In this video we take tour of part of a 5000 acre estate and gardens, including wildflower meadows, woodland, loch, meadows and a walled garden.
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[Music] well hello everyone and welcome to a very special episode of wild you Garden because in this video I am actually on my honeymoon in Scotland in the depths of the Scottish Highlands magnificent part of the world and I couldn’t help but want to bring you guys a video of some of the incredible grounds and Gardens that are part of this estate shall we like it’s 5,000 acre estate which is on the edge of a lock and this house is just magnificent so don’t worry I’ll be putting in some shots of that but today we’re going to be looking at some of the features found within these 5,000 Acres and my goodness have I got a video for you so stick around because some of the features we’re going to be looking at include a woodland walk through ancient Woodland we’ve got magnificent old trees such as the Scots pine you can see behind me in the distance we’ve got a Walled Garden a kitchen Garden formal Gardens Terrace Gardens Meadows Wildlife ponds you name it oh and we’ve even got a secluded little private boat house that we’re going to take you down to have a look at and some incredible viewpoints of Lo aiv behind the house which is just stunning it’s absolutely Sensational so stick around now as we walk through some of the incredible grounds that come along with this beautiful house so our first stop are these magnificent W Gardens behind me and the kitchen Garden so let’s go through that beautiful little Rose Arch now and take a look what’s inside isn’t this just the most inviting entrance to a w Garden you’ve ever seen [Music] I suppose it would be rude not to start with this magnet magnificent Rose guys because apart from the sound of a nut hatch in the background all I can hear is the sound of bees hoverflies and other insects in this Garden just wonderful right let’s carry on the tour so you can see the area is divided by this Central pathway and we’re going to go right first past this absolutely stunning geranium which is just gorgeous has these lovely dark centers and we’re going to head into this mini wild flow Meadow which I just love and actually I bumped into one of the owners when we were walking around the grounds a couple of days ago and he said this is the first area they’ve triled with a meadow mix they have obviously natural wildf flower Meadows around the rest of the grounds but this they’ve clearly roated and seeded with some annuals so you can see all the Reds of the poppies the blues of the Corn flowers and some of the whites of the Corn camomile and it’s just gorgeous looking very good in its first year loads of insects through it and if I get down you get a real feel oh right on Q look meta Brown don’t you just love it when Nature acts on Q and there are some fabulous plants in here as you can see and when you get down you get a really real feel for the colors this lovely pink almost sort of Sedum like plant uh looking at the flowers is I believe a little plant called red shank which is actually an annual but it’s making up this lovely bouquet of colors just so peaceful here absolutely stunning if I come over to this side you can see we’ve got a nice little block of poppies here there’s some bees visiting over there and it looks rather Splendid I think and these gorgeous corn marigolds absolutely Vivid yellow color not bad for a first year uh and I had recommend that he rates oh and I’ve just spotted meta Brown trying to hide from me just there in the middle he’s obviously just warming up they have this distinctive eye spot on the underside of the fourwing and they really do make up some of the British butterflies most numerous species in terms of butterflies you can find in a meadow in the UK love this Mo path through the middle of here um yes so I did recommend that he rates and seeds this area every Autumn so that he gets this absolute riot of colors because it really is glorious because you need to do that obviously to have the full benefit of an annual mix like this year on year if you just leave it it will revert to more perennial species such as the buttercups nap weeds oxide Daisy fabulous area [Music] I’m not sure what this area is used on the other side used for on the other side of the fence probably not Balls by the undulations in the ground but perhaps little parties and look at this this is a sign of the a Clarity around here look at these lyans growing on this post they don’t do well in polluted areas mosses and lyans so a Telltale sign that we have very clean air around here so I’m going to walk back now along this side of the area we’ve got a nice Dogwood there which looks to be going to bury now some lovely arantia arantia is very good for hoverflies and what looks like some Jacob’s Ladder which is just about going over now but a lovely plant yeah this is Strano very very good for hoverflies and bees as well and apparently Soldier beetles two mating pairs on there look and then we have a nice mix of some no doubt naturalized ferns at the back Scotland with its damp cooler climate is perfect for hosters and ferns they are everywhere in this Garden while in the landscape in general the ferns are just found throughout then in this part of the Border we’ve got some of these beautiful candleabra primulas part of the family that are our cow slips and primroses as you can tell by these big leaves which just like look like giant Primrose leaves but these candle arra prier very very beautiful we’ll come on to some more of those later on they actually like it damp so there’s some by one of the wildlife ponds yeah so stick around guys cuz there are lots and lots and lots of habitats we’re going to explore today as I’ve already said this is just one of them and it really is a fabulous place some a still be in the back there which is this Vivid Pink at the moment looking absolutely beautiful one of the many drystone walls at the back there as you can see framing this Garden just adorned with ferns just beautiful some Maiden hair spleen work the little tiny Fern in there which is one of my favorites buttercups unfortunately for you Garden lovers as well like it damp so as you can see they are spreading through the Border but I think it’s nice to have a mix it’s nice to have a mix of Natives non-natives and just let it do its thing because it’s so beautiful to see the variety of plants in this place and the amount of insects that therefore are following and one thing I should have said about the meadow while I was on it is if you just look to my right it’s so nice to see all this self heel being left I know it’s part of the meadow but self heel normally ends up sadly like this little chap here and this one moan within an inch of their life within a lawn and they barely get above an inch or two um when they flower so really nice to see here bees absolutely love this stuff it’s one of the best plants you can have for a flowering lawn and I love it as well I think it’s great so it’s really nice to see this is kind of at its eventual height so you can see it’s not huge it’s only maybe 8 Ines tall as its tallest but a really nice plant ifle to flower so I would strongly recommend you guys let some of this stuff go in your lawn leave some patches it won’t let you down some geraniums there a little bit like the Warg grave pinks a bit of bracken as well I’ll be coming on to the difference between Bracken and ferns in a little while for any of you any of you that are a little unsure as to the difference we have some beautiful red EST strania here as well which is just stunning I say red it’s more of a maroon color but just gorgeous and down here one of my favorite plants for a lawn this little fox and cubs which is just there’s no other plant really that I know that grows in the UK that is a a native that has this Vivid orange color it’s just stunning when you get a SE of that it’s like nothing else really oh and I nearly went past this little thing that’s crept into the border which is a common spotted Orchid which is a lovely specimen you can see that’s just starting to flower there are actually lots of common spotted orchids and at one of the viewpoints we’ll look at where we explore the EXP the expanse of lock behind this house there are absolutely dozens of orchids growing naturally in the sort of scree slope so it’s beautiful to see so we’ll come on to those so we’re back to the gate with that fabulous Arch and Poss possibly even more fabulous Rose above it so I’m going to head left now we’ve got some of this classic Garden plant which is the alcha mollis which has a really lovely ability to kind of hold water in the form of droplets on its leaves I mean look at that that’s just stunning after a rain this plant really does look its best and it has these lovely little delicate flowers very nice plant that naturally self sees its way around the driveway here quite nicely it does do very well in Rocky places again these lyans apologies for any of you botanists who are liking experts I’m uh I’m obviously not an expert but you can just see again the quality of the air around here lots more Al Cilla molles as you can see a few native Fox gloves currently being visited by one of the bees which I love the way they back out of these tubes and then go to the next one right on Q no better case in point for foxl being very attractive for bees not really used by butterflies because of of course the butterfly wouldn’t be able to climb into the tube like that as easily but these are the native foxs because they are just purple and the leaves are slightly darker and more narrow than perhaps some of the garden derivatives that you might get in your local Garden Center of course Fox gloves come in many many many shapes and sizes these days you can even get perennial ones the native is a banial but the perennial ones can be almost as attractive but I just love these natives do very well in Rocky places I’m not 100% sure on this plant but it’s got some rather interesting foliage the leaves look like Meadow Suite in fact I’m not so sure that’s not a a variety of meadow site because that is just beautiful the flowers look very very similar to the native if I turn this way we’ve got a nice mix of shrubs right endons again on the edge of this left hand side of this Walled Garden and up here is one of the most magnificent what I believe is an escallonia tree which is humming with insects at the moment the trunks on it must be 4 in across here we go here’s a little tag lepto spum Cunningham I so if you know your Latin a bit better than I do you’ll perhaps be a to tell me um that’s a beautiful plant and the flowers are gorgeous these lovely reddish centers almost looks like a strawberry flower and if you listen it’s just alive with bees up there so moving on you’ve got these lovely bamboo wigwams which are oh red Admiral literally just landed on my finger that’s obviously come off that beautiful Bud that we’ll look at and say oh there it goes he’s up and around the bud and actually there’s another one just there if you can see I was going to come on to the buer in a moment but since we are or since I am being suitably distracted by the red abiral be nice to mention that the bees using this budle a lot at the moment budle obviously a bit of a contentious issue a lot of people say it’s non-native invasive but I think in a garden setting setting it’s a brilliant Edition obviously known as the butterfly bush I have done a previous video of it many moons ago when I looked about 12 so have a look at that one if you haven’t seen it on the channel and this is a lovely hyd Ranger called Annabelle which I’ve just planted in my front garden either side of my insect hotel if any of you guys have been watching that transformation then um if you haven’t then go to the playlist and go to my garden and have a look at some of the videos I’ve been making on my front garden I’ve created a 20 squ meter Wildlife Garden including a pond mini Meadow habous borders insect Hotel native little Woodland belt Copus belt hedge R it’s yeah got a bit of everything so go and enjoy that one and also it’s got some of this stuff which is being used a lot by the bees which is hedge wound wart Wildlife really is acting on Q today hedge wound work really good for a shady spot it is an to the UK I also plant Marsh wound work around my ponds a lot that I create and to the left I don’t know if this is the true native but it’s certainly a geranium with a lot of impact could be Johnson’s blue obviously the native is the meadow crane spill along with a few others but yes this janian a lovely color at the moment so yes hranger Annabelle lovely budle there and as I was saying before I was rudely interrupted before the red Abal there are these lovely wigwams of beans run of beans at the moment going up those which is really nice to see the flowers of which are classic vet shape really interesting in such a beautiful red color trying to get the camera to focus there we go lovely color on those so yeah this budia currently being visited by many many many bees it looks like one of the true native what I would call bombsite budle is that lovely classic lilac color and what about that for a Scots pine behind it littered with Deadwood magnificent tree this house actually dates back to around about 1850 so a lot of the trees in here are 150 to 170 years old so it’s really quite incredible now a bit of a veg area for those of you that grow your own veg what do we have here looks like some carrots there bit of radish and lots of potatoes potato obviously part of the potato family uh is a plant called deadly nightshade which has flowers very similar to this the hoverfly there thinking why is this flower suddenly moving it was still a minute ago oh yeah these flowers are quite attractive obviously to a lot of pollinators as well then we’ve got a row of currents what look like black currents along there lovely little Greenhouse nice little utility area and along here a bit further along I’m going to show you I wish you guys could smell some of the Aromas from this Garden one of the best plants for smell in this Garden or scent in this Garden at the time of year there’s the red Admiral I knew I’d be able to spot him he thinks he can hide up there look but sunning away quite a fresh specimen that one on top of that Kon Aster butterflies obviously cold blooded so they need the warmth of the sun’s Rays to become active and if you can hear that beautiful almost sort of sad tones of a cisin we’ll hear and see well why not not see so many but we’ll definitely hear lots of those when we go on our Woodland walk in a little while but these Scots Pines just magnificent trees right let’s press a bit further on to well actually before I do have a look at this this is an evening primrose which is just a beautiful flower I had