‘The Plaz Metaxu Garden at Coombe House has been included on the Devon Local Register of Historic Parks and Gardens because the gardens are a particularly fine example of modern landscape design. The garden has been described as 'one of the most original gardens made in Britain in recent times’ and 'Devon's most exciting garden'. The design and planting are considered by many, including The Royal Horticultural Society, to be of national significance. 

The garden has been created by Alasdair Forbes since 1992 in a Devon coombe running east-west. The influences include Greek mythology, poetry and post-Jungian psychology, coupled with a deep knowledge of plants and their habits. There are three linked walled gardens behind the house. In front of the house, water flows from a pool, through a canal to a lake, with views out to fields beyond from the dam. A broad green walk runs along the floor of the valley and the slopes are incorporated within the total concept. The subtleties of conception, planting, use of space and sculpture in the widest sense makes this garden of exceptional importance.’

HER Number: MDV112402

For further information about the garden, see the plan and list of key publications.

Captions:

1. View of Coombe House across the front lawn from Mnemosyne
2. The larger courtyard (Hermes): a diagonal view across the Labyrinth of the Broken Heart
3. The walled garden (Auxo) behind the house, with alstroemeria, veronica, eschscholzia and clipped cotinus
4. View of the lake with Pegasus in the foreground
5. The Kairos lawn with red twigs and berries (Salix 'Britzensis' and Crataegus prunifolia)
6. Lake view at spring sunset
7. View north west across the valley and garden from the Dragon's teeth in Eos
8. View down onto the Eleusis enclosure from the Avenue of the Hours in Themis