Many thanks to Chris Jarman for sending through details of how some rare trees and shrubs have been rescued and re-housed at Freshwater Court. Ed
Sandalwood is a large home on Afton Road, Freshwater. It was the home of Chris Barnes (previous owner of Afton Park / Nursery / apple orchards etc) the renown grounds person and now garden designer.
Chris had spend much time planting out the gardens of Sandalwood with wonderful, rare and exotic trees, shrubs and plants.
A couple of weeks ago, I heard from Tom Murphy – of Living Landscapes (and a good friend of Chris Barnes) that the new owner of Sandalwood was planning to have the tress and shrubs removed and the site returned to grass.
They simply could not take care of the extensive plantings Chris had established during her time there.
Tom knew that I wouldn’t be able to just sit by and at his suggestion I contacted the new owner. We met and arranged that we could have Monday 8th December to rescue as many trees, plants and shrubs as we could.
Over the weekend before last, “Operation Garden Rescue” took shape and we managed to get support from local residents, vegetable growers from Freshwater Court and friends from the Green Gym.
Everyone met at Sandalwood on Monday morning and the day was spent carefully excavating, wheel barrowing and moving all of the beautiful specimens up to Freshwater Court.
Some 5m high and many others still as small shrubs. A great example of the community swinging in to action, working together and saving a host of rare mature plants. And having lots of fun together at the same time!
The rescued plants are being re-sited in their own renovated section of gardens at Freshwater Court.
