On a hot, sunny afternoon in July fourteen members and two guests visited Am Brook Meadow near Ipplepen for a private visit to this stunning garden which also opens under the National Garden Scheme (NGS). Our hosts Jennie and Jethro had the vision over 20 years ago to create this 10 acre garden and house on what had been an intensive pig farm. 
Our tour started straight from the car parking area as we walked through a large field of meadow full of flowering perennials such as Knapweed, Meadow Scabious and Geranium and then through a courtyard of climbers and drought resistant plants and grasses with the soothing sound of a water feature. Sitting on a shady veranda by one of the two lakes created by our hosts we were given an overview of how they had set about landscaping and creating the garden. Two long perennial borders by the house are planted prairie style with ornamental grasses and late flowering perennials such as Veronicastrum, Echinacea and Persicaria which were at their summer best. We meandered through wild areas on grass and gravel pathways, past the second pond and welcome shady areas of shrubs and trees and an orchard with bees and poultry close by.  Two streams also run through the garden and there is an abundance of wildlife including a resident swan, moorhens, little grebes, a kingfisher and owls with young nesting in an old oak tree near the house.
Back on the shady veranda we enjoyed a welcome cup of tea and cake and the opportunity to look through Jennie and Jethro’s fascinating photo albums of their journey from pig farm to plant paradise. We agreed that Am Brook Meadow is one of our all-time favourites.