Drifts

After visiting Shibden Hall, I took the opportunity to pop in to the nearby Dove Cottage Garden. I last visited in 2010, and the garden was even more exuberant than I remember it. It is set on a hillside and planted with late summer flowering perennials and grasses, forming a romantic, naturalistic wonderland, interlaced with paths. The style is not unlike that of Piet Oudolf, the famous Dutch garden designer, though his gardens are on a grander scale and allow for larger drifts of similar plants. It was difficult to capture in a photograph without just making it all look really wild and untidy. With the very dry summer we've had, I'm not sure that any gardens have been at their very best but there was plenty to see here.