Eight club stalwarts braved a wet and windy day in early August to visit South Wood Farm near Cotleigh in East Devon. We were guided round by the new Head Gardener, Lewis O’Brien. He told us that the acclaimed garden designer Arne Maynard, responsible for the changes to South Wood, strives to achieve a ‘sense of place’ with a particular harmony between the garden and the house (a 17C thatched farmhouse) and importantly to have a productive kitchen garden. The designer’s colour theme of purple hues was evident in the first part of our visit, the walled courtyard garden with its central feature of a diamond shaped  herb carpet with a clipped bay in the middle. We made our way along the serpentine path through a recently cut wildflower meadow to a kitchen garden of sheer wonderment. Each raised bed was edged with wood, interspersed with finials carrying on the theme with the most unusual pagoda-style artisan fruit cages plus a greenhouse from Mr Grace’s workshop in Christow. We trundled on through the formal plum orchard, nuttery and reflecting pond, before taking a welcome refuge from the rain in a barn where we were served delicious cakes and tea. We all resolved to go again in the sunshine to see the splendid garden at its best.