some bees visiting this yesterday and these things you can literally watch them opening up at dusk so each one of these flowers or most of them they will begin like this almost like a spiral and then they’ll just open their way out come the evening very good for moths that plant a nice perennial and you can see last year’s stems been left which is brilliant which means some of the birds will no doubt use those again the lyans in here just absolutely dripping with this gorgeous sort of almost mint green reminds me of like mint Aro color chocolate bar in a way not quite as Vivid but gorgeous color then we’ve got an absolutely stunning future now that the sun’s gracing us with its presence there’s a bee at the top there visiting which is probably a garden Bumblebee or white tail bumblebee not sure which we’ve got a little common CER B here as well again just so nice to have the peace and tranquility and be able to hear all the insects over the noise of what is normally traffic or wherever I’m working around the country so if I look to my right now you can see we’ve got this little mini Orchard area which is very very lovely obviously these are young trees so that’s yet to establish beautiful rose there in full flower at the moment and this bush which I did plant ID yesterday and I’ve completely forgotten now but just look at the flowers on that that’s just stunning and the bees were all over this couple of days ago you see there’s a hoverfly visiting but a really good plant for insects looks like there’s a wasp visiting it [Music] now several wasps actually and now we move on to currently the best smell of this Garden which is these beautiful Philadelphia flowers which forgive me guys oh yeah still smells Divine really lovely Bush more of still be there bit of Rose of Sharon the common name at the back there and here we have this really nice Campanula which is very very good for bees again campanulas obviously the native ones we have such as our hair bells lovely flower that a big konas there going to Berry I’m moving along to one of the mo more stunning shrubs at the moment if I stand back a bit is this hydrange I’m not sure which variety it is it is lovely how there are labels on this Garden around a lot of the trees and shrubs and that is just glorious at the moment these huge white pom poms been visited by a lot of hoverflies but the looks of it if I go in a bit closer you can see you couldn’t get a more pure white than that I don’t think another cisin with that kind of lovely Co that is more Katon AA more of these shrub roses which have finished flowering now and already have hips on and next off we’re going to head down through that gate towards one of the two main Wildlife ponds so stay tuned for that one guys but I just want to have a quick wander back down through the central path past these two absolutely magnificent hosters I’m not sure I’ve seen hosters that high that one there must be 3 and 1/2 ft High quite incredible lovers of The Damp ground as I [Music] say a lot of hering go around here I’ll show you where their main color ear this is nice to see some of last year’s stems of purple loose strife and the purple loose strife yet to flower you can see the fresh stems coming up here purple loose drife as you know one of the main components of any Wildlife Pond that I create but just looking down here look at these flowers of this Hoster absolutely beautiful they really do like damp cool conditions and if you can get them like looking like that then you’ve obviously had a bit of look and not had too many slugs and snails in your garden they’re an absolute favorite of slugs and snails as you know now look at this now we’ve warmed up a little bit the amount of activity around this arantia these some of these incredible flies I’m not again I’m by no means an entomologist in terms of flies and hoverflies but there all over it’s a strand here right now so yes purple loo Strife as you can see lovely block of it there that’s going to be an absolute riot of colors in another week perhaps maybe less it’s already flowering down south back in Essex it was flowering before we left to get married last week and here you can see is a lovely Veronica or Veronica Asom that’s just about to flower lovely white buds really really good for Intex as well the Veronica family trying to get through this almost as quickly as I can for you guys excuse me because I’ve got so much to see or show you but equally I want to do this Garden Justice because it is just stunning now I’m not not 100% sure what this is but it has a lovely dark leaf perhaps some of you might be able to tell me the flower is almost out of a tormentil or sanqua foil um not sure what that is but lovely plant again lots of hoverflies hoverflies I feel a bit sorry for because we seem to forget about them as a pollinator cuz they’re not the most attractive things in the world they’re not as vibrant as butterflies or as dare I say cute as bees um but they are just a vital pollinator nonetheless and I wish I was here to see this block of vegetation in a few week weeks which looks to be a variety of Aster now asers are more commonly known for their kind of yellow centers and purple leaves but I just would love to see what color this look turned out to be in a few weeks time maybe not even that beautiful and then we have this lovely Central Archway metal Archway gorgeous feature with that beautiful rose going up it again so many Rose varieties I’m not even going to begin to get into try and ID them but I’ll give it a sniff on the way around oh yeah smells Divine I can assure you and while I’m here at this bit of a crossroad before we round up the wall Garden down there I’m going to take a little nosy into the greenhouse why not i’ got to see a little bit of rhubarb down there and some Rosemary rhubarb actually I I did know this already but when just after we got married we had a walk around the Gardens in anic in north umberland and that was one of the plants in their poison garden anik is world renowned for its poison garden and the leaves of the rhubarb are actually lethal to humans although you’d have to eat about a wheel bar full I believe which would take some doing the stems of course Very edible now that’s just a quintessential Greenhouse R isn’t it perfect organized chaos that’s what I think so it looks like the varieties of sweet peas that they’ve been growing always important to keep your labels guys and you know what you’ve sewn some more sweet peas in there and there some cracking tomato plants aren’t they wow going in some tomato bags at the bottom yeah nice little addition to the Garden so let’s head back left and wrap this tour up of this wall garden and then head onto the next habitat or area this is another lovely plant this is yellow loose strife which I sometimes plant around my ponds and in the middle there you can see the remains of an old metal roller maybe this was one use as a bit of a Bowling Green who knows I went straight past that now this again another contentious issue this is what looks like hedge bind weed look at that on again tell you what these insects really are behaving today hoverfly going in that trumpet to get some nectar Bine weed obviously a Gardener’s nightmare in many situations because it does just this it goes right through and wraps itself around all your prized plants that you spent your hard earned cash on but it’s actually very good as a pollinated plant and I’ve seen field bind weed in France being used by clouded yellow butterflies almost solely so these plants are very very important there’s that lovely Meadow again look at that now in the morning light just glorious and here we have a section of climbers these are clematis of some variety you can see just kind of going over now but this is a really nice little habitat which is almost like a flowering lawn you can see we’ve got buttercups in there daisies self heel really lovely to see and then that comes back around to the gate where we came in there you can just see the tops of the house I’ll show you the house properly later on it really is something quite stunning so let’s head now off through the other end of this W garden and look at that landscape behind it those beautiful hilly mountains right let’s head that way [Music] okay so just to give you guys a bit of perspective you can see behind me we’ve got the worldall garden where we’ve just come from this gorgeous iron gate and the incredible house behind and you can see the tops of that hranger just poking over the top of the wall so we’re going to head down that direction over a little bridge and down towards the first of the two Wildlife ponds so this area is a kind of sparse planting of shrubs and trees won’t spend too much time in this area because we’re going to be heading down there underneath that beautiful birch tree and over a little wooden bridge absolutely blessed with the weather today yesterday was a rather nice day but a couple of days before that it was absolutely lashing down so there wouldn’t have been much chance of a garden tour on those days just to give you an idea as I say the owner is very fond of his roded endin but that’s an actual roded endan tree the age of that I wouldn’t like to Hazard a guess at actually no I think that’s a Magnolia and gusap foia judging by the color of the underside of those leaves lovely you can see the new planting of shrubs in the cages underneath now to go over this very quaint little foot Bridge which goes over a mini dy/ stream and you can see this Silver Birch absolutely stunning you hear the soft piping notes of some of the birds within this tree one of them being a gold Crest up there and these enormous leaves of this butter be which can be a problem on river banks in the UK these leaves are huge give you an idea of size that’s my hand so they are rather impressive how however I’m going to show you an even bigger leaf plant there’s that little stream that goes off down there and this is what I love to see sections of grass just left as you can see with some very inviting Pathways moan through them magnificent stand of Scots Pines up there as I say guys we will be heading for a tour through some of the ancient parts of Woodland that are on this estate so stick around for those and this is nice to see as well this is obviously a Rowan tree that’s ped its best but just left as some standing Deadwood a very very valuable habitat certainly one that’s not too common place in the UK nowadays again these liying I just can’t get over the quantity of these things just draped from the trees it’s almost like they’ve been put there as decorations actually with the sun on that silver birch it’d be rude for me not to show you guys that beautiful tree right let’s head a bit further down again some more gorgeous rowing trees there a trio of them I’d love to see those in the Autumn when they’ve got berries on and see just how many thrushes might be visiting and I have just just gone past this beautiful tree which let’s have a look have we got a name tag I don’t think so but covered in Intex at the moment doesn’t really have much of a smell but the bees are loving it get around this side and just pan up to it lovely kind of fatigate sh ape very upright covered in flowers at the moment then I want to show you guys well we’ve got a couple of we got a couple of cherries there what looks to be a tulip tree with those Wonder wonderfully shaped leaves but what I do want to show you is this hyd Ranger now I’m not normally a massive fan of hyd Rangers but that really is quite a stunning color is it not pastel blue just beautiful seem to be quite a few inexs around them however so I stand corrected goes a black bird and that is one hell of a sycamore tree you can probably just make out maybe a little cherries forming on this cherry tree now cherries obviously prunus in general very early flowering tree stand of bamboo not sure that’s quite uh in keeping with the Scottish landscape but a formal Garden this little path here takes us past some of these enormous gun leaves but I’m going to show you some even bigger ones than that in a little while and some lovely seed heads developing of the Yorkshire fog in this longer grassy areas longer grassy areas absolutely invaluable for butterflies at least seven of our native species rely on grasses as a habitat for the caterpillars to feed on for the as a Laval food plant things such as our gatekeeper m brown ringlet our Skippers so a really really invaluable habitat and then we start to open up into more of this iconic Scottish landscape I mean look at that that’s lock a gorgeous hills and mountains in the background just scrubland as far as you can see I could just get a house in in the middle of that lot that’ll be perfect one day so we’re going to head around now don’t worry I’m going to be bringing you guys better views of this lock as I say we’ve got some magnificent viewpoints I’m going to show you and some rather hairy longhorned guests and inhabitants of this landscape you can see this Sycamore just beautiful I believe actually that’s more of a Norway maple looking at the bark and the leaf on that but what a structure native or not that’s creating a lot of habitat and cover for birds and insects mammals all sorts so let’s have a look now at the first of the two Wildlife ponds this is just gorgeous this one one thing I love about it is it’s absolutely full of broadleaf pondweed you can see in the middle covering that water surface obviously very brackish water because because of the soils around here this beautiful birch tree it is overhanging looks like a Downey Birch that one we’ve got some greater forgot the name spear wart that’s it flowering there the yellow and it extends this is obviously a natural pond this isn’t lined this is is just very wet area and this greater Reed mace which is yet to flower have those typical bull rush heads on it more hosters that are being visited by lots of hoverflies by the end of this video you guys are going to be sick of hoverflies but I hope it brings a message home about the importance of them and the bees again visiting see the orange pollen sacks on that bee gorgeous then we got all this yellow loose strife which again a lover of damp ground and that very very beautiful sadly not accessible now I think it’s in a state of repair Bridge across the middle of this Pond and another one over there like something out of a Monet painting this thing under another Birch this looks like belela utilus Jack Monti which is the white very white barked Birch planted a lot not actually native it’s a variety but nice to see and sadly no entry on that beautiful beautiful looking Bridge almost like a little DW Pond down here the side of the main Pond no doubt that has plenty of life within it with a stand of bamboo and what about that for a row tree you see the berri is already forming on that now but what a magnificent specimen that is