I hope you will forgive me for having this competition on my mind. When you’re involved, as we are, it does raise interesting questions.
I’ve been thinking about how Veddw is competing with major gardens, with real resources, like Dixter, Powis, Bodnant and about how crazy that is. Last year’s overall UK winners were
It might (or not) be interesting to have a discussion about what made these the best gardens in the UK in 2018 – I presume that they might not be best in 2019. If they aren’t the best this year it would give us, perhaps, a clue about what really matters, since we might be able to find things which had changed about them.
Be that as it may, and I doubt thinkingardeners are taking it all very seriously, some interesting questions occurred to me.
Veddw is definitely not a commercial garden. We open infrequently, we have no tea room or shop. Our facilities are a bit – what? – well, uncommercial. And we open in a world of gardens where some are like ours, but far more are definitely commercial. I can remember my shock once when we visited a garden where the owner told us he was making it as a tourist attraction. I was kind of horrified – how could a garden be worth having if it was made with tourists in mind?
Katherine Crouch says “I think the difference is the intent to be public at the conception or early development of the garden” so there you are – commercial garden.
Is this snobbery on my part, or a failure to understand what gardens can be about? The RHS make them, I think, to educate us. I find that a bit chilling too. Some gardens are open as an adjunct to a house which people also visit. (and which may originally have been designed to impress, after all….)
Are all NGS gardens simply private gardens which someone has pressured the owners into opening in a good cause? Years ago some great nurseries began on the back of NGS openings, and today people still visit gardens to buy plants.
Patterson Webster thinks Kathy’s ‘intent’ applies only to new gardens, “so ownership by individuals or organizations may be a clearer way to differentiate. “
Strangely enough I was thinking, and writing, about something like this in 1999 – but then writing for a newspaper didn’t enable any discussion.
What I’m wondering is, do you, as a thinkingardener, tend to visit a particular type of garden? And what is it, if you do? Do you prefer a proper commercial garden with facilities, or search out gardens made simply for the owner’s pleasure? Do you mind if said owner is now dead and someone else is running the show? Do you search out especially gardens designed by celebrity garden designers? How far will you travel to visit what kind of garden? Do you read ‘Garden News’? And whose ‘Best Garden’ do you trust to meet your taste? Do you look for something entirely different? (does that exist?)
And should I go on with thinkingardens?
Dear Anne, really interesting to read all the comments and like others, would love you to continue but only keep doing it if you still have the enthusiasm for it. Otherwise, it becomes a chain around your neck.
‘re visiting gardens, I enjoy both commercial and private gardens for the ideas I get, new plants I see, different combinations of plants, and perhaps to see if the well known ones live up to expectations, like one famous one in Scotland which sadly disappointed. Sometimes the smallest garden can delight the most with the imagination of the owner. If available, loos, tea and cake are much appreciated and most important home grown plants to buy. It is a rare garden when one comes away with nothing to further my knowledge or joy of gardening.
I haven`t visited gardens for some time…. I am now driven to invest all my time in my own garden.
But when I did, I found them filled with crowds who seemed to enjoy the social event of an open garden and comment more on tea and cake than planting or structure, the crowds seemed to tick off features they had seen on TV and drop celebrity names, whist talking of garden rooms or ha ha`s …. I sought to learn a sense of plants, the ones I had seen in my encyclopaedias, that sense of a place that one rarely feels in company…..
I know in my own garden if there are visitors, many of the birds fall silent and it becomes still…. when once I trudged through at 2am after hearing commotion in adjacent land, I realised I am only a visitor in my garden, it is teaming with residents, who shy away from me.
I have to admit I have enjoyed the semi derelict, more nature than tearooms, overgrown railways , or industrial workings where nature is reclaiming, too me these offer more mystery and the chance to interpret structures than many gardens where one is confronted by the ghosts of good ideas, reproduced over and over, like Chinese whispers where the original sense of place and design has been lost, however there are occasional gems which will reignite an interest… open another door, however I do not place trust in “the best” lists pandering to tea and cake lovers or those targeted by magazines that advertise relentless tat that is apparently essential to create a garden.
