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Alnwick Garden
This is not a garden; but a visitor attraction, not that there is anything fundamentally wrong with visitor attractions per se. A garden though is created as a personal folly in purely personal search for pleasure through the manipulation of nature, l can’t help but feel the motivation for Alnwick Garden was of a far…
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Viscum album
Mistletoe has fascinated humans for millennium, many plants have superstitions attached to them but mistletoe seems to have attracted more than most. It’s not hard to understand that a clump of evergreen leaves growing out of dormant tree in midwinter would grab the imagination. The druids are said to particularly venerate mistletoe growing on an…
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Strawberry Hill
Horace Walpole first found Strawberry Hill in 1747 and having purchased the house in 1749 set about rebuilding it in the Gothic style with a garden that developed as the house did. A very well connected and influential man of letters he was an important character in the development of gardens in the 19th century.…
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How to clean mortar stains off paving
This involves using a concentrated acid from a builder’s merchant and so all the manufacture’s safety advice must be carefully followed. Equipment: Brick acid Hose pipe Cheap plastic watering can with a rose Stiff broom Wellington boots Safety equipment (read and follow the safety recommendations that come with the brick acid). Summary: Check the…
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How to prune a rose bush
Equipment: Secateurs Long armed pruners (parrot bills) Strong gloves Before you start: You are going to get scratched even with gloves on. Use good quality tools which will give a clean cut and are safer to use. Cut the stems just above an outward pointing bud. You will see these if you look carefully just…
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Leckmelm Shrubbery and Arboretum
This takes a little find and is a world away from the highly commercialised gardens usually open to the public. It is situated on the north east shore of Loch Broom 3 miles down the A893 south of Ullapool. The post code IV23 2RH will get you close but you will still have to hunt…
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Le Château du Clos Luce
Le Château du Clos Luce greatest claim to fame is as the final home of Leonardo da Vinci and the garden is set out as a celebration of his work. It does though have two redeeming features; one is the reconstruction of da Vinci bridges and the other is his vegetable garden. If you ever…
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Le Château de Chambord
Le Château de Chambord looks like the archetypal grand French château, built in the 16th century and believed to have had some of its features designed by Leonardo da Vinci. If Disney was to build a château this is what it would build. The truth is though that it was in fact only ever used…
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Pinetum Park & Pine Lodge Garden
This is a private garden open to the public and one of the best modern gardens in the south west of England. It is far more of a garden than the nearby Eden Project or Lost Garden of Heligan and one of my favourite gardens of all time. It all started in 1976 when Ray…
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Logan Botanic Garden
Part of the Royal Botanic Gardens Edinburgh (RBGE); Logan Botanic Garden sits at one of the most south-westerly points of Scotland, only 40 miles from the centre of Belfast as the crow flies. Bathed by the gulf stream to the west and sheltered by the Scottish Lowlands to the east this garden contains a stunning…
