Doesn’t 1 Elm Cottage at Windmill Hill, just seem like the perfect place to live? It does to me! It just rolls off the tongue, ”I live at 1 Elm Cottage at Windmill Hill!” This is our last garden for the day in East Sussex. What a delight the gardens have been on the Herstmonceux Trail! They have all been very different and 1 Elm Cottage was no exception!
The garden was chosen because this gardener has physical handicaps and she wanted to show what can be done with a little space and ingenuity! She says her long-handled fork is her best friend! What a delight she was, as she welcomed everyone to her lovely garden!
The garden is set at the front of a long row of connected cottages on a very, very busy street. Her cottage sits back from the others, but is still a connected cottage and I wondered if at one time this might have been a business with a parking lot. It was unusual too, because we didn’t see that many gardens in the front of the cottage on the tours. Most of the gardens are in the back. She said the front space was a wasteland when she took it over. It now is a stunning garden packed full of edible and flowering plants and a critter or two that I really liked! So let’s get a move on and tour this garden!
My favorite was her fake snakes! But, they looked real!
She had a little pond too! This garden had everything you would want!
There was an entire village of gardeners that wanted this garden to be on the NGS Tour. I think a lot of her gardening friends pulled together to make this happen and she was thrilled!
PS, I later learned, when a fellow gardener explained to me, that these rows of cottages were at one time part of a barracks complex and small military hospital during WWII. That makes them even more interesting to me!
I know, there were 7 photos today, but I had to include a photo of this little lady! And the other photos were too good to leave out!
I hope you have enjoyed the garden at 1 Elm Cottage!
The instructions for SOS are easy. The photos can be flowers, vegetables, a garden design, whatever, as long as it’s garden related and posted on Saturday! So, its six photos. Of Gardens. On Saturday. Easy Peasy. To see all the SOS’s look at SIX ON SATURDAY, hosted by the Propagator, to check out all of them each Saturday! See you next week!
ThatTravelLadyInHerShoes 
What a wonderful day out
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I love a garden that’s packed full like that 🙂 🙂
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I live cottage gardens! They are absolutely my favorite! Did I tell you I was reading ALL my garden books before I buy another? I tend to read in sections and then buy another! Now I am going to read EVERY LAST PAGE……I am afraid to ask you if you have a garden because you’ll ask me DID YOU READ MY POST! I THOUGHT NOT ! HA HA!
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PS I am getting older and you three gals get jumbled in my head! Becky B, Restless Jo and HeyJude!
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Which is very funny because we are nothing alike…I assure you 🙂 🙂
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Well I’ll just have to figure out how different you are from each other1
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🙂 🙂
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Great photos for sure but a very interesting story behind them. It’s a bit like my approach to wine …… wine with philosophy, wine with history, wine with art ….. all one has to do is to look and engage👏👏
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Love the garden and the story
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What a beautiful and interesting garden, and well done to the gardener! What a sense of achievement for her!
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What a perfect country garden, but that snake did cause my heart to jump a bit. I have a terrible fear of snakes even though I’ve never seen one in any UK garden, or elsewhere for that matter, but we did have one come into our accommodation in Kenya many ears ago but hubby did the brave male thing and got rid of it while I just silently screamed.
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Oh this is really near to me! I must visit this year.
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It was near a manor looking pub that was always busy! I bet you have driven right by that garden! Remember, the gardens are selected only for certain years, so there are new gardens in that area every year…..Check out to see if they are doing a 2021 NGS Garden Book. All the gardens for the UK, and the dates they are open, will be in there!
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I LOVE this garden — and the little old lady, too! I didn’t even mind the snakes because they reminded me of the black garden snakes that occasionally slithered out of the woods and into Mother’s garden outside the kitchen window. She considered them her friends because they ate harmful creatures. But TWO in one garden bed, as here? No thanks.
In my own old age, I would really like a tiny but packed garden such as this one. Well, my herb garden serves that purpose but everything has become too much for me. Fortunately, I have a dependable gardener now who does the heavy work such as cleaning out the beds in the English borders, leaving me to putter — or just write in my journal. No frogs here, though I do have a stone turtle or two.
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Those snakes in her garden were made of stone or something! VERY Realistic! She said it deterred other critters from getting in her garden! Looked real enough to me!
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[By the way, this post appeared in my email this morning but not at all on WordPress.]
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I know…….they don’t always show up! I think WordPress has been pressed this week!
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Nice garden, I would like something like that in a few years! Thanks for sharing the photos.
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I haven’t made my rounds to comment on the SOS’s this morning, but I’ll get there! This lady had the perfect small garden and it was chock full!
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I love a garden the combines edibles and flowers, but these types of gardens are deceptive. They appear to be easy–just a mad mixture of plants–but in reality, they are a LOT of work. Kudos to anyone who has one and especially to this woman because of her age and obvious physical issues!!
janet
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This garden, I also think this garden would have been a big task! I couldn’t convey how big it really was, in just six photos! But, there were many gardeners, who were there that day and they all seemed to help her in her garden! Which I think is lovely too!
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I like the little touches like the snakes and frogs, very sweet.
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Props always make a garden to me!
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I bet her neighbors love her garden too. What a joy, I wish I had the patience to make my little plot look like that. For now I’ll enjoy the fruits of her labors. Great photos.
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I wish I could get on my knees in order to work in a garden like that! Ha ha! I’d definitely need her stick thingy!
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My goodness, that cottage is a dream. I have to image it takes a lot of work to keep it looking so wonderful!
Were there any plants there that you were inspired to add to your garden?
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Thanks for the tour. I found myself smiling as I scrolled through.
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OH, a garden really can change your life! It’s better than medicine!
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You do get about, a chara!
Thank you for a beautiful Six update.
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