I enjoy reading Think gardens, maybe one day I shall leave Gardd Cudd and visit Veddw, on a rainy day alone….. 😉
Hi Anne, I do prefer visiting gardens with a ‘soul’ (although I’m aware that ‘soul’ is a human invention but I guess you know what I’m getting at) which is very hard to find in a commercial garden unless the person behind the venture is very special (and this happens). Sometimes it’s difficult to judge if a visit will be worth it and so the odd disappointment is unavoidable. But then I try to combine several visits to make it worthwhile, and even in a ‘disappointing’ garden one can usually find something to stimulate the mind, even if it only raises the question how anyone could have possibly created such a soul-less place. 😉 To find something really different is challenging and we’ve often noticed during our garden visits in the UK that people copy each other and you’d come across the same features. Having said that it’s still one of the best places to see gardens and I wish other people/countries would be as passionate as the Brits are! I hope to be able to see your garden one day though, as apart from the ‘best toilets in the UK’ I’ll be sure to meet an interesting couple. Should you continue with TG? Yes! But then this is utterly selfish and in truth I think there’s a time for everything, so if you feel it’s time to quit, you must do it. Best wishes PS: I was able to read the article by the way…just!
It’s odd, that copying. When I was asking for ideas for our avenue I was really depressed at the cliches people happily offered. It did mean I had to think of it myself though.
These comments really have convinced me once again that it would be worth a lot to have those sparky gardens with soul named somewhere for the benefit of travellers, but while every uk garden is ‘lovely’ I can’t see that ever being possible.
Thank you for the permission to retire! I am tempted, though this post has been a real shot in the arm (ouch!). Hope you get here – would be good to meet you too.
It’s different here in California with gardens and visiting, but certainly we’re blessed with choices. The settings can often be dramatic; Lotus Land, the Taft Garden in Ojai, the Huntington, Val Verde in Montecito, the Ruth Bancroft Garden in Walnut Creek, and then all my local designer friends’ gardens like Marcia Donahue, Cevan Forrist, Brandon Tyson, Michelle Derviss, Davis Dalbok etc. Some of the public botanic gardens across the state can also be superb with LA, SF, UC Santa Cruz, UC Berkeley to name a few.
I just haven’t been to many UK gardens, but loved both Kew and and Chelsea, have only see other UK gardens through media/internet. People do seem to take their gardening quite seriously. For me, it is always about the plants as well as good design, and being California usually eclectic.
Ah – the great plant hunt! You are, refreshingly, the first to mention that, though I imagine it comes next to lemon drizzle cake in most UK visitors minds. You sound to have some exciting gardens – no need to come to UK!
Do continue!
The “best”? A few years ago St Cirq la Popie was voted the best, i.e., favorite, of the Most Beautiful Villages in France. What an honor for a tiny perched village! With its new popularity, the village immediately needed to address its new traffic problem with signage, barriers to keep drivers from parking inappropriately, additional parking lots, porta-potties, unhappy residents who could no longer park nearby while stopping for their morning baguette or café. I stopped going there or taking visitors. It has been spoiled by its own success. Do be careful what you wish for.
Now, back on topic. I travel to visit gardens from Europe to California to New Zealand.
What are my criteria? I search for gardens with personality. Preferably, the creator is alive, on site, and willing to answer questions. A memorable garden will have at least one image that stays with me. Although I have not yet visited Veddw, your waves of hedges and the new “balls” of varying heights are already imprinted. Well done.
I do recognise that, Glenys – we have such a famous village in the Cotswolds and in the middle of winter tourists wander into people’s gardens, seeing them as part of some show.
I once fancied being a bit in demand, until I realised I hate public speaking and I hate being away from home, even for a night ,and altogether none of the things I treasure and need go along with that kind of success.
A garden visitor, part of a tour which like many, sadly, had left people rather overwhelmed with seeing so many gardens and unable to really tell one from another, recently said just that to me: that she hopes to take away one image from them each. I thought that was not very much, but in a way it demonstrates how a garden owner will know and evaluate every plant and how it is playing its part, while a visitor sees a much wider picture. One we can never see: one of the reasons for asking for a proper critique.