there’s a nice Mahonia there Mahonia very good for an early flower for bees in sort of January February time let’s go and have a look in the middle of this Pond well I don’t really want to get in the middle of it but I’d like to show you guys it you can see that broadleaf Pond weed covering the surface very well absolutely thriving and we’ve got some native water lies as well some white water lies in there you can just see one of two flowers in the middle just about coming out nice Reed bed here so that depending on what part of the world you’re in Reed beds obviously a very very good potential for bird nesting Coots more hens Reed wobblers in general a lot of birds will use these in Marshy boggy areas back past the Mahone you can see the old flowers of this shrub we head around this way now I’m actually going to take you a bit more lock side to show you some more views of this stunning lock which it’s just breathtaking maybe you guys are beginning to see why I chose this as a honeymoon destination look at this beautiful section of meadow again mostly Yorkshire fog a favorite for some of our Skippers species Essex small and large Skipper although I very much doubt you’re going to get the Essex Skipper make it this far north anytime soon but small Skippers which I’m sure will be in this part of Scotland we’ll certainly use that meta Browns will as well Gatekeepers again just the inclusion of moan Pathways within an area like this there’s a red Admiral if you saw that that’s a very Tatty specimen bless it that’s done some mileage of course red Admirals will migrate to the UK every year one or two are starting to over winter winter is believed but in general they will migrate from the continent from Africa and the Mediterranean through to the UK and carry on North breeding as they go over several Generations a bit like the monarchs and painted ladies what about that for rev view I could just sit here all day I think but we’re not going to got lots to show you guys yet we’re going to be heading down to a private little boat house in a moment I wouldn’t mind a little outdoor seating area like that undercover obviously there’s a fair bit of rainfall I believe about 19 in here in Scotland this part of Scotland so they do get a lot of water so it would be great to have somewhere like that just to sit and relax and just watch the world go by even when it’s raining got a lovely stand of birch there just just beautiful always lovely I I really enjoy seeing trees when they are just left to grow into mature specimens without any interference from Man without any of the lower branches being removed just left their own device and one of the best examples I’ve ever seen of that in my entire life I will show you guys in a little while up near the main house which is a Douglas fur which is just well it’s almost unbelievable and on the back of this shed you can just see some clematitis growing up there I say shed it’s a bit more than that it’s got a bit of a lean on these days but still perfectly usable lovely to seeing there’s a bit more of an arboretum up through there some quite impressive eucalyptus which I’m surprised have with stod the frosts and the colder weathers normally eucalyptus does fail if it goes below sort of – 10 -15° but it’s probably a little bit more sheltered or those specimens are here anyway again look at the liying on these Rowan trees absolutely gorgeous and this Hawthorn you see the berries developing nicely on it now after the flowers in May May Blossom as it’s known that’s going to be a nice tasty snack for all the field fairs and Red Wings and thrushes through the winter months so on that post there there’s a little sign at the top says boat house so that’s where we’re going to go next now this says keep Gat shut for good reason and hopefully we’ll see some of the reasons why so maybe this evidence on the floor will give you an idea as to what looking for within this area it’s not dinosaurs it is in fact some very traditional Highland cows which were here yesterday I did get some shots of them so if we don’t bump into them today I will put some clips in I promise you you can see part of the lock extending that way to my right there just stunning scenery all part well not that side of the lock but this side is all part of these 5,000 Acres there’s the gate we just came through so P back around this way I love you probably associate with this when you can see hillsides like that I love to see the way sun and shade move across them with the clouds it’s quite uh quite rewarding I think not actually been down to this boat house I think it’s down to our left so going to head left in a moment but I just wanted to come to the edge of this walkway looks like this is a little bit of a peninsul that juts out really lucky with the weather today that’s barely a breath of wind and you can actually see down there these are two of the islands within this lock that are home to many many Herring gouls lesser blackback gouls and some geese as well oyster catches lots of birds using those mini Islands there is a little boat and I’m very tempted to get it out if we get time not on this tour sadly but uh if I can I will so just going to head this way now guys through the trees and if there is a little bit of wind noise hopefully there isn’t it should drop as we droing elevation obviously we’re very exposed up here what a magnificent view the good friend David Crossley who was at the wedding I’m very pleased to say he did actually recommend that we come to lock at Eve unbeknownst to him that we were actually staying in a house on the edge of this lock because he has visited this part of the world before and highly recommended it for its beauty and I can see why it’s just stunning and just out there just a bit further around that bend is the little town of Connell and about another five miles or so after that is the very picturesque town of Oban if you’ve ever been to this part of Scotland that’s where we are the Western Highlands right on the coast really is one of my favorite parts of the world never been to Oban or this particular area before but I’ve spent quite a bit of time in and around the highlands as you may have seen from some of the previous videos and Scotland really is stunning if you ever get a chance to visit I strongly recommend you do so that make a nice dragonfly Purge wouldn’t it in a pond these gorgeous oak [Music] trees you can see this is a very off trod path by the cow print which I’m hoping makes its way down to the boat house we’re going to go and see that sort of piping note is about three oyster catches just down there no doubt they are breeding on these Shores if not on the island and if you think this is a nice Woodland walk guys wait till you see what I’ve got to show you coming up because it is just magical there a few of those islands from here that yeah it was quite funny hearing the GS all through the night the first night I kind of got used to it now I think they must get collectively around about an hour’s sleep between them just a riot of calls throughout most of the night aha that looks to be a little tin roof so I think we’re heading in the right direction terrain getting somewhat muddy here courtesy of the local inhabitants Fox gloves always seem to amaze me as to where they will grow and where they will naturally colonize this is the way down I don’t fancy the way back up but I am looking forward to seeing this little boat house just so peaceful so we were just up through that Gap up through there on top and as you can see we’ve now Traverse down the side of this hill down to the edge of this beautiful lock so let’s go and see what’s in the boat house more evidence aha so there is the boat house with the slipway as well well isn’t this just delightful I particularly like this old boat with the Bracken coming up through it you can see the old metal Runners going down through there to get your boat into water Here Come O catches how beautiful oyster catches just remind me of being on the beach as a child in Norfolk when I used to go with my grand and extended family and rent a big house out there and seeing them probing their way through the soft silty Sands for food very beautiful bird he couldn’t get a much more vividly colored bird really black white with that bright orangey red bill right let’s have a little wander out onto this slip why what a place those oyster catches are just just a bit further down the shoreline now I’ve just noticed down here Old Shell of a crab which looks to be if I remember from my Collin’s book as a child the shell of an edible crab somebody’s obviously made the most of it no doubt hering goul or less a blackback goul you can see them all over here actually including these Claws and some more as well put there so you guys can see them so while the corns and Herring gos skim over the water and just while I’m sat here having 5 minutes before we move on just wanted to show you guys this little beauty which is a plant called Thrift which I’ve seen in profusion along clifftops on the aisle of white and no doubt many of you will associate this plant with clifftops and sea places or Seaside places and here you can see it’s it’s gone over now it flowers in May but it looks absolutely sunning and you can see it just sort of goes off in the distance right the way down the shoreline really lovely to see what an absolute cork of a but there’s actually still one flowering there just about so let’s head off now and see if we can find some creatures that are possibly even more hairy and ginger than I am I think my hairy ginger friends heard me because they’ve now traveled right the way over there so I just thought I’d film a few got a ha caught red-handed gives you a bit more of an idea of what these beasts look like so yes just thought I’d film you guys a bit of the approach we’ve got to go down this well trodden path where my Ginger your friends have obviously been this morning and up through that field over there and over to where they are currently residing with that has a backdrop to the right which is just stunning nice to see a Speckled Wood in this dapple shade underneath these beautiful oak trees on our way to our hairy friends speckled woods again another species that rely on grass as a lava food plant very nice to see indeed well as I was about to press record to show you guys this rather nice selection of dragonfly perches that would go very nicely around many a pond I’ve just had a fly by of this red Admiral if you can just see it whizzing around on a serious note though guys I know I joke about these dragonfly perches but obviously I don’t Advocate the idea of going out into your local wood and walking back with a load of dead wood like this this is obviously a natural habitat for many Beetles and other insects so always best to leave it where you find it that Speckled Wood is still just Clos his wings up now cuz he’s Thermo regulating but nice to see well I just heard a Halen coup in my worst Scottish accent so oh there they are chilling by the Beach well I did promise you some traditional Scottish Highland coups and you don’t get much more natural than that it’s just a perfect setting for these absolutely majestic creatures and although I’m assured by the owner that these guys are in fact very nice tempered and have a really Placid approach I’m not about to approach that ball with the ring through his nose they have got carves as well at the moment so I don’t want to get too close to disturb them but what a perfect setting with the lock behind us and these beautiful cows in front of it with their iconic horns absolutely magnificent right we’re going to head off in that direction and we’re now going to go and look at one of the fabulous Wildflower Meadows along with the wonderful Woodland walk so we are now heading for that gate and that gate through there where we will continue into the thick of this beautiful Woodland setting and show you some of the meadows and some of the ancient trees so stick around plenty more to come yet well this is a nice sight to see guys apart from that impressive Beetle that I’ve Just Seen scampering away through the grass all these little white toughs you can see are in fact cotton grass which bit of a Shameless plug are of course one of the many plants you can get on the Wilder garden.com online shop if you’re making a wildlife Pond some hard Rush there as well another plant we sell but really nice to see in this natural setting these sort of damp flushes along with all the Heather that’s regenerating here that’s just a wonderful Habitat to see well excuse the background noise guys we are closer to the main road and a bit more civilization but I just wanted to show you guys a bit more of the cotton grass in its natural habitat and no guesses as to where this plant gets it name from you can see the seeds of which are on the end of these lovely frothy cottony seed heads absolutely beautiful and they just blow around in the wind settle and then obviously Reed themselves and germinate to form new grasses and just over there I think I’m pointing in the right direction you guys can perhaps see the beginnings of a new watch out for horse flies around here a new what looks to be a spruce tree which of course are many of the Christmas trees yep it’s determined to get me uh yes in The Damp setting behind me so a lovely little wet flush here which is just full of life so on the way to the gate just wanted to show you guys these natural wet flushes just seen but not managed to capture on film a little palmate n palmate NES have almost webbed feet and they love these kind of brackish acidic Waters and one just scuttled away into the depths of some Moss before I could even get near it but there are loads of little wet flushes and natural mini ponds throughout this landscape which is just an ideal habitat for them so it’s just wonderful to see having made one or two ponds myself over the years really nice to see these water bodies had a pond skater on one of the ones back in sort of that direction a moment ago as well so no doubt these ponds are providing a wonderful habitat for many many creatures indeed I’m not sure what this is perhaps you can tell me the bonness of you out there but looks rather suspended bit like an orchid Spike you can see the Heather flowering there as well what a wonderful landscape this is so now we enter more familiar territory I’m back in a wildf flower Meadow area which is full of the seeds at the moment of these little bents and fescues absolutely gorgeous lots of butter cups still flowering and a couple of days ago and even today typically when I didn’t have my camera out we had a dark green fillery or two I’m hoping to bring you some of the same yes so I’m hoping to bring you one of the dark green fereres that we have seen over the last couple of days I’m pretty sure the dark green feries I’ve not managed to get close enough to properly