Hestercombe Gardens

We popped across the county border over the weekend to visit the gardens of Hestercombe House, near Taunton.  The gardens had recently been featured on Gardeners' World, and looked so enticing that we immediately made a plan to visit.  Since the easing of lock-down restrictions, we've seen all around us how hard people have been working to get their attractions up-to-scratch for the summer season.  At Hestercombe, the gardens are usually maintained by a team of eight, with up to 30 volunteers, but since lock-down, that number has had to be reduced to two gardeners, taking care of some 50 acres.  I can only imagine how hard they've had to work (there's two of us to work on our back garden, and there are times when that doesn't feel enough!),  but for what it's worth, they've done an unbelievable job.  On a day when even the sun was drunk on summer, it was a pleasure to amble around the woods, meadows, and formal gardens of the estate.  And all sown up with a cream tea too (as I informed Lizzie, in Somerset it's neutral territory for the cream-jam debate, although obviously we stuck to the correct, Devonian way.)  Garden enthusiasts should get themselves here as soon as possible - just don't forget to book online.  Here's just a snippet of what we found...