And – for many of us as visitors, and again a little hard on someone shy and wanting to hide like me, the encounter with the garden makers…
Maybe we’re lucky that you’ve got your images of Veddw and even an encounter with me, when I’m not being so shy. (so much easier in writing) God to meet you. Xxx
Bonjour Ann,
Nous venons visiter votre jardin dans 15 jours et nous sommes rassurés de savoir qu’il y a des « toilettes » d’ailleurs nous avons choisi votre jardin pour cela !!
Non je plaisantais, nous visitons de nombreux jardins privés en Europe et nous les choisissons non pour les récompenses qu’ils ont reçu, mais principalement pour leur conception. Nous attachons beaucoup d’importance à l’histoire du jardin et à celle du paysagiste, que ce soit le propriétaire ou un designer … et le côté « commercial » ne nous convient pas sinon nous allons au zoo !
Nous choisissons les jardins que nous allons visiter en fonction de leur style, leur architecture et aussi la personnalité de leur propriétaire mais certainement pas pour leur côté commercial ; d’ailleurs lors de notre prochain séjour nous ne visiterons que des jardins privés.
Bien sûr nous avons commencé au début de nos visites en GB il y a plus de 25 ans par les grands jardins du National Trust. Ils nous ont éduqué aux superbes mixed borders dégoulinants de fleurs et d’un entretien terrible…Nos rencontres depuis avec les propriétaires de « petits jardins » sic… nous ont montré qu’un jardin n’est pas une accumulations de plantes colorées mais aussi une réflexion sur l’environnement et le paysage, sur l’architecture qui adopte aujourd’hui un style plus naturaliste et demandent aussi moins d’entretien.
Voici l’avis d’une Française qui aime les interrogations d’une grande jardinière Anglaise qui ne doit surtout pas arrêter son blog.
A très vite.
Catherine
==Hello Ann,
We come to visit your garden in 15 days and we are reassured to know that there are “toilets” besides we chose your garden for that !!
No I was joking, we visit many private gardens in Europe and we choose them not for the rewards they have received, but mainly for their design. We attach a lot of importance to the history of the garden and that of the landscaper, whether the owner or a designer … and the “commercial” side does not suit us otherwise we go to the zoo!
We choose the gardens that we will visit according to their style, their architecture and also the personality of their owner but certainly not for their commercial side; besides during our next stay we will visit only private gardens.
Of course we started at the beginning of our visits to the GB more than 25 years ago by the big gardens of the National Trust. They educated us to the beautiful mixed borders dripping flowers and a terrible maintenance … Our meetings since with the owners of “small gardens” sic … showed us that a garden is not a pile of colorful plants but also a reflection on the environment and the landscape, on the architecture which adopts today a style more naturalist and also require less maintenance.
Here is the opinion of a Frenchwoman who likes the questions of a great English gardener who should not stop this blog.
See you soon.
Catherine
Hi Catherine
Thanks for this – and, of course, we have the best toilets in the whole uk, so you will not be disappointed!
And you make an interesting distinction between the National Trust Gardens and the personal/small/private gardens. The maintenance issue is critical and I believe people increasingly dislike over maintained. I’ll be interested in how you feel about Veddw (and it’s toilet).
Thanks you for encouraging me to persist with the blog! Xxx
Salut Catherine
Merci pour cela – et, bien sûr, nous avons les meilleures toilettes du Royaume-Uni, vous ne serez donc pas déçu!
Et vous faites une distinction intéressante entre les jardins du National Trust Gardens et les jardins personnels / petits / privés. La question de l’entretien est critique et je crois que les gens n’aiment pas trop l’entretien. Je serai intéressé par ce que vous pensez de Veddw (et de ses toilettes).
Merci de m’avoir encouragé à continuer avec le blog! Xxx Anne
From John Sales
Best” Garden
Ask a silly question……..! A vote organised by a national magazine is a reflection of its readership and is interesting and valuable, largely with that in mind. It also depends on the range of gardens the readership may have seen in person or through the media: their experience.
Of course it is impossible to compare gardens of great historic importance with gardens made a few years or months ago, and gardens of domestic size with big ones of much greater scope and resource.