ID them yet typically now we enter the meadow the sun’s gone in here’s a nice plant though one that I’ve done a video of on one that I’ve done a video of recently which is of course this lovely yellow rattle which is a little bit further behind here in Scotland back down in the Midlands and the South this is already going to seed but do check out the video I’ve done on yellow Rattle and its importance within a wildflower Meadow this is just lovely to see we a met Brown back there this is one of my favorite grasses which I’m pretty sure is crested dog tail which has these lovely seed heads little bit like barley a mini version and here we have one or two dainty little flowers of forget me not no doubt the field Forget Me Not couple more down there nice to see that in a meadow setting quite a few moths around but this isn’t the best Wild Flower Meadow we’re going to go and see that in a minute or two just going to head up to that part of the field to a gate up there and then head back to the next section of Wildflower Meadow which is just beautiful just pausing to catch breath at the top of this rather steep gradient just come through the gate down there and some impressive sanding Deadwood in the form of Scots Pines there there’s the wet flushes and the meadow just see the back end literally of some of the cows and the lock over there where we just were so we’ve come up to this top level Meadow had one or two Meadow Browns fleeting flybys and we’re off through that gate there to then back go back to the main entrance that was a song s just went past and then we can show you this rather wonderful Wild Flower Meadow and then continue on to the Woodland walk lovely Glimpse back through there of where we were next to the lock and through here now this top part of this field just seems to have come alive with meta Browns there’s a good four or five in this section right there’s the road let’s head down there and see what’s at the other end have to say it’s rather refreshing to see a Road Verge not cut or flailed I’m sure many of you will relate to picking black Brees when you were younger but there’s some really nice raspberries some summer fruiting raspberries that seem to have made their way into this Verge which is quite nice bumblebee down there enjoying some of the Bramble flowers brambles already now you can see developing into black Brees but what flowers are left are still being used by a variety of bees we’ve got some Rose Bay Willow herb which is a lava food plant of the elephant hwk moth got some lovely lesser nap weed here which is going to be flowering very soon which we’re going to go and have a look at in the Meadow in a moment but again you can see adjacent to this Wildflower Meadow these verges are all left even the hog weed is it’s just one little flower but you can see insects on it we’ve got some yo down here as well yo very good for a late flower we got some Meadow Suite which does get its name from being very sweetly scented and we’ve even got some red clover that’s now gone over down here but just a lovely section of Road Verge that is left to its own devices hoping you guys can hear but just working their way through these sycamores at the moment is a family of longtail tits rather nice to see sounds like a bit of a squabble going on back there have some jays with the sound of it more these roaded endin which You’ had a bit of a flush after flowering nice to see as well the honeysuckle colonizing honeysuckle a lval food plant of the white Admiral in the UK and one of my favorite grasses in this Verge are these Cox foot which because of their very rigid structure provide a nice roof ing ground for brown Argus and common blue butterflies in the evening you can quite often see them on the side of a stem closed up so here you can see this native honeysuckle just about to flower really lovely this is the native honeysuckle that we do sell on the Wilder Garden online shop for any of you that are looking for a lovely climate to create some cover some Greenery some nesting potential and indeed some very good good Rich sources of nectar for bees and a variety of moths as well a lot of moths love to nectar on honeysuckles so a very good plant for your Wildlife Garden this isn’t going to be a whole video on a Country Lane guys I promise but can’t help myself look at this Bramble that is a common car to be loving the nectar available we’ve got another one here brambles I cannot highlight the importance enough I’m not talking Chelsea flower show but they are really brilliant down here we’ve got some tufted vet which is a really good plant for bees beautiful purple spires and here we’ve got another species of bee we’ve got tree bumblebee because it’s white bum but Ginger back you can see there so Bramble a really really good source of nectar for so many plants and I recommend some for a garden setting I don’t mean let your whole garden turn to brambles which has been a bit in the media recently which is a bit frustrating and people having to go at whether you should have Bramble or not but I think if you are going to have Wildlife Garden a mix of habitats is the best and as you can see just on this small patch of brambles we’ve even now got what looks to be a honeybee using it so that’s three species of bees within a minute using this valuable resource another common CER down there and of course the berries later on are wonderful and then up here I couldn’t help but want to show you guys one of these glorious honeysuckle flowers in flower is that not just magical So within a matter of where we’ve come from from the meadow grasses and the open light areas of the road there to this section of Road the pallette of flowers has completely changed and here we’ve still got in flower they’ve long gone over down in Essex but we’ve got some Red Campion or pink Campion as many people know it also available in the Wilder Garden online shop a brilliant plant for insects and a great one for shade as you can see if I can get the camera to focus there you go these beautiful ferns absolutely gorgeous we have some yellow Archangel in there and we’ve also got some hedge bed straw which is a Laval food plant of well actually that’s Cleavers sorry it’s that similar but that is also a Laval food plant of the hummingbird Hawk moth of which I did see around the front of the house a couple of days ago so very nice to see a different mix of plants buttercups as well we do well in shade so very nice to see a different mix of plants and nettles I mean I know a lot of people don’t like Nettles but they are of course where our red Admirals come from our small torto shells looks to be like a little bit of feeding damage on the end of this one so could have possibly been host to a red Admiral caterpillar so small Tor torto shell red Admiral peacock and comma four species of our van essds use the nettle as a Laval food plant so now we head left at the fork and back in to the main Garden I just absolutely love this Maiden hair spleen work which is growing all out of this Stone pillar at the entrance way to or the entrance to the Gateway of the property and you can see some Ivy Lea toad flx as well does very well in these Stony Rocky conditions fabulous to see that so this is the entrance way to the house and as you can see you are greeted by these magnificent copper beach trees of which there are three and aren’t they just wonderful we’ve got a really lovely Holly there which stretches Skyward and to the right here we’ve got a wellingtonia a sequoia Redwood which stretches into the stratosphere and then round to the left we have a rather impressive stand of Western red seeders or thers and that’s where we will be heading heading next after we have been down here and had a look at the Wildflower Meadow the tree roots as you can see have lifted the tarmac somewhat from this well Antonia so you got to go a bit steady when you’re driving here but these beach trees are just magnificent tell a li I thought it was three beach trees it’s actually one beach and two horse chestnuts equally remarkable trees sounds like the gardener is doing a bit of streamming today and to the right where we’re going to head now is the moan area for the car par this is part of a garden scheme and it is open to the public one day a week so we’re very fortunate to have the place to ourselves for the whole week and then we leave on Saturday morning where we will then let anybody who wants to visit this gorgeous house and Gardens come and enjoy it obviously expecting a lot of guess it’s quite a moan area but this is the meadow that I want wanted to show you guys it’s just appearing on the horizon now which was teaming with insects yesterday I had a small copper a very fine specimen that was neing on the butter cups who was being very obliging with the camera plenty of meta Browns had a white go through I think a small white and these very elusive dark green fertil which Nikki actually saw four of before I could even get to it and then they seem to disappear but they’re very strong Flyers dark green feries and they do cover uh rather large areas but isn’t this a beautiful feature that moan path so EXC exciting well it is exciting for me but inviting I should say a little bit overcast at the moment so the butterflies might be hunkering down a bit but let’s take a wander down this path it’d be rude not to wouldn’t it and see what we can see so there’s lots of buttercups which are still flowering they’re going over now but they are still flowering these dead seed heads are beautiful they really are they are the seed heads of oh and a dragonfly looks like a common dter over the path intrigued as to what we are I think might have never seen a human in that um but yes these these little seed heads are in fact the seed heads of a lovely little plant called py nut which are these gorgeous sort of crimson seeds you can see this Meadow it’s a really nice mix of flowers and grasses how every Wildflower Meadow should be let’s go see if we can find that common data or flush it off the path potentially I think it figured we were coming this way has scarped but there’s quite a few dragonflies that are using this Meadow to hunt along with a myriad of other creatures as well no doubt bats will be hunting over this at night to catch the moths if I just turn to my left now you can see some of the clumps ah fillery there we go dark green fillery on the look at that on the red clover hats off to this Wildlife today it’s being very very obliging off across the meadow it goes well that dark green fillery has done exactly what I just said and vanished Into Thin Air it’s flown off no doubt through the Woodland into one of the many other Meadows uh but lovely to see it Ning on the red clover just highlighting the importance of red clover and white clover as well of which there is some over there but I was just about to come on to these Standalone clumps now I wish we were here in a week or so’s time when these things burst into flower you can see them all over there they are of course lesser knapweed or black nap weed or common nap weed which are absolutely second to none in terms of high summer nectar for insects particularly butterflies and you can see where are we this for ex example here it’s so wanting to flower it’s almost there but you can imagine I mean there are dozens and dozens there’s probably 150 if not 200 flower heads on that one plant so that’s going to be an absolute wealth of nectar for insects in the coming weeks and days by the looks of it and obviously you can get these again on the online shop guys brilliant for a meadow a be buzzing around there here we have the flowers of I want to show you this because it is quite relevant the common Sorel which is the lava food plant of the small copper that I saw yesterday and here I’m just going to pick one just to show you guys here is one of the leaves distinguishable by the kind of Notch at the base of the leaf and that is what the caterpillars will be munching around and loads and loads of leaves through here you can see it all sticking up so yes no doubt a good number of small copper butterflies will be frequenting this Meadow looks to be some Hawks beard over there the yellow flowers coming up more nap breed lesser knp breed here and then we go into I was really expecting when I started this journey a couple of days ago to be able to go on into the Woodland so I was quite disappointed in a way to have to then turn around and go back through this through this Wildflower Meadow what a shame hey there’s worst things in life but looking from here I mean you can see oh look there looks to be a young Red Deer I think it was a Red Deer had no problem getting over that 4 foot fence but yes the importance of moan paths through a meadow just make it look chemp they enable you to walk through without disturbing any wildlife and they are a great way for you to appreciate this invaluable habitat without disturbing the wildlife as I say now back up here there is a plant that I want to show you again which is colonizing nicely within this Meadow amongst all these gorgeous buttercups and whole host of other plants apparently there’s quite a few blue bells in here I was talking to the Garden of the other day we are of course past the Bluebell season but just down there if you can make them out are several common spotted orchids again which will have better views of in a short while but they are a very nice addition to a wild flower Meadow yeah and we’re kind of in between Seasons here because we’re bit further north the Skippers aren’t out yet The Gatekeepers aren’t out yet and we’re kind of in between the spring and the summer butterflies it’s summer butterflies are obviously just starting to emerge with the viewing of that rather gorgeous dark green fillery but there are of course a lot more to come yet so we’re going to carry on perhaps take a wander just on the way out along that kind of moan Edge just to see if there’s anything in that longer grassy area and then head off through there and into the Woodland to give you guys a view of some of the incredible trees and some of the viewpoints that are found within this Woodland belt well these Gardens are so big we’ve had to split this tour over 2 days so here we are now at the entrance to the Woodland walk which is a gorgeous walk and I can’t wait to show you some of the beauties that are found inside so we’re going to be looking at some of the trees we’ve got a wildlife Pond number two in here as well and we’ve got some incredible Vistas and then we have a couple of incredible trees that I’d like to end this section of the tour on before we move on to the final section which is the uh around the front of the house where we have the four more Gardens and hopefully we might be able to pick out a few butterflies as well so stay tuned guys and let’s go and have a walk now through this Woodland okay guys follow me and let’s