East Ruston Old Vicarage
Encyclopedia
East RustonEast Ruston
East Ruston is a village and a civil parish in the English county of Norfolk. The village is North East of Norwich, South East of Cromer and north-east of London. The village lies East of the town of North Walsham.The nearest railway station is at North Walsham for the Bittern Line which runs...
Old Vicarage Gardens is a notable privately owned garden in the county of Norfolk
Norfolk
Norfolk is a low-lying county in the East of England. It has borders with Lincolnshire to the west, Cambridgeshire to the west and southwest and Suffolk to the south. Its northern and eastern boundaries are the North Sea coast and to the north-west the county is bordered by The Wash. The county...
at East Ruston
East Ruston
East Ruston is a village and a civil parish in the English county of Norfolk. The village is North East of Norwich, South East of Cromer and north-east of London. The village lies East of the town of North Walsham.The nearest railway station is at North Walsham for the Bittern Line which runs...
in Eastern England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
.
It was established in 1973 by Alan Gray and Graham Robeson, who have created a 32 acres (129,499.5 m²) design which incorporates exuberant and innovative planting alongside more traditional formal design. On an unpromising site, close to the North Sea
North Sea
In the southwest, beyond the Straits of Dover, the North Sea becomes the English Channel connecting to the Atlantic Ocean. In the east, it connects to the Baltic Sea via the Skagerrak and Kattegat, narrow straits that separate Denmark from Norway and Sweden respectively...
and surrounded by arable praerie, the gardens are protected from harsh onshore wind by a shelter belt of Monterey Pine
Monterey Pine
The Monterey Pine, Pinus radiata, family Pinaceae, also known as the Insignis Pine or Radiata Pine is a species of pine native to the Central Coast of California....
trees which created a unique micro-climate. Exotic and unusual plants from around the world flourish alongside more hardy species. Notable are the tree ferns, succulents and palms
Arecaceae
Arecaceae or Palmae , are a family of flowering plants, the only family in the monocot order Arecales. There are roughly 202 currently known genera with around 2600 species, most of which are restricted to tropical, subtropical, and warm temperate climates...
which surround the house, as is the Californian 'Desert Wash', the Exotic Garden with a water sculpture and a large cornfield sown with a selection of native but now scarce 'weeds' such as Cornflower
Cornflower
Centaurea cyanus is a small annual flowering plant in the family Asteraceae, native to Europe. "Cornflower" is also erroneously used for chicory, and more correctly for a few other Centaurea species; to distinguish C...
, Poppy
Poppy
A poppy is one of a group of a flowering plants in the poppy family, many of which are grown in gardens for their colorful flowers. Poppies are sometimes used for symbolic reasons, such as in remembrance of soldiers who have died during wartime....
and Corn Marigold. The gardens contain an interesting collection of sculptures by local artists as well as many architectural features.