The garden of Oakbank and Bulkeley Mill are located above the west side of the Conwy valley, to the immediate south-east of Rowen. It occupies a long, narrow site sandwiched between the minor road from Rowen to Caerhun on the east and the Afon Roe on the west. It is a small riverside woodland garden incorporating both level and very steep areas. Its informal plantings of interesting trees with herbaceous and bulbous woodland subjects are associated with the well-known gardener and writer A.T. Johnson, who bought Oakbank and surrounding land from the 1920s before purchasing Bulkely Mill to the north in the 1940s (24659). He developed and laid out the garden in his favoured wild/woodland garden style (the William Robinson school of 'wild gardening') and used it as the basis for several books. Much of his structure and planting remains from the1920s to 1950s.
The widest, central  part of the garden is only about 60m across, and the eastern  strip, nearest the road, consists of the lower part of the steep valley-side. The rest is on flat, riverside meadowland.

Oakbank (originally The Bungalow) occupies a terrace overlooking the garden a feature of which is the mill race. The main area of the woodland garden is between the mill race and the river. The terrace in front of the house is densely covered with shrubs and ground cover species, with ornamental shrubs beneath it. The majority of the trees, including silver birch, cercidiphyllum, nothofagus, liquidambar and conifers, now tower above the roof of the house. The garden is accessible via a network of paths.

Bulkeley Mill's garden (to the north) was used partly to extend the woodland garden, and partly to grow plants needing a sunnier site. It is more open, but the bank on the east side, above the mill race, more overgrown, although there is a path along it. A fish pond is fed by the mill race. On the west, alongside the river, is a wide flood-defence bank. At the far north of the site a row of pines grows along the eastern boundary, next to the road wall, beyond which the steep bank is planted with rhododendrons and other shrubs, ash and beech trees, and various conifers. On the 'island' between the mill race and overflow channel, north of the fish pond, is a large pollarded oak.
The lawn on the south of Bulkeley Mill is dotted with trees, including cypresses, and is flanked by rhododendrons, more cypresses, ornamental conifers, and shrub beds.

Source:
Cadw 1998: Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest in Wales: Conwy, Gwynedd & the Isle of Anglesey, 124-7 (ref: PGW(Gd)13(CON)).