go into this wooded area straight away we’ve got one of the many many many impressive large trees that are found within this estate which are native European Larch beautiful trees they are and what looks like a lovely escallonia next to it actually which has now gone to Berry although actually the leaves look a bit more like a buris not the native burus but a very nice shrub no doubt I’m sure there’s a tasty Berry on there for a few birds and this is where it starts to get really interesting you can see we have again more of these lovely roaded endons that are finished flowering now and this next bit which is a real favorite of mine is like this little Fern walk which is not intentional this is just naturalized ferns which are just beautiful coming out of the ground and in a moment I think if I remember correctly I’ll be able to show you guys ferns alongside some Bracken to let you know what the difference is these ferns look stretching all the way down there I think I’ll call this bit Fern Gully gorgeous part of this is Satan had a couple of speckled Woods through here the other day just a little further up so might bump into one of those then we have this small stand of rather large Western red seers seedar which are the Latin of which is thya t h uja a and again to the right then we have some impressive large trees towering away Larch very good for attracting siskins red poles col tits gold Crest they do love a good Larch of that Peep Peep that was a a gold Crest in there yeah and this lovely Grove of th is it’s like walking through Jurassic Park or something very lovely straight T stems Western red cedar used a lot as a production Timber probably hence why it’s grown here oh and here’s the full Latin it’s th year replicat there we go yeah Western red Ceda uh very good construction Timber has a lot of durability hopefully these trees might be left of course it’s always the challenge when managing an estate of this size you’ve got to make it financially viable so Timber production has and will always be part of the management of these Estates another fabulous Larch tree there that one is a good 3ot across at the bottom and again another bank of these ferns and if you look back just absolutely stunning and here on the base of this oak tree it’s absolutely covered in Moss look at that again another sign of the hair quality and if you look up the tree you see all these ferns growing out the side of it all the way up wonderful to see nice big Sycamore there sycamores when they get bigger you can see more ferns growing in on the branches up there sycamores when they get bigger have really lovely flaky bark which you can see creates these crevices and it’s behind these crevices that quite often you can find a tree creeper nesting European tree creeper which I have found a nest oh there’s a Speckled Wood just Al lighting the path in front of me might bump into that in a minute so yes the tree creeper although sycamores aren’t necessarily native to the UK they have been in the UK for several hundred years now and they are part of the landscape whether we like it or not and they do provide a lot of cover a lot of nesting potential and just look at that canopy gorgeous what’s not to love about a woodland walk it’s a nice Holly here actually really nice there’s not many Hol on this estate that I’ve seen so far this one is a good 30 foot nice tree probably a male because it doesn’t have doesn’t have any berries on it by the looks of it hence it hasn’t flowered here we have the Bracken which on top of you can see a beautiful red Admiral they seem to be really coming out in numbers now here on this estate and I’ve seen quite a few over the last few days this one being very obliging look at that very camouflaged when they close of course when they open their wings theyve got this gorgeous ready orange on the upper side and black and white notice how or note how he got it Wings closed at the moment so it’s Thermo regulating doesn’t want to get too hot so here I wanted to show you guys some Bracken while I’ve got a good example to show you now Bracken is a different plant to Ferns and it gets a a lot taller B you can see the main difference is it has this single stem coming from the base with the leaves coming off the side of the stem so that is the key point about Bracken I don’t really want to leave this red admal for M but we got lots to show you guys yet so another nice butterfly to add to the the tour so we can see here we’ve got Bracken that’s still smaller and then if we go back to the ferns these are ferns and these in essence are a leaf that comes straight from the ground so these leaves will die back in the Autumn some of them not all of them but a lot of them will die back in the Autumn and then they’ll kind of have this gorgeous kind of unfurling motion as they emerges new leaves in the spring so ferns grow from the base and the Bracken goes a stem with the leaves coming off it just a a bit of useless information for you there another magnificent oak tree this one a good 4 and 1/2 ft across at the bottom oh and a spackled wood butterfly number two here we are you see where it gets its name from that lovely meling on the upper side of the Wings makes it very very camouflaged in these dapple Shady settings which is of course one of its preferred habitats and that will be using a number of grasses could be grasses like this to lay its eggs on they are a lover of dappled shade and you can see on the ground it is the perfect habitat for them so they’re very very hard to spot when they land if you don’t see them land or where they land exactly it can be very difficult to spot so a nice one for this part of the tour and then if we look to my right sadly a casualty but what an incredible tree that looks to be an old beach but it’s creating its own habitat because it actually has um a Katon Aster growing out the end of it along with some ferns as well and there’s even some Bramble that started to root itself in the top no doubt that was a favored perch of a black bird or something who’s passed the Bramble seeds through its gut left a little deposit it there and that’s how a bramble has rooted itself in the top of this tree route an impressive root plate and more ferns you can see going out the top so ferns that’s a good example there going straight from the base Bracken has this main stem and of course Ferns and brackens very very old some of the oldest plants because they don’t have any flowers so which suggests and indicates that they were around pre- insects because they don’t need insect to pollinate them they just spread by spores same as fungi so put of an interesting fact there for you then we’ve got a nice few nice beach trees on the left here again the rumbling of a train we’re not far from the railway line that goes right the way out to if you can see through that the train is just over there thank you very much and that’s another one of The Meadows you can see through there which we did come through a few moments ago on the tour if you remember I walked up the hill that way back to the main road and back into the main Gardens through there to go to the meadow that bird you could can hear possibly above me and here’s a cold hit um which is nice that they’ve turned up on Q and I can’t help but want to show you guys these old stumps look love the way they are just covered in Moss and then these ferns are taking advantage of that lovely growing medium underneath above me it’s just alive with birds if you can hear the single piping notes they’re quite high pitched and most of those will be gold crests and again these magnificent large trees I mean just incredible well I couldn’t help but want to get Nikki to hold the camera to show you guys this this is another example of the standard size of some of the large trees in this area it’s absolutely enormous by no means the biggest Larch in the world but a pretty nice specimen and when I look up I can see this beautiful entanglement of all those branches again covered in mosses and lyans just providing loads of little nooks and crannies for these gold Crest tree creepers nut hatches and many Associated Birds to hunt through for spiders and insects just gives you an idea of the enormity of this tree just absolutely breathtaking and it’s one of many like I say on the estate again Larch very much grown as a production Timber so use a lot in construction Larch cladding for example is used on a lot of houses weathers very well outside and it was actually Larch that I used to create uh the bird hide if you haven’t seen that I created in abdine in Scotland last year which was a really nice little project next to a wildlife Pond that I created so go back and check that one out on the channel so Larch to one side I’ve just spotted some fabulous mosses on top of another stump that I’m going to show you guys now so you can see again this tree stump covered in mosses ferns growing from the base and then when we get to the top look at that it’s like a little mini jungle these beautiful mosses capping the top off on this old stump if I stand back now you get an idea of the size of it just a lovely little habitat and it’s places like that underneath and in in and around these old stumps that things like the ren will Nest potentially Chi chaff will a warble a black cap as well so another great habitat and of course home to potentially lesser stag beetles they’ll use the old rotting Timber underground and that will be where the lvy will be living for a year or two before they emerge as the adult lesser stag beetle we’re too far north for stag beetles but certainly you can expect to find lesser stag beetles here I feel bad even walking on this path it’s just got Moss all over it lovely path so we carry on now past some more Woodland favorites this of course is Hazel which many of you will have heard me talk about before Hazel possibly my favorite native shrub has an entire wealth of insects associated with it obviously provide the nuts for squirrels and mammals mice as well wood mice Harvest mice nice lots of many different creatures will use it and of course the denser stems when it is bigger like that can be home to things like col tits col tits use Hazel for nesting in when they hollow out at the bottom so yeah birds will often nest in the dense base of them another Mighty large tree there look at the roots on that the buttresses these bits that come out the side as well showing that’s where the strength is in anchoring this tree which has a reasonable lean away from the camera and another one next to it just here with these gorgeous well pale blue gray lyans as well beautiful color underneath a beach tree a young one this time Beach Mass a favored a favored food for hinches not that I’ve seen many of them in my life but rather nice bird if you’ve ever had the fortune of seeing one and then we kind of open out a little bit so we’ve gone from what was not really dense but reasonably dense Woodland Beach casts a lot of shade and the beach trees that are down there will create a fair shade you can see not a lot of light on the Woodland floor and then past this plump of bracken which does have ticks associated with it so I would always say guys if you’re out walking try not to March your way through Bracken because if a tick gets on you and bites you there is the chance of getting limes disease which a good friend of mine did contract many many years ago and it has left well it changed his life actually he was in conservation a lot and it meant that he was therefore very much out of breath when doing anything physical from there on in so yes quick pause that very vocal Ren um so yeah do be careful guys when you’re out walking amongst Bracken you’re okay walking alongside it mostly it’s just when you brush brush the stems that’s when they will jump on the host which will usually be deer um foxes badges rabbits anything they can get on really so yes as I was saying ticks to one side we’re kind of opening out a little bit now so we’ve got these lovely old birch trees above me a very old magnificent Rowan tree there as well and we’re starting to get a bit more light on the Woodland floor which is quite nice these semi- shady areas are a real treat to see another magnificent rowing tree there and again because we’re in a slightly harsher climate the tree growth will quite often in exposed situations be uh slower and slightly more stunted so a tree that might normally look 80 100 years old in a lowland Forest could be 150 200 years old at elevation and certainly further north so quite quite remarkable you can see those lovely branches there of a Larch tree hanging down Larch is our only native deciduous coniferous tree has a mouthful isn’t it native deciduous coniferous tree and it has in the UK and it does drop its needles and in the springtime it’s the most Vivid beautiful oh dragonfly sorry it’s the most Vivid beautiful color there’s a dragonfly Hawking over the middle of the path what looks to be okay another a look at the camera then hard to tell possibly migrant Hawker there were at least two of them around here yes the Larch needles are the V most Vivid green bit like beach leaves in the spring so do look out for them well that dragonfly just caught an insect on the wing trying to get a proper look at it course being in Scotland there are a few species Scotland’s very good for dragon flies that actually looks to be probably a male Southern Hawker yeah he’s quite blue on the back but a green head so I’m going to go with male Southern Hawk on that that’s my first of the year so nice to see these things are acrobatic wonders there’s a reason that they’ve not evolved much in the last couple of hundred million years CU they are an apex predator and they can fly up to 15 m a second some of them it’s going right up into the trees now I’m just going to go this way a little bit being careful of the Bracken I just want to show you guys this lovely little Vista from and don’t worry we’ve got another Vista in a moment so this is kind of the edge of the hillside looking through these gorgeous beach trees down to the meadow and down to the edge of the lock and just through there he won’t be able to make it out from here but I can just see one of the highing cows that we were looking at yesterday so very nice to see uh so this is kind of heading back down as I say towards the meadow and the lock where we were yesterday and we’ve got Bracken here but that entire Bank there is just ferns I mean just wow water ferns obviously a very good plant for dry shady and even wet Shady conditions so we’re going to move further around here now and there’s a very interesting plant that I’m going to show you guys next which is part of this sort of wet flush over there we’ve got a load of hedge wound work which is another plant that I’ve planted in my front garden my front Wildlife Garden which is very very good for bees and I can even make out a