Comparisons of this kind cannot be taken seriously. Why the obsession with good, better, best (and by implication worthless!)? Yes, gardens depend on “intention” and can be judged on certain criteria at any rate in the short term. But they change and are changed, gaining or losing qualities over time, according to the intent and resources of the owner and a combination of maturity and chance. The greatest gardens are those that bear the imprint of these changes over several centuries of continuous gardening.
Almost all gardens have qualities to enjoy or deplore, according to taste. The right way to visit gardens is to look with an open mind for the qualities and values that the owners think worthwhile.
John Sales
There is a point in having some reliable judgements, according to the interests and tastes of the prospective visitors (see queries and comments in the post) as visiting gardens can take considerable resources of time and money. For example, a friend of mine is about to travel from South Wales to Scotland simply to visit one garden of interest to her.
And, of course, those of us who depend on visitors also depend on perceptive publicity, (or successful competing, sadly) as I have said in another response, since our publicity budget is small and the media world presents all open gardens as ‘lovely’.
Brian Griffith, who produced a weekly tv garden programme on S4C, said “you cannot go wrong if you show people a garden they couldn’t ever afford”. He implied visiting a garden should be an entertainment.
The entertainment can come from exuberance and extravagance that fitted with the social calendar of its one-time owners – I’m thinking of Bodnant in the spring months before the family would depart for their London home for the “season”- and for the general public the NT have done a good job of extending that exuberance from January to October.
However I also think the entertainment can come from a garden with a good narrative. That means I can enjoy Beth Chatto’s garden as much as Charles Jenks’s (and the gardens of Maggie Centres must be amongst some of the best recent gardens). Even didactic gardens; Kew or Logan or Kirstenbosch or the kitchen garden at Beningbrough Hall or the rhubarb trials at Harlow Carr tell an entertaining story. Ownership is usually part of the narrative either as overt expressions of the (one time) owner’s life or the need to get punters through the gate- as St Mowden do so well at Trentham. I have not yet visited Veddw, but I am sure it can tell a story.
and I can think of some pretty poor narratives too. For instance some of the RHS show gardens were the designers is straining to meet a brief that fits in with the sponsors chosen narrative – it can be naff.
Yes. People must be desperate for a sponsor – then what if they manufacture nappies? Has to be a very particular constraint and challenge. And then so is being a garden designer and meeting the idiosyncratic wishes of a client?
Interesting, the idea of a garden needing to be one you could never afford.(I always hope no-one will envy me Veddw, not because of the cost, but because of the effort). But is that a definition of entertainment?
But garden visiting is an entertainment, of course it is, and your descriptions of the kind of entertainments of offer is another good way into considering the nature of the different gardens. And stories – yes.
You may like to know that I recently visited a wonderful garden, and part of the reason it was beautiful was that it is designed to be visited just in a very short season (late spring) = https://www.showborough.com/.
Anne please do not give up your site it is a breath of fresh air in the gardening world.
I think to see a realistic garden is a bonus where things that can grow together do so, rather than being forced, held back and other unnatural ways we see in certain show gardens.
Seeing the mark of the owner in unusual ways and coming across something surprising is what i enjoy. I also like the intimate as opposed to the large landscaped garden,which is supposed to bring the countryside in as some sort of backdrop to the garden and great house, but i imagine is never touched by the actual owner, other than some pointing, orders and much money perhaps.
Tea and cake is a bonus rather than a necessity unlike a loo!
Keep up the good work
Thank you for the encouragement to keep going, Jillian.
I think you are describing the essence of a personal (private) garden. Though I confess to manipulating plants by cutting bits of them down and killing others…
Anne,
I know not where that question mark came from at the end of my comment about visiting Veddw!
Don’t think I can delete it!
Sorry!
I removed it for you. Will respond to your comment soon too..
Anne: May I ask for clarification on your thought process in posting this? Are you seeking to understand what gives garden visitors most pleasure/satisfaction and how that might factor into “scoring” a garden on a ranking of BEST 100 GARDENS? Are you wanting to determine if those residential garden hosts who offer a refreshment and access to a bathroom might rank higher than those who don’t? For visitors who travel distances, access to such amenities might surely impact the enjoyment of their experience.
