A tale of two gardens

I went visiting another couple of private gardens, opened to raise money for charity under the National Gardens Scheme. They were in neighbouring villages but couldn't have been more different. 

The one in the photo above was relatively modest plot around quite a modern house in Silsden. It was laid out with lush, undulating borders around a lawn, and with some attractive paved seating areas around the house itself. With varied foliage and some statement blooms, it was an inspiration to see how the owners had created a stunning garden in an average sized plot. Dotted here and there were some nice sculptures. You might be able to see a hen and its chick by the edge of the lawn, made of crushed wire.

The second garden (below) was much bigger: the grounds of an old stone manor house called High Hall, Steeton. The present building dates back to the late 1600s and was built by the Currer family. I have read that Charlotte Brontë's pen name, Currer Bell, was inspired by the name of this family and the bell at the south entrance of the house. There's also a legend that the seven Steeton men who fought in the Battle of Flodden, between the Scots and the English in 1513, cut their long-bows from a yew tree that still exists in this garden.  

The Arts and Crafts influenced walled gardens here were more formal and symmetrical, with herbaceous borders abundant with pink, white and purple blooms - peonies, alliums and iris among them. There was a pond, a belvedere and a dovecote, an adjacent walled vegetable garden and an area of woodland too. Absolutely gorgeous.