common card to be on it which I’m not expecting you guys to from that distance so yeah very very good plant now along here oh Speckled Wood sorry no no doubt most of you guys are to my little interludes and interruptions from butterflies it’s all part of the tour feel free to leave at any time but do come back lot of clattering around in there wonder whether that’s a deer up in one of the roaded engines anyway the plant that I want to show you guys is this rather interesting plant that was no doubt planted as part of the wildlife pond at the top of the slope which we’ll get to in a moment but down here in fact you know I’m going to ask my good ladies to hold the camera and Crouch next to it so you guys can see it so this rather leafy plant as you can see is American skunk cabbage which is as the name suggests not a native and it’s clearly doing very well because it has spread itself down this kind of wet flush which is the O the Overflow from the main pond at the top and at the moment it it has these fabulous flower spikes which if I can get in here and show you bit like a bottle brush they are just very interesting they’re not actually that spiky but they’ve got flowers all over them at the moment and what an interesting plant this is the leaves remind me of a binia if you’re used to the Garden plant that is binas huge huge leaf that is must be two foot six long just the Leaf part without the stalk with the stalk well you can see that’s over 3 foot so quite a quite an interesting Leaf however we’re now going to go up to the top of this slope and have a look at an even bigger Leaf another roaded engine to the left that’s gone over there but no doubt that was a riot of color up until recently here you can see that skunk cabbage really doing rather well I can imagine this will be a bit of a problem for a fair bit of a native Flora because I can’t imagine many plants will get a chance to go through that lot creates this almost flat mat of vegetation and just over there is the next rather large leafy plant that we’re going to have a look at so this rather large rhubarb looking plant is actually a type of gunara now I’m not a gunara expert but these plants do very well next to a pond so if you’re looking to plant your pond up with Native wild flowers you won’t find this on the wild garden.com online shop because look at the size of [Laughter] that this Leaf is over 4T in diameter and that’s just one of the leaves and underneath it has these really quite spiky stems ow yeah they are but actually when you get down and you look through it’s creates this lovely kind of understory but as I say creates also a bit of a monoculture so along with the skunk cabbage there’s not of lot of other plants in this area so if you ever think about planting a gunara next to your pond make sure you’ve got a lake before you do so this thing is incredible very rough Leaf as well you can hear it it’s like sandpaper but an amazing pant all the all the same well nonetheless and in the middle I don’t know if you can see it has started to send up a flower Spike which is almost equally as impressive just in the middle there looks like an entire Christmas tree and then while I’m here we actually have a bit of a a second catchment Pond these Wildlife ponds form part of a series of ponds and wet flushes that go down this Hillside the top Pond which we’ll go and have a look at in a moment but then you’ve got kind of this secondary catchment Pond which doesn’t have a lot in it could do with a bit of a clear out to be honest it’s mostly covered in duck weed uh but I can also see some broadleaf Pond weed in the middle which is a nice plant which we saw on the last Wildlife Pond but other than that it’s becoming pretty overrun and obviously when ponds get to this kind of level of overgrown vegetation it’s best to kind of interject if you like to to have a bit of a clear out because particularly the dragon flies like we’ve just seen will want some open water water in order to lay their eggs in along with the damsel flies as well if a pond is completely shaded out it’s not going to do too well so you want to have a little bit of light going in there at least so that’s one of the secondary parts of this Pond now let’s go and have a look at the top level pond so there is the Monstrous gunnera if I pan around to the right they’ve got this nice little open area here which is uh which has this kind of centerpiece of a Sund which is very nice lovely old bit of stone nice little feature it’s always nice I think when you can stumble across little features like this within a garden obviously most of us don’t have several acres to play with but when you can create little rooms I think it’s very nice got a what looks to be a a snake bark Cherry that’s been planted there this tree was planted in mer of Jane Nelson by the gardeners in 2011 so Jane obviously the Nelson family are the current owners of this beautiful estate and behind we’ve got it doesn’t look like it from here but that is one Mighty Scots pine tree and then moving around to the right we’ve got more silver birch again covered and almost draped in these lyans absolutely fabulous the Hoster doing very well down there and that’s the moain path that would take us down to where we were a moment ago looking at the dragonfly so I also want to show you this next Plant which is not a native but there are quite a few here and they are beautiful nonetheless and that are these gorgeous hydranges which this one is a magnificent sort of purple blue color like violet gorgeous some of them are more purple some of them are like that kind of a blue and if you remember the almost sky blue sort of baby blue color that we saw a little while ago on the tour when we exited the formal Gardens there’s quite a nice variety and then this is actually an Irish U and you can see it’s very figit in its growth meaning it’s growing Skyward unlike a normal U which would Branch out more these are often lined down driveways of formal Estates Irish youu a very nice tree right onto oh and there my God trying to keep up with that there was a female Southern Hawker because that one was bright green so male and female nice to see no doubt because of the abundance of insects and the presence of these water bodies so here we have I say the top level Pond I’m going to head up that way in a second just to double check I don’t think there’s a pond at the top but I want to make absolutely sure we got this nice Bridge walkway and then it migrates down again this wet flush coming through we’ve got some what looks like Angelica about to burst there wild Angelica a nice plant that I plant around the margins of my Wildlife Pond if I tread gingerly into here you can see that was a tree bumblebee that’s just left the top of this common spotted orchid and I have another one there which is slightly white common spotted orchids have a lot of variation within them and that one it’s a really nice pale color so through here we’ve got a lot of hard rushes going down into the main Pond which I’m not going to lie does desperately need clearing out you can see the grass has encroached quite dramatically into the middle of this pond although it looks to be full of lesser Spear workor and lots and lots of flag Aris so for those of you that get in touch and say should I put yellow flag Iris next to my pond uh depends how big your pond is and kind of halfway across it changes into this variegated variety of flag Iris so this you can see has formed a massive Clump that’s probably 4 M by by 3 m so be warned if you want to have yellow flag irus in your pond it does create a big Clump you see those impressive gunar leaves down there they do look fabulous in this kind of an environment in this landscape but as I say they create a bit of a monoculture and are a bit of a brute for a small garden then down here we have one of the candelabras remember we showed I showed you guys these back in the formal Garden so you can see those Primrose shaped leaves part of the Primula family and these ones have actually gone over now they finished flowering so probably a slightly different variety to the ones in the gardens but you just see the two two little yellow flowers on top but yes these candle labras not native again as I say but a very nice plant and obviously like it very wet and we’ve got more common spotted orchids down through here actually in amongst a few leaves of Meadow Sweet Meadow suet does very well in this part of Scotland there have been absolute SES of it along some of the verges around some of the edges of the locks does do very well in damp ground um and we’ll go over there in a moment have a look what’s in flour and profusion as a turn around we have seen on the estate hum bird HK moth or two over the last few days and this Cleavers or sticky weed as some people call it is actually it does have a little white flow if you can see and lots of pollen on my hands which is nice um but you can see it has a little white flower and it is still a Laval food plant of the hummingbird Hawk moth so before you rip it all out in your garden leave some of it because they do lay their eggs on this plant along with the Hedge bed straw so hedge bed straw I think is a pref preferred plant but the Cleavers or the sticky weed like I say uh obviously well known for when it goes to seed having these little tiny seed balls that stick everywhere get on your clothing you’ve always know if you’ve been through some of this when you get back from a walk or usually it’s hanging off your dog’s ears or coat so but yes we shouldn’t get rid of it completely because as I say it uh does create a Laval food plant a little bed here of what looks to be a sby a slightly different variety it gets rather confusing when you’re looking at plants that are derivatives of the Native because of course the leaves start to change a little bit the pl the flowers start to change a little bit and that’s very similar to esby which it is um but also the Meadow Suite before they flower the Meadow Suite looks just like this but is a more confined sort of tightly packed head right let’s take a quick wander past this bridge all right I’ll go on the bridge first so I can show you guys the middle we’ve got another species of gunnera down there a slightly smaller leafed one and this is the atil be I was just talking about what about that for a vivid pink color currently a fly on it sorry Mr fly uh but that is quite something isn’t it very delicate flower but beautiful absolute bright pink that thing and you can see all through all through up through the the middle there are these lies and hosters and flag Iris which make this lovely bouquet of vegetation Ro is obviously quite damp so quite quite a nice little spot so if we turn around now and go back this way I’m just going to go up the edge of this wet stream there’s the pond from the top of the bridge or what was a pond and in a moment we’re going to go off through there and through the Woodland to a rather nice Viewpoint of the lock right next to where we’re staying so stick around guys obviously we’ve still got the formal Gardens to do so hats off to those of you that are still tuning in still watching at this point hopefully you’ve been enjoying this tour and let me know your comments obviously see if there’s if this is the sort of thing you guys would like to see more of then let me know I know we’re all pretty nosy these days so we like a good nosy around someone else’s Garden but uh let me know your thoughts if you are enjoying the video if you’ve enjoyed the tour and obviously don’t forget to subscribe to the channel guys and hit that notification Bell then you won’t miss a single video I post so yes and thank you obviously for all the support as always so we’re getting up to the top now this is a bed again another bed of flag Iris yellow flag Iris you can see it’s finished flowering now and it’s created these seed pods so that’s finished that’s gone over but you can see the impression they were trying to make here which is a series of wet flushes which is just beautiful and actually you can see all the yellow stems there of the candleabra candleabra primulas and that tree there which I’m hoping there’s a tag on is a rather interesting esmen very old tree we’ll go and have a look at that in a moment um again this kind of wet flush and here nearly went past it what about that for a Hy Ranger I’ve not seen many that are cream with pale blue edges before isn’t that just beautiful hydrange is not incredible for insects but my goodness they look stunning at this time of year there are one or two things that we use in one or two smaller flies and insects that we use them for as a various food source but in general they’re not amazing down here we have a nice little plant this is a little plant called tormen which seems to grow over it’s one that we get growing in a lot of our um Lawns but quite often we never get to see it like this because it’s moan Time After Time After Time so tormen very nice plant if you get to have some in your garden Let It Grow I don’t want to quote Frozen in anyway I’ll get sued by them but uh Let It Grow here we’ve got some lovely hostas which are this gorgeous kind of lcky color and have a lovely entrance to them you can see there that’s where the bees will crawl in and get the neck to the base but in doing so we’ll go over all those Stam and gather pollen and we’ve got some that’s a nut hatch by the way doing that Soldier beetles on this one enjoying that and here we have the alcha molis which I showed you guys earlier but again great example we had a bit of a rain shower yesterday and look how it’s holding the water on these leaves these beautiful droplets absolutely stunning so yes and over there I’m going to go and show you that in a second here we have a magnificent Fern I’m not sure what this is but this thing is over 5 foot tall these leaves are just wow at the size of that brilliant and just to give you guys a bit of an idea of where we are the house is now over there the formal gens were over that way and we will be heading to the house to give you guys a view of the house because it is quite something here we’ve got another betel utilus Jack Monti which is the white barked birch as you can see but look again at the lyans that are on it it looks like somebody’s just sprayed Silly String all over it gorgeous a lot bigger Leaf than the native Birch as well it’s more like a cherry Leaf so if you’re wondering what a native birch leaf looks like compared to this it’s quite a bit smaller so yes we’ve reached kind of the top of this wet flush now which starts kind of where this Fern is so we’re going to head back down and through the Woodland past these lovely hosters and this this I just love this is a true native Fox Glove now I know we spoke about Fox gloves before but this you can see is oh and a common carder be exiting from one of the tubes one of the flowers I