It does beg the question, if a resident garden-maker goes to great lengths to make their guests comfortable, don’t you see that a fair criterion for boosting that garden’s ranking by those guests?
Here in America, garden destinations are predominantly public/commercial or a single day’s event generated by a botanically-concerned organization. So such rankings would not likely be a topic on which to dwell. But from outside, looking in, I wonder if your apparent competitive energy has run amok. It’s entirely reasonable for the BEST GARDENS list to be formed to help guide folks on worthy destinations not to be missed. So many factors must weigh in to which gardens are included (including the location, the conveniences in getting there, and the potential to create a lovely day for visitors).
From other posts I have read, Anne, you are not interested in steering the design of your garden to boost your ranking by the masses who might choose to visit your garden, are you? So do you hope responses to this post help you prove to yourself a need to go on designing/maintaining/improving your garden based on your own criteria for excellence?
Hi Eric, it could hardly escape my attention that tea and cake is an important factor in people’s assessment of a garden. See my comment on the importance in this post: https://veddw.com/general/thoughts-on-opening-a-garden-and-being-criticised/
But that was not much on my mind making this post – more the nature of gardens and the vast differences between them, and wondering about what (besides tea and cake) people value and seek out.
My competitive energy may have run amok. I am competitive, but perhaps more to the point, the continuation of the garden at Veddw depends on visitors, so it does matter to us what people might want. So your final thought: So do you hope responses to this post help you prove to yourself a need to go on designing/maintaining/improving your garden based on your own criteria for excellence? is no doubt relevant. Always good to be reassured.
But I also have an interest in raising debate and discussion about what we value, and why. In considering the nature and function of gardens and even fashions in them. There are wonderfully eloquent comments here about what people do value and seek out – I wonder if they would have been the same things 50 years ago? And will they continue to be the important things?
I also appreciate finding words to distinguish different types of garden and making sure they communicate accurately to people. At least thinkingardens people. I think being able to communicate clearly where not much clarity has so far existed is important. If only to assist people in making visits that justify their time and effort. But also to enhance discussion.
Dear Anne,
It’s a good question, making us thinking gardeners revisit the things that make a particular garden worthy, important, heavenly or gobsmackingly fabulous.
You are blessed in the UK with so many of the above to choose from.
I had not heard of Barnstaple so I looked it up and what a beautiful and educational commercial space(s) it is.
Would I visit in my next two weeks of UK garden viewing?
Probably not, too many other non commercial gardens to see, spoilt for choice and never enough time!
Would I visit if I was close by?
Possibly.
But I wouldn’t call it a garden – not in the tradition of the great gardens created by the people whom dwell within; responding to them with a thoughtful and lively intelligence; caring deeply and valuing the precious spaces they are.
There is the excitement of stepping through the garden gate and spending a couple of hours within…..I am unsure if a commercial space can replicate that.
The best gardens possess a magic, allowing the visitor to look into the soul and mind of the gardeners past and present; to enjoy a privileged and private three way conversation between gardener, the gardened (and it’s environs, so important) and the visitor; and yes, be educated too!
Genius loci embraced; the history of the space and the importance of design within both soft and hard landscaping go a long way in helping to make a garden successful.
You will be unsurprised to learn that I have never been to Chelsea, so should not
comment however as artifice and crowds when looking at any work of art are an anathema ……it may be some time before I take the plunge!
And yes I have had the privilege of visiting Veddw.
You are the visitor that I give much weight to, Jo: the visitor with little time and much enthusiasm and interest. Someone who should not be misled or disappointed. And another thinkingardener who is amazingly eloquent about what you search for and value. Thank you. xxx
Firstly, please continue with this website.
I am new-ish to gardening and it really helps me appreciate gardens beyond the idea of “oh, that’s a pretty flower!”. As a hobby, I am starting to try to articulate my thoughts on gardens by writing about them so this website provides inspiration!
