Which Is Your Favourite Garden?

Thank you @lolimac! That's three 'new' gardens you've introduced me to. Unfortunately, I couldn't find any noteworthy footage of the last one, but there are some decent YouTube vids of the other two, perhaps fellow-members are also unfamiliar with these...





Nick

 

@Clare G Your job sounds absolutely fascinating Clare, antiquarian and antiquities collector here so I can certainly appreciate your love of old architecture! But Ninfa just does it for me, it's like the ruins are even more interesting than intact buildings in terms of making a garden that's utterly otherworldly.

Villa d'Este was one that Monty Don featured in his Italian Gardens series if I remember correctly, this one I think...



But the most inspiring and diverse series he made is IMO "Around The World In 80 Gardens", would thoroughly recommend it to those who may have not seen it yet. Well, apart from Claire and Marley you lot haven't mentioned any gardens abroad, so I'm going to resort to giving honorary mentions to both Las Pozas and the Arctic-Alpine Botanic Garden...







@Marley Farley Appreciate the video, found it to be a wonderful watch, nothing quite as exotic feeding on my plants of course but I still love 'em all!

Nick

 

Nick. A very big and sincere thank you for starting this thread. We so often quote, gardening, horticulture as being a great therapeutic remedy. Why? Well I think it speaks for itself. I doubt very much if any individual can honestly say. I'm fit and healthy, I don't need help.

Many of us suffer periods of depression. Tablets and pills only add to your sufferring. Go outside. Visit a garden and relax. Let yourself go, as if some mystical voice within the garden is saying. Come. Please. Take my hand and let us travel into the wonderful world of plants.

We no doubt have our own individual likes and dislikes to garden layout etc, but please. Go through the gate and let the spirit of the garden take over.

 

Locally the Garden House is worth a visit, not too big. Coleton Fishacre the hot border near the house in summer is good. Enjoy Rosemoor when I visit.
Kew is superb and educational.
Westonbirt Arboretum in Spring or Autumn is well worth a visit.
Overseas The Majorelle Gardens in Marrakech provided a good afternoon.
Also enjoyed a quick stroll around Kathmandu Botanic Garden.

 

My favourite garden is my own. I pick up ideas from garden visits and most of them have very large formal gardens that wouldn't translate well on a smaller scale. I prefer the intimacy of garden "rooms" and if I had to choose Sissinghurst would be top of my list.

 

Have really enjoyed reading this thread.

My favourite uk gardens (i think) are Chelsea Physic Garden because it is a secret beautiful oasis and extremely interesting all at the same time.

Chatsworth - the vastness of the place and the setting, the views, the waterfall and grand house, the secret sections, the kitchen garden etc

Kew and Wisley are massive favourites too for obvious reasons. I used to live not far from Guildford so was easy to get to both.

On my travels I’ve really enjoyed San Francisco botanical garden...it was another safe haven on an extremely wet day. It was like a miniature version of kew glasshouse.

And Japan the Rikugien garden Tokyo Travel: Rikugien Garden The sense of peace in a Japanese garden is overwhelming. Japanese gardens weren’t usually my taste but difficult not to fall in love with them after a visit.

 

We visited Felbrigg Hall, a National Trust property near Cromer, last autumn, and their walled garden was spectacular. I'm very sad it's not closer as I'd love to see it at other times of year.

Also really enjoyed Overbecks, another NT place, this time down in South Devon. The location and views are spectacular, and the garden contents and layout is fascinating. They also had the friendliest gardening team I've ever come across at a NT property.

 

@NigelJ Thanks for mentioning Coleton Fishacre, looks great and I had never heard of it! And so many of you have mentioned Kew and its educational merits that I'm now determined to visit it at some point.

I did wonder if anyone would say that, it