Day Four - Orr Trip, England

Today's garden itinerary included Hidcote and Snowshill.

Hidcote is part of the National Trust and was created by Lawrence Johnston with the theme of garden "rooms." Each section of the garden had a unique feel such as the white room and red room where most of the plant material either had the corresponding flower color or foliage color. The garden was roughly ten acres, but covered from one end to the other with plant material, had paths that took you in several directions and was just big enough to keep you a decent distance from other guests.

Entering Hidcote.

Seth and Kira

The Red Room

The Allee

Hilary and Kira

This was considered to be the "lucky" garden as some of us lost things, only for them to be returned. Dr. Robinson's son dropped his sippy cup and a garden staff member handed it back to one of the students. We assume she matched us up by our accents. Kira lost a rock Seth found for her that was in the shape of Alabama, but after spending some time looking down the allee for it, she found it right beneath her feet. Probably the most relieving situation was when Britton left his passport on a bench after getting up, but had a couple who were guest of the garden promptly return it back to him.

The second garden of the day was Snowshill. This garden was a little different in the respect that the focus wasn't completely on the garden, but split between the garden and a house. The residence was owned by Mr. Charles Wade, who was a collector of many things. Inside his house, guests could walk through and see the many items which he collected. Anything from bicycles and childrens toys to spinning wheels and weapons could be found. The garden was a small 2-acre area seeming to contain more "stuff" than plants. Mr. Wade's living quarters, a dove cote and miscellaneous art decorations are some of the items found throughout the  garden.

Mr. Wade's collection house

His collection of bicycles

A garden entrance

The garden exit

Vegetable garden

Dove Cote, aka extravagant coop

Fishing village in bottom right corner.

We all thoroughly enjoyed these two gardens, as they were both small enough to manage within the timeframe given, but large enough to keep you interested.

Cheers,
Kira Chaloupka