As for the question “…tend to visit a particular type of garden?” I am the only person in my family interested in gardens, or the only one willing to pay to see gardens is probably closer to the point. So for me to get everyone in the car willingly, there has to be facilities! And that means a coffee shop as a minimum. What this means in reality is visiting National Trust properties…which I suppose also answers your other question about the Gardener being alive or dead.
O, that is hard, Shaun! What a restriction, especially when you are clearly still discovering what it’s all about.
Thank you for your encouragement. Where are you writing? I would be interested to read some of your writing.
I’m writing for fun at the moment so none of it is published anywhere, but if the quality ever improves I will get a blog going and who knows? One day I may make it on to this website!
I agree completely with the comments made by Cherie above. We have been lucky to have visited gardens in the uk and to a lesser extent in Europe over a long period of time . We have a large garden back home in nz and have just arrived to visit gardens here again over the next 11 weeks. We camp so that our budget stretches further … We research intensively using the NGA book, RHS, National trust, Garden magazines, the thinkin Garden website and other websites which we stumble across. We visit gardens for all of the reasons outlined by Cherie but have never taken part in voting for a particular Garden to be the best …. ‘best’ is a crazy definition of any Garden. Gardens and landscapes offer different things to different people … how can they possibly be judged to be ‘best’ … I think you could get hung up on being ‘best’ … and maybe you should consider who it is who actually votes for the ‘best’ Garden ….I am sure it’s not at all a representation of all visitors… and is possibly just a particular type of visitor …
Ann your garden is inspirational to us and we hope to visit again this year …. I am so pleased you have “facilities” … that’s all you need … bugger the lemon drizzle cake .. who cares … keep being yourself … your garden is personal to you as is ours to us … thankyou for sharing it.
Thank you, Wendy. I hope to see you here then, if our restricted opening times can fit in with your itinerary.
You are so right about ‘Best’, of course. But sitting here, being any sort of ‘Best’ which gets national publicity is worth an enormous amount to the garden.I hate to say this, but especially as we’re getting older and want to keep it going.
And – you bring attention once again to just what garden visiting costs in terms of travel and effort and therefore the need to assist you and others in – actually – finding the very best, to make it all worthwhile. I do hope you succeed and have a great trip. xxx
Dear Anne! Your thoughts, and Thinking Gardens are a breath of fresh air, a very welcome questioning of certain items which we take for granted or simply do notbstop to meditate.
I garden as a professional landscape and garden designer in Buenos Aires and Entre Rios, and Patagonia Argentina. And thank you for often helping me stop and think.
Please do not stop. Muchas gracias!
Elsita
Thank you Elsita – wonderful to hear of interest from so far away. And encouraging. I will think hard before stopping!
I’m not often brave enough to offer a comment here, as I’m not a garden designer or garden specialist of any kind. But the suggestion, Anne, that you might not continue has prompted me to put finger to keyboard. I love reading your posts and the thoughtful comments they prompt. I certainly get more out of garden visits as a result.
To answer your questions, I visit any gardens if I’m going to be in the area (and will plan holidays especially to make sure that I AM going to be in the area if the garden sounds appealing enough), but if time is short I’d miss out those that are ‘just plants’ – wonderful and gorgeous though plants are.
What I want is planting in a coherent scheme, so structures and hard landscaping are often part of it (though not essential). A garden in a particular location is also a draw – Houghton Lodge, for instance, in Hampshire, where walking beside the placid River Test is one of the pleasures.
I do visit a lot of commercial gardens (mainly National Trust and private stately homes), especially if they are historic, but make a point of searching out ‘personal’ ones, whether or not the owner is alive. They are the ones that resonate and stay in the memory. Not just the Dixters and Lasketts and Little Spartas, much though I enjoyed them all, but ones such as a tiny private garden in the Isle of Lewis where the owners were meeting challenging conditions with great enthusiasm and success; the Crofters Garden from Chelsea a few years back after it had been relocated to the northern tip of mainland Shetland (which I suppose answers the question of how far do I travel …); Brantwood and Levens Hall in the Lake District; the tame and wild areas of Portmeirion (especially the wild coastal bits, enhanced by knowing that tea and ice-cream was only a few minutes’ walk away …).
