Visiting Gardens

So do any of you like visiting gardens?

I do sometimes as it gives good ideas, but for me a good garden should tick 4 boxes being; sight, smell, touch, taste and hearing, so all 5 senses activated and of course at the end - a nice cream tea or Victoria sponge.

So yesterday I went to the famous Beth Chatto’s garden, which is what it is in January, loads of snowdrops, the odd daffodil and hellebores. But my taste and hearing senses weren’t activated. At the end at 1:30 sold out of scones and no Victoria sponge.

I was disappointed, nor blown way.

 

I would be disappointed if I couldn't get a Cream Tea or Victoria Sponge, too.

However, garden visit start for gardeners is April, garden visit start for non-gardeners is May if not June.

 

A bit off season I would have thought for certain kinds of garden.
The smaller ones must struggle a bit at this time of year.

 

If I was visiting a garden, then the prospect of food at the end wouldn't come into it.
My mother on the other hand used to head straight for the tea room.
I don't visit many gardens, as I spend too much time with my own one but two that stand out in my mind are Dewstow and Stourhead.

 

Since retiring, I have visited a few. For example, this weekend I'm going to a specialist snowdrop garden, with lots of scent from daphnes. I have visited this garden every couple of years. I disagree about waiting till April. I saw a friend's garden for the first time a few weeks ago, and the use of coloured stems of jacquemontii birch, cornus, willow made me realise their value for winter structure.

I look for ideas, whether in the layout, choice of plants, or even bits of garden art. And this snowdrop one, if you pre-order, does lovely home made cakes!

I visited Beth Chattos garden many years ago, in summer, and it was... Ok...
Great Dixter was wonderful - but I haven't seen it for a long time.

 

While reading this I thought you must be a man

We also go straight to the cafe. Stourhead is 1.45 hours far, and a coffee and a cake is well deserved before we have a few hours walk.

 

Gardens which are well planned and managed can give inspiration during all months of the year. A garden doesn’t need to look desolate in winter if there is a strong backbone of evergreen structure, dramatic outlines of bare trees, dried perennials and grasses and emerging bulbs.

I visit my local Botanic Gardens every month and am always able to photograph something interesting or new. The soil and conditions are similar to my own garden so it makes it easier to decide on what might work here and how it will look in future.

They have a cafe which attracts many visitors, often more than in the gardens, which suits me as I prefer people free photos .

I think that garden visitors also need to have realistic expectations about what they are going to see at a particular time of year plus an appreciation of what they do see. For example, very few of my non-gardening relatives would appreciate the outline of a dried perennial or the bark of a tree in January, but my friends who garden would.

 

It’s not so much laziness on my side (I have a look at any time in Avebury) but many gardens open April for good reasons. The visitors you can see in April are keen gardeners imo.

 

I'm looking forward to visiting the Orchid Festival at Kew Gardens next week with a friend . That's inside the Princess of Wales Conservatory of course, but Kew is one garden I'd be happy to explore at any time of the year, there's always something inspirational waiting to be discovered. I can't recommend its in-house catering though - expensive and not great quality. A fun alternative is Newens The Original Maids of Honour in Kew Road, though that's not cheap either.

 

Well walking around a garden takes up many calories, this needs to be restored in the tea room, naturally.

 

They say that winter reveals the garden, unfortunately it doesn’t reveal much more! I know what to expect visiting Beth Chatto’s garden and wanted to do something whilst recuperating and before I go back to work.

Obviously garden come a live in spring (April puts the spirit of youth in everything) I hope to get back maybe in Spring.

 

When lockdown was lifted we decided to visit the Bishops Palace gardens in Wells, Somerset. Got a shock when we were told the tickets were £15 each. However this was for as many visits we wanted for a year. So we bought the tickets and went every month for the year. It was brilliant as we saw the gardens changing with the seasons. We met many volunteers and had lovely informative chats with them. It was a very worthwhile buy and opened our eyes to the changes that can happen in one garden.
We also last year visited the Botanic Gardens in Wales. Fabulous place and so much to see with vibrant colour schemes and the glasshouse was a real delight. The orchids and carnivorous plants were fantastic. Albeit this visit was in June while the Wells garden was all year round. Both gave us great pleasure.