don’t think I’ve ever done a garden tour where the wildlife has been so obliging and acted on que it’s brilliant so yes this is a true native Fox Glove because you can see it is this very uniform deep purple color which is just beautiful and I’ve seen a lot of these on my travels over the last week um sadly they’re a bit hard to get in this color because many of the garden derivatives are kind of a pinky white variety which quite often don’t get me wrong don’t look any less attractive but I do love this pure purple native form find it a lot in Scotland and in the Lake District so it’s lovely to see and you can see some smaller ones here where they’re being stunted a little bit far this by this Fern that are still have a few few flowers left that one’s completely gone to seed great way to get Fox of seeds is by knocking the old seed heads into an ice cream tub at the end of the season you can get thousands doing that right I think I need to go up and round this block of vegetation which I’m not quite sure what the shrub is actually I know what this one is this is a no I don’t I thought it was a panther I think it’s a smaller roaded endin smaller Le Leaf rers engine but again look at that it’s just the looks like a load of cobwebs in there riddled with lyans anyway moving on this tree really is magnificent it’s not enormous in terms of its height but it’s almost like a maple just go and see if there’s a tag on it aha oh it’s a liquid Amber of course it is liquid Amber styro stiff so yes if you’re interested beautiful tree absolutely beautiful tree ferns growing out of it part way up as well right let’s head back down to the main Pond past more magnificent Magnolia Magnolias voted engin this one is like a tree I mean there’s not many roaded engines I’ve seen that are that size those trunks are a good 12 14 in across at least at the base so very impressive and down here so we’re now back to this side of the bridge just want to show you guys the hosters which are on this side which are looking fabulous at the moment really Splendid and a couple of days ago had two or three bees on it’s just got a little bit overcast now and a bit cooler but there’s still quite a lot of insects and then amongst it is a little kind of nondescript plant or very discret plant anyway which is this Willow herb a small Willow herb Willow herbs quite often we see them as weeds but they are a vital source of nectar for a lot of insects and quite delicate quite a pretty little plant really I know if it was rare we’d soon appreciate it but alas it is not and it grows in profusion profusion around Pond edges and it is used by several species of moth as well as a Laval food plant right now I’m going to head in there and show you guys something rather spectacular so this little beauty of a butterfly it just landed on that leaf if you can see I want to Spook it is a ringlet if you can tell by the golden rings on the back of or the base of the hindwing on the underside it’s gorgeous chocolate dainty little butterfly this is actually the first one I’ve ided and properly seen this year I’ve not seen too many of them of course they do better in damper climates where we are here in Scotland they are lovers of shade Sun as well but what a nice little Edition go on come this way you know you want to so I just wanted to show you guys another one of the very impressive trees that are found on this estate and this beauty of a tree is a Douglas fur again used a lot in production Timber but here you can see it has been left alone I don’t think they’ll be fing this one anytime soon because quite how they get it out of this spot without a crane I’m not quite sure it is magnific and just to give you an idea of the scale of it I’ll stand in front of it widthwise and it’s not far off the reach of my arms I would say so it’s got to be a good five or so feet across however in a moment’s time stick around because we are going to go and see a Douglas fur that knocks this one out of the ballpark it is at least five times the girth of this so and it is the biggest Douglas foot I’ve ever seen in my life and probably I’m likely to ever see to be honest so let’s go and have a look in that part of the Woodland go up to the Viewpoint and then I’ll take you to This Magnificent specimen of a tree so that magnificent speciment of a Douglas fur is just back there and before we head to my right into this dense part of Woodland I’d just like to show you guys this gorgeous honeysuckle which is just coming out into flower now absolutely loved by bees this thing and Hawk moths as well moths really love it and in the evening time it has the most gorgeous scent you can imagine absolutely perfect very good nice dense cover as well for nesting birds and it is a really good plant for so many insects and of course if you want some you can get it as a climbing plant on the wild garden.com online shop so if I pan to my right you can see this gorgeous Grove of primarily Douglas fur again another specimen similar in size to the one we’ve just looked at right in front of me and another one to the right there these monstrous trees but they are nothing on what I’m about to show you guys in a minute I can assure you there’s that monstrous tree back there I love this little part of the tour this little part of the garden it’s just full of mostly ferns some Bracken as you can see towards the back there but a lot of ferns and lots and lots and lots of wood soril which is this beautiful little plant looks like a clover leaf it is in fact wood sorl and again we’ve got some fig warts growing in the middle of it all few Larch here either side of this path gaining a little bit of altitude now and you might be able to guess we are getting a little bit more exposed because things are blowing about a bit and we are about to come up to one of the three vistas of this tour behind this little drystone wall through this little opening with a little slate path you’ve got this lovely curved wall which I’ll show you over the top of in a second and a little Memorial to Captain Nelson who was killed in action in 1917 and was one of the former owners of this house part of the Nelson family and now if I hold the camera up there and pan around you guys get to see This Magnificent lock Atif which the house is on the edges of quite a stunning part of the world out that way and right into the distance it heads out towards M the aisle of M what a beautiful part of the world this is we’ve got Connell just a few miles that way and a bit further around the coast about 15 minutes we’ve got Oban and it really is just delightful and that was a purple hair streak that just flew off the top of the wall I don’t know if you saw that it was just perched on this Ivy I don’t know it was a purple hair streak because that’s an oak tree and that is their favored food plant so they’ll lay their eggs on the developing buds of oak trees so how wonderful to see that was an unexpected surprise I can tell you right let’s head further into the deep dark wood hope we don’t see any GFF and the lyans on these trees they look dead but this is a living lyan it’s absolutely gorgeous like rust colored lots and lots more ferns gorgeous lush green and look back down there to the Grove of Douglas Furs which this camera angle just doesn’t do them Justice they are fabulous trees all right back to the track this part just around the corner actually is possibly the most enchanting part of this walk if you look up through there it’s just these stunted little oak trees I mean these oak trees as I was saying before because they’re on the edge of the Hill they’ll bear the most of the weather and the wind and they’re no more than 30 35 ft tall but these could be 100 years old even though they’re 14 16 in Max across at the bottom because of the climate the altitude and the weather another beautiful roaded engine there that’s just gorgeous papery bark on that but this really is quite en chanting through here I think kind of mini Grove of oak trees and this road is endin which has these ginormous leaves you see huge great big leaf on that and this gorgeous Underside like russet Brown as I say guys hope you’re enjoying this tour it’s certainly been an incredible experience for myself and Nikki to stay here feel quite honored to have been given the opportunity but it’s a honey Moon and I think we’re allowed to Splash out a little bit on the honeymoon so I’m very pleased to be able to bring you guys this tour and here again it’s like this lovely kind of it’s not an open Glade but there are more open patches in the canopy so I would love to know the population of purple hair streaks here of course we’re right at the beginning especially up in this part of the world of the purple hair streak flight season so it’ll be intriguing to be able to survey for them but of course how many people are looking up at the tops of oak trees in early and middle and the middle of July not many I wouldn’t have thought and we’ve got a nice sweet Chestnut here which is just about to come into flower which is castana sativa if you don’t believe me that’s by no means a magnificently large specimen but have these lovely serrated edges to the leaves I love sweet Chestnut it’s a great tre’s A lot of it down in local Woods near me in Essex and through there you might just be able to catch a glimpse of the house don’t worry I promise to show you it in a minute yeah sweet Chestnut there’s a fine specimen on the far side of the house which I think we did look at briefly in the beginning of the video this kind of open Woodland setting starting to go back downhill here you can see the lock just through there if that’s not a nice view I don’t know what is half hidden by the trees beautiful that’s actually the lower Branch there is the branch of a sweet Chestnut which is that tree down there which has mostly died off in the tops but sing Deadwood as you’ve probably heard me bang on about before is a fine or fabulous this habitat and up there we’ve got another sweet Chestnut as well and through there is the tree that I’m going to show you in a moment you can hear the Herring gos there’s a rather large colony of them on an island I’m about about to show you and what about this for a little place to come and sit this Dy so more capped with grasses and wild flowers and over the edge of it you’ve got that amazing view and a lot of the Herring gos we’ve got a lot of Herring gos down on this side of the island and on that smaller Island over there there’s quite a few pairs of lesser blackback gos so they kind of ster clear of each other a little bit have seen a few squabbles but what a view eh many an hour Nikki and I have spent looking over this beautiful lock contemplating life what a spot for it right so if we leave this area now more beautiful ferns growing in the wall and some Wood Sage take note of that guys I’ve got some of that to show you shortly few butter cups growing in the grass uh as we approach the house now and the tree I want to show you there are uh these Gardens are open to the public so we might see one or two more people just to let you know but the gardens are only open on a Saturday so just to inform you that was obviously a mighty specimen of a Douglas fur where that stump is and the tree I’d like to really show you is this one just here so this ladies and gentlemen is the finest specimen of a Douglas fur I think you will find anywhere in the world it is absolutely ginormous each one of these limbs is 3 to 4 feet across and it just goes Skyward and I mean this thing must be four maybe 5 m across at the base and I actually couldn’t believe it when we drove up the drive to see this tree now these trees are native to the Northwest part of America the sort of Pacific Coast but they obviously do very well here in this temperate climate on these kind of coastal edges and this tree is by no means the tallest tree they will grow even taller than this this is probably only about 60 ft tall I say only it’s still impressive but it’s the girth and the age of this thing I wouldn’t like to Hazard a guess as to how old this tree is it’s well over 500 years old and certainly older than the house which is just to my right which we’ll have a look at in a second but these things do get rather large I believe in America they can and there have been one or two records of them reaching 120 M which is knocking 400 ft tall so rivaling the Redwood Giants in America so absolutely incredible to see and quite honestly I am in awe of this tree hi Dave yeah you good yeah it’s been fabulous thank you yeah well I just couldn’t help myself guys my old tree climbing day is kicked in I’m not going to go any higher don’t worry I’ve not got my harness on clearly so not going to risk a fall out of this beauty but it’s just incredible the sheer scale of this tree the enormity and the volume of Timber that this has held up for centuries is quite remarkable it’s like half a dozen trees in one phenomenal it’s very rare actually to see a tree that has just been left clearly this tree has never had any of the lower branches removed when it was planted quite often with Parkland trees and estate trees as they get bigger some of the lower branches get taken off or either grazed by animals um or just for access they are removed to create more of a standard shape but this one you can see goes right out from near the base on all sides and my goodness what a colossal specic in It is Well possibly the biggest Douglas fur in the world in terms of girth who knows but now I just want to show you guys this incredible View from over here which is where we’ve spent many a tea break should we say and the sun’s come out for the occasion there’s that Island down there where we were just looking at from over there a moment ago so this Hillside drops away quite steeply but what is is very interesting is if you look just over the edge of the wall it’s absolutely covered in common spotted orchids which is great to see a nice little surprise a lot of St John’s worth as well the yellow plant you can [Music] see right I’m going to leave this fabulous view for one last time and we’re going to head now over to the formal part of the gardens and just have a quick look around there before we have a look at this magnificent house from the front so there’s a quick glimpse of the house on the front we’ll get a proper look at it in a moment but you can see that magnificent Douglas fur to the left for scale and if we go now into this little Terrace part of the garden the last part of the tour I’m sorry to say and head down these beautifully moan Terraces and what I loved first off when I came in here is that lovely patch of yellow is greater Birds foot trall which is one of my favorite pond plants I’ve plant around quite a few ponds does get quite big as you can see spreads a lot and then into the moan area out the front of the house we’ve got this lovely Rosa regosa sweet Brier which smells