The latest memorable one was a wet visit last Friday to Arundel Castle, where the fairly new Collector Earl’s Garden was stunning – even though he died a few hundred years ago so it is an imaginative recreation based on limited evidence. (It helps that I’m interested in garden history and love the period it was evoking.)
I don’t read ‘Garden News’ and am entirely uninfluenced by someone else’s ideas of ‘Best Garden’: I can’t really see the point of competitions, but that’s probably just me … Seeing something by a celebrity gardener can be lovely (I enjoyed Scampton) but I wouldn’t go just because of a famous name.
A loo is vital (I feared there wouldn’t be one at the Veddw but it was such a relief, in all senses!); cake and tea is lovely but I often linger too long in the garden and run out of time; and the absence of other people is always a delight!
In answer to your last question, do I look for something entirely different, well yes, I probably do. One of the most thought-provoking, memorable and downright enjoyable garden-visiting experiences was a group of private modern gardens in and around Stroud, including Througham Court, some years ago. (Did Thinking Gardens have something to do with that? It was a fabulous day pottering around them all and I often think of it.)
I suppose, in short, I’m looking for a way of spending time in an interesting version of nature, with more variety in a small space than going for a walk in the countryside would provide – with the bonus of a loo and lemon drizzle, which sounds very shallow but we’re all human.
Do keep going with thinking gardens!
I do know how human we are and I have a terrible love of cake too.. I will now add to our website that we have a loo at Veddw, as well!
I loved going through your garden tour as outlined here and ‘personal’ garden is perhaps the real, right description. I think a great professional garden maker/head gardener like Troy Scott-Smith can create a personal garden out of a commercial one, and the rest of us, well, of course it’s personal.
Re competitions, I understand your indifference. It may even be off putting to win a place in a Garden News competition. But it does bring us very welcome publicity, otherwise very hard to come by in a world where every garden is ‘lovely’.
Please go on adding comments! xx
Please continue with the website: it’s new to me (but I’m old to garden design).
I was so heartened when I found it because so much that is written about gardens depresses and infuriates me. The relentless, humourless lovefest that the media has with horticulture bores me beyond words – we need more quiet thoughtfulness and a willingness to be critical in an informed way.
A thought on garden visiting – I stay away from NGS gardens listed as ‘a plantsman’s garden’. It often means unlimited horticultural indegestion.
Thank you for your encouragement, Christine. I love your “relentless, humourless lovefest” – spot on! And re NGS plantsman’s gardens, you’re right, it is a useful hint……
Gardens made by artists are often very good, like John Hubbard’s at Chilcombe. I visit East Lambrook again and again; I also love Bryan’s Ground, Cranborne Manor, West Dean, Forde Abbey. I feel furious when my visit is spoiled by the noise of machinery or when areas are roped off – that hasn’t happened in the gardens mentioned.
True – we carefully and sometimes at some cost make sure no machinery is used when we have visitors. Your garden choices are perhaps a mixed bunch though? (Why no Veddw, I wonder???!)
I have been pondering this – particularly your use of the word ‘commercial’ when it comes to gardens. I think anyone who charges garden entry (except where 100% goes to charity) and/or sells anything to garden visitors is by definition commercial. It is just that some are more successful and larger scale in their commercial activities. I am not sure it is a useful descriptor in this context.
I tend to use the word ‘domestic’ to describe owner-operated gardens but it could well be argued that both East Lambrook Manor and Great Dixter have remained domestic gardens.
What I think you are trying to differentiate on is the operating budget of the garden and that may be best achieved by a two category approach based on annual visitor numbers. If you set the figure at, say, 30 000 (or 20 or 25), the gardens with visitor numbers above that will be the ones with substantially larger operating budgets and more sophisticated infrastructure. Any differentiation is a blunt instrument but that would be more effective than one based on ownership structure, original intention, profitability, extent of infrastructure or others that I can think of.
Good points, but your naming some ‘domestic’ gardens does perhaps acknowledge the different spirit of some gardens, which is really not about visitor numbers/income. Though it may be that high visitor numbers have a dispiriting effect?
Please do continue with this site Anne, it is one of the most intellectually stimulating reads on the internet!
