking about the The Newt in Somerset, and were keen to visit and see for ourselves what was so special about the gardens. We moved from Bideford Beehives to a B&B in Bruton for the second part of our Garden Tour in June, intending to see the Oudolf Field at Hauser and Wirth, we thought we could fit in The Newt as well. The Newt is open to members, and those who would like a day pass to see if they would like to join, are introduced by an existing member, in our case it was our host at the B&B who introduced us after a fairly lengthy walk from the car park. The garden was designed by a series of Hobhouses, the latest incarnation being by Penelope Hobhouse in the 1970s. Since then, the garden has had areas added to it, but the essential walled garden in the shape of a parabola, remains at the centre of the garden. Hadspen House, the home of the Hobhouses for two centuries has been converted to a luxury hotel with fabulous views of the garden. There are beautiful features all over the garden, places to eat, to shop, sit in shade and take photographs. I'll start with one of my favourite sculptures:

There's a great vegetable garden beyond the parabola with a good view of the house where there was an experimental form of gardening called Hugelkultur which was interesting, the word means 'mound culture' and involves growing things on a raised mound which has a variety of things underneath which will aid growth

Here's the view of Hadspen House from the vegetable growing area.

Walking towards the house from the vegetable garden, on the right are three Colour Gardens with different colour themes, red, white and blue. They were very beautifully planted with interesting and unusual plants

The white garden was my favourite, here's Lyn amongst the white flowers

Below is a photo of a gorgeous, unusual Salvia

Above a rose and below is that the same Salvia I wonder?

Obviously white snapdragons

From there we walked to a boggy area with fountains and a lovely frog

Here's a close up, maybe it's a toad?

Above the toad are these watery areas on different levels

There are so many different things to see, 36 listed on the map, I'm giving a mention of those things I particularly enjoyed looking at. 

I wasn't expecting to enjoy the Japanese Garden as much as I did. There are some beautiful bonsai trees, my favourite being the copper beech 

The Belvedere Pond and Viewing Tower were also well worth a visit at the north westerly end of the site. We only visited some of the attractions, but had a really interesting time at The Newt. I can see if one lived locally, it would be well worth joining. You can also visit their partner gardens for the price of membership, these include: The Lost Gardens of Heligan, The Eden Project, Blenheim , Yorkshire Sculpture Park, Chatsworth, Trebah and more.