Divine flowers just going over at the moment really lovely and what I love as well is they’ve protected a a willow sapling but inadvertently protected a common spotted Orchid as well which is quite nice this is all greater Birds fo troil again growing along the base of this wall and these are just lovely part of the gardens you can see the rose is developing these rose hips now quite nicely look like a little tomato that one this side we’ve got some potten tiller lovely yellow plant it’s very similar flower to the Rock Rose if you’re familiar with that and look at these ferns growing in the wall you can tell this Garden is years and years old the house was actually built in about 19 sorry 1850 not 1950 so there’s at least 170 years of growth and natural spread here’s a plant that I wanted to show you remember I said about the Wood Sage you can see has these lovely tiny discret flowers and that’s being visited a lot by the common carder bees at the moment they’re really gingery bees and you can see the Sha Sage shaped leaf very nice we’ve also got the alcha mollis where it’s in the sun now it is flowering very nicely more roses got some nice fuches in here postman’s just turned up and if I look to my right you got these beautiful ACA trees there and this is the moan lawn area where again yellow flag AR is not can’t say I didn’t warn you guys and this moan area well I think it comes with an estate of this size now if it was me you guys know what I’d do I’d have a pond another pond in the middle and this would all be Meadow but I think there’s an element of formality it is quite acceptable when you’ve got thousands of Acres of wilderness a lot of the time and on the deck down here we have a meadow Brown if I can get close enough there he goes so yes I think there’s a permittable element of formality to Gardens of this scale this Grandeur we’ve seen every other habitat there is going we’ve seen scrubland we’ve seen Meadows we’ve seen ponds we’ve seen Woodland and that is another very very beautiful specimen very fine spe Scots pine that’s possibly one of the most perfectly shaped Scots Pines I’ve ever seen normally they’re growing together in a clump so of course they don’t get the chance to spread out like that but what a beautiful specimen that is now this plant the Name Escapes me I believe it’s a type of sage but I’ll put the name in for you guys I did look it up the other day but completely forgotten what it is very lovely plant though got a chamelea there and this I just love is a little clip U hedge which obviously borders this set of stairs going down to the main formal lawn area which has had a nice swallow or two skimming over this area catching insects over the last few days which is very nice but this I just love because in and amongst all of this what has naturalize is this beautiful Honeysuckle and that’s just been left to grow out the top many situations that would have just been cut to a box but here there’s a slightly more relaxed approach with all the ferns as well it’s absolutely beautiful go on there and I’ll show you the front of this house so so there’s some more steps we’ll go up to that Terrace in a moment that is aklo house ladies and gentlemen and isn’t it magnificent you can see I see why I picked it as a honeymoon destination and the inside of that house is exactly as you’d expect it to be perfectly weathered oh just an absolutely gorgeous house we’re going to have a look properly in a moment um not inside I don’t think it would be very fair of me to show somebody’s private home to the rest of the world got more Fox gloves growing either side of this moan area here a few nice white irises and these lovely naturalized Heathers and ferns across the top of this wall isn’t that just idilic like the land that time forgot I really do love seeing Gardens like this that are so old like my good friend David crossley’s Garden in Lancashire where I have interviewed him and shown his garden that is 38 years old not quite the same length of time that these Gardens have been established but everything is so well naturalized it’s just beautiful and all these Heathers you can see growing and then back to my right you can see this wonderful Acer tree which when the when the wind gets underneath it these leaves really are orangey red absolutely gorgeous lovely white flower here of what is I believe possibly this small smaller Guna although I stand to be corrected if you guys know what it is some lovely ferns again more ferns again along the top of the wall ah and here is some Solomon Seal which is not technically a wild flower but I love it there’s a massive patch of it down near the driveway and it has up until very recently been covered in these Solomon Seal sfly ly which again there’s a few hiding under this Leaf here it’s a shame really because you expect them to be some kind of fabulous butterfly or moth but alas they are just a sfly I say just a s flight everything has its role in nature let’s have a look into the under story of this as show we wow covered in mosses and lyans what a beautiful tree look there looks to be about four or five Aces through here making it one tree any there bit more formality with these clip to you Hedges not sure what’s under that I’m not going to have a look few rushes naturalizing themselves in these damp areas as well and again more of this Wood Sage just growing out the wall ah being visited perfectly timed prob what looks to be an early bumblebee very nice yeah Wood Sage a really nice one it’s kind of like a mini Salvia absolutely love that plant great for a shady area again available on the W Garden online shop got a few lies here that have finished flowering now the odd Fox clove and an escallonia and from here you get a nice view of the house actually so you probably recognize this bit guys we are back down at the formal Gardens where we first started the tour another beautiful Acer tree there and this Cherry at the end I mean look at the lying on that beautiful and a few Nettles and docks that have been left which is nice Nettles obviously the red Admirals probably wouldn’t be in here here in such numbers if it wasn’t for patches of these Nettles so really nice and looking back through there now you can see I think we’ll accept that as a moan lawn what a lovely part of the garden so let’s go and have a look up back up this top part of this Terrace up these lovely Rock Stepping Stones before we conclude the tour lovely part here got a lot of even Prim roses which literally open up in the evening bees love those and you can see the old stems from last year again we looked at those earlier meta Brown if you saw that fleeting Glimpse just around the base of these this lovely heie got some fever few there some irises as well nice fuches lots of fuches here beautiful more geraniums Solomon Seal again and campanulas which are just covered in Soldier beetles and this potent tiller again being visited by some bumblebees lovely shrub this potent tiller hoverfly is really enjoying it as well and various insects another Fox clove there just Clinging On we have some more Fox gloves here which again we got another be I just finished typically just growing out the wall there and this spear thistle which again I love that it’s been left providing a nice source of nectar for the bees this time of year spear thistle very good for butterflies as well Skippers will use it metab Browns ringlets most of the species we’ve seen today on this tour we’ll use it more evening primrose this is a type of burus you can tell because of the size of the Thorns I mean look at that they’re like 2in Thorns like Black Thorn and covered in in berries now finished flowering another tree peony lots more evening primrose and a lovely cus on the end here which is about to flower shame we’ve missed that it’s so late up here compared to down south nice Katon Aster there and some wild strawberry really good good plant for shade that is more alcha molles and a quint at the end which has a couple of flowers on it at the moment obviously quint’s used for making jelly can’t say I’ve ever actually tried it but and there that is this middle level Terrace looking back towards the formal Garden well guys I really hope you have enjoyed this video today it’s been an absolute honor to be able to bring you these stunning grounds where we have had the fortune of all of this complex and the house to ourselves for the last week which has been an absolute pleasure and I just hope that this video has done these magnificent grounds some just we have seen all manner of habitats as you’ve just seen and do let me know your thoughts let me know which bits you’ve enjoyed the most and of course if you’ve enjoyed watching this video of this very special garden tour with that Splendid 170 plus year old house behind us it’s been absolutely delightful to be able to share it with you today and if you’ve enjoyed this video then stick around because I have recently discovered that I have been granted access to an incredible property that Nikki knew when she was growing up and it’s just up the road from us in Essex it is a 100y old house built in about the 1920s and for at least the last 40 years has been derel and it’s been left purely by the owners for wildlife because there is about five or six acres that comes with this property so we are going to be exploring this derelict house and some of the incredible grounds that surround this wonderful property so do stick around and keep your eye on the channel for that video coming up but I would like to end this video now by saying a huge thank you to you all for sticking with me until the very bitter end it’s been a pleasure showing you around these wonderful grounds today we are now off down to the Lake District to finish off our honeymoon and I am very grateful to you all for joining us so stick around lots more to come guys as always feel free to hit that subscribe button and that notific Bell then you will get notified every time I post a video like this one on all the different habitats you can find in the wide landscape and of course all the ways in which you can help Gardens your own garden sorry help wildlife in your own garden in videos to come thank you so much for watching I’ll see you soon [Music]
29 Comments
Video looks great!
Joel can you stop doing tours of these large estate gardens please as I am going to end up broke with all the new plant ideas they give me 😂
So diverse and a real education. Really enjoyed how the garden had been managed . Just glorious ❤
I have bindweed that comes from under my fence so what I do is train it up the tree each year and it looks beautiful later on when it's just tumbling all the way up and through the tree in flower
It's a Joel movie ! Love it 😀
Watching this over a few nights. Delayed gratification is my thing💚
At 30.17 the plant with the dark leaves and small yellow flowers is Lysimachia Ciliata (Firecracker).
If I was a bee that’s where I’d want to live.
So interesting, what scientists called "novel" ecosystems — i.e. created by humans — don't usually have a chance to get this old!
Thanks Joel for taking the time to record this absolute mammoth but very exciting video!!!! this’ll fill a few lunch breaks whilst being very relaxing and educational 😊😊😊
Hi Joel
The shrub that looked like meadowsweet is Sorbaria Sorbifolia an asian plant in the rose family.
Thanks for the vlogs.
The plant at 1:16:00 is Bog Asphodel. Quite common in Upland bogs and heaths.
Thanks for bringing us along to the Scottish Highlands, it just has absolute gorgeous landscape ❤
What an amazing garden,Joel you are a walking talking fountain of knowledge! Thankyou for taking us on this wonderful meander with you…credit to the owners…the little🦋🐦🐞🐝🦎🐸🐛🐜🦗🕸🕷are in a 5*Hotel there
Hi Joel, my wife & I watched your lovely Post of your tour of the 250 year old garden in Scotland. What joy to see the beauty of Scotland Gardens at the best. Thank you for this post of the various garden types on the 5,000 acre estate.
We had a -4C Frost this morning. The deer on the hill country have just completed the rut so it is all quiet again! What a lovely late autumn day. The sun is cracking the flags in a sky of blue. We so enjoy your posts of Wilding your gardens. The joys of nature in a world of madness.
Looks super interesting! Will break up the video over a couple of days!
All the best,
Jimmy and Tony
P.s : seeds are sprouting around the pond! Also expanding my home-made stream in the backyard
Great honeymoon spot! Thanks for sharing and congratulations!!!
Absolutely fantastic video Joel & what a place to choose for your honeymoon and a great environment for wildlife.
Google to sit and watch this when I get home tonight, looks incredible… oh how the other half live.
Hey Joel, what’s the name of the place?
Love coming on the garden tour with you, thank you Joel🌼❤️🌸🦋🐝
Thank you Joel and Nikki for taking time out of your honeymoon to show us this amazing place. I have to laugh, you are just like me when you suddenly veer off course because you’ve seen a butterfly or dragonfly, I think we need T-shirts which say ‘easily distracted by insects’ on them 😂😂. The loch looks very inviting, were there any Osprey about? It looks like an ideal habitat for them.
I just watched 1/3 of your film but take a break to say thank you for making and sharing Joel's film to us. There are lots of lovely flowers and beautiful plants that I never saw before. Amazing video, love it. Continue watching now😊
Absolutely informative & lovely tour , thanks so very much . Oh, and belated wedding congratulations 🥰
Hey Joel! What a place! It was lovely to wander around and see so many amazing habitats. The Douglas fir was the highlight for me, absolutely stunning! I too would have been compelled to climb it. Lovely to learn the names of some of the plants and see how a wild garden looks when it gets to that age. Many more things on my wish list now, including the house. Wow! Can't wait to see the next tour, the arts and crafts movement is my favourite so there might be some influence on the old house. Great video! Best wishes.
I had no idea that rhododendron could get that large, or Douglas Fir for that matter. What a magnificent tree. I would love to spend time sitting under it, just appreciating it (yes I'm a tree hugger). Also, belated congrats on the marriage!
Years ago I spent my first honeymoon in Oban sadly for 2 weeks it rained but remember it has the only bridge across the Atlantic and a rare sedum growing on the stone
I remember seeing 2 Islands in a loch called Eighh and Mucch and a very old pub called Tigh and Truish forgive the spelling
It was great to see that both purple and yellow loosestrife both not related growing in just damp ground I have introduced both these in my wilded front meadow
Thank you for this EPIC vid Joel and great to end on that spectacular Douglas Fir !!!!
Thanks
The plant with the large leaves is Rogersii I think