A new local nursery discovered

Today I went to visit a garden and nursery near Halifax, I've been meaning to go since I moved here , its only about a 20 minute drive from my house. You can pay £2.50 to look round the garden which I did, it is not a huge garden, about a third of an acre, but it's packed with plants, mostly perennials and grasses.

There are gravel paths round the garden and it is subtly divided in a couple of places, with some yew hedges, preventing you seeing the whole garden in one go. It has a variety of perennial and grass planting and has a long season of interest from spring to autumn. There also a number of well-placed seats to get good views of the garden.

Unfortunately the rain started when I got there but it didn't stop the garden looking stunning. One of the first things I noticed was that the garden was full of bees and especially butterflies, nearly every step I took disturbed one and they were flying around even in the damp weather. But thats because most of the plants in the garden are ones loved by butterflies.

There were a number of star plants, just coming out were the Echinaceas, in pinks and whites.
Steely blue Eryngiums

The tall spiky flowers of the Veronicastrum. The aniseed scented foliage of Agastache, my favourite is one called 'Black Adder' which the bees love. The dramatic flowerheads of the Monarda. The variety of flower colours of the Phloxes.

This plant had dramatic dark purple foliage and was used throughout the garden and the flower spikes looked amazing.

Some plants were allowed to self seed, such as Verbascums and the annual daisy Erigeron annuus.

They had used the daisy Erigeron in various pots around the garden which looked good. There was also a larger variety called Erigeron sommerneuschnee which when I went past was covered in butterflies, looked spectacular.

There was a lovely delicate Geranium which was used as edging.

The flat flowerheads of the Achilleas, in many different colours. One of these was used in a beautiful plant combination. Three plants, Achillea 'Salmon beauty', a very dark purple leaved Sedum and one of my favourite grasses Hordeum jubatum which I have in my garden and have grown from seed.

At the start of the garden there was some nice plant combinations with yellows, Achilleas, Heleniums, Bronze Fennel, Helianthus and a dramatic grass edging, not quite sure what that was will try and find out.

There was a lovely planting of two big clumps of the large grass Stipa gigantea on either side of the path which created a natural archway.

Other plants include Catmint, astillbe, Geraniums, Verbena bonariensis, Thalictrum, Sedum varieties, Sanguisorbia to name but a few.
You could see that there were many plants getting ready to flower too later in the season so I'm definitely going to visit again, for the Eupatorium, Rudbeckias, Echinaceas, Asters and more!
Well worth a visit or look at the website, they do mail order plants.
http://www.dovecottagenursery.co.uk/