The Zoom talk by head gardener, Andrew Cannall, on the £2m refurbishment of the American Museum Garden on the outskirts of Bath took place coincidentally on the evening of the day I had visited Bath. It was hosted by SALGA, the Swindon Allotment and Garden Society, and was a brilliant introduction to the garden, SALGA is well worth joining, and at the moment their talks are a lifeline.
The refurbished garden opened in 2018, Andrew gave us details of the soil which is clay over limestone with a pH of 8.8, and on a slope, so not ideal conditions for a garden. There is a Mount Vernon garden within the garden which is 'American garden meets English landscape'. There is also quite a lot of planting based on the new perennial movement based on Oehme Van Sweden, as you will see from some of the photos I took from the screen during the presentation.
I didn't take copious notes, but in the photo above you can see that grass is not cut short everywhere allowing wild flowers to grow amid the grass
I loved the look of this formal garden
and here laying out the beds
Above a view of packed borders and below a superb sunset
I'm looking forward to seeing the amphitheatre which has to be closed for some of the year because it has such heavy footfall that it's integrity is compromised.
Fab lollipops of Alliums which one is this I wonder?
and another fabulous photo, and 3 recommended plants I did write down: Nepeta 'Summer Magic', Iris 'Black Swan' and Sedum 'Autumn Joy'
And don't the Aeoniums look fabulous in this planting scheme below?
Coincidentally when I looked at their website, I see the museum has an exhibition of photographs by Carinthia West in 20121, not only does it look great, so I'm hoping to see it, I met her in St. Ives a few years ago. It's called:
Shooting Stars: Carinthia West, Britain and America in the 1970s.
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