That’s very encouraging. Thank you, Nigel!
The thing I love about the National Gardens scheme is that it raises money for charity and the gardens on show are generally private gardens where you might even get the opportunity of meeting the owners.
Commercial gardens such as RHS gardens are a great education and showcase for beautiful plants but what sets these and private gardens apart is the personal and sometimes intimate nature of the private garden.
I wish I could say I was enriched as a gardener and designer by visiting lots of public and private gardens to sharpen my critical faculties…but I work so much I don’t get out much. Last gardens visited…Veddw last year, always a joy (shameless sucking up but t’is true).
East Lambrook Manor for the spring plant fair, a quick canter round the garden and great coffee, Mapperton ditto, and Barrington court and Montacute twice each to research a talk for the future…ummm…that’s about it for the last year….all but the first a busman’s holiday…pitiful.
keep on with Thinkingardens or I will become one of the jaded horde visiting a garden only for the sake of saying ‘ooh, how lovely’ and ‘do you have any lemon drizzle cake?’
Is that a threat at the end?
you know I’ll bring cake….
I have some gardens on my list of ‘try to see’ which include commercial gardens, including yours which I have been meaning to visit for a few years. Things keep getting in the way.
For me, I will visit a garden but tend not to make it a ‘see again’, apart from one and I think this sums it up. The ‘one’ is Barbara Hepworth’s garden in St Ives. As we take our hoilday there, I visit each time to see the garden at different times of the year. It is tiny, but for me it holds the owner’s presence even though she has long since passed.
The fact she lived there, poured her heart and soul into this place, touched what I can touch and loved it is what makes a garden, for me anyway. You sometimes feel she could walk amongst her sculptures at any moment, and it’s magical.
I am going to make a definite spot this year to come and visit as, I suspect, this may be one I will visit again.
I loved Barbara Hepworth’s garden too on the occasion I was able to visit. I think the ‘see again’ is a very interesting thought, and I also know that gardens can disappoint on a second visit. It’s the acid test. So one that holds up to repeated visits is the one which really and truly shines.
And – hope to see you twice at Veddw!
Firstly – please please carry on with thinkingGardens, its the best place to read people’s thoughts on gardens, plants, planting and design rather than just journalistic schmoozing.
In answer to your other question – we visit a lot of different garden types. I go to RHS gardens to gain knowledge and sometimes ideas, and to see plants living in different climates and conditions. I go to commercial gardens, e.g. Heligan this spring to see what all the fuss is about, mostly these are much bigger than any plot i will ever garden so I can see plants and designs in a different context. I go to National trust gardens because they’re part of my membership deal and some of those that are truly based on the historical records are very interesting and deepen m garden history knowledge. I go to NGS gardens to support the charity work and to be nosy – I love to see what others have done with their plots, whether they’ve any of the same ideas that I have – to see what grows well in a particular location and often to see flowers in special collections e.g. snowdrops or narcissus. I love visiting gardens by my design and planting heros, Im lucky enough to have gone to Hummelo to visit Piet Oudlof’s home garden two summers ago, so pleased I made it before he closed, Tom Stuart Smiths garden, my friend Sarah Watt’s gardens designed for clients that love her gentle way with plants. Each sort is a separate experience, all of which I value. Yes I do enjoy a cup of tea and bit of cake, especially if I can wander round the garden with them in my hand as I gaze at the profusion of plants and soak up the vistas created by the gardeners, and if I can chat with them all the better, but its not essential to my enjoyment, however access to some sort of ‘facilities’ is a must as I often travel over 100 miles to get my fix.
As for prizes, I’m not that interested in whether some one has won prize, I’m unlikely to know what the criteria were and often think that it’s the same set of folk who always gain the accolades, often because they had huge budgets that allowed them to do what they want. Winning a prize wouldn’t necessarily be a criterion that would take me to a garden.
Thank you for your long and illuminating comment – I feel I must add that although we do lack a tea room and shop at Veddw we do have a loo available. It’s usually my first need when I go anywhere! Special collections is one I hadn’t thought of. You seem open to all, basically.
I must confess I am thinking hard about continuing, and I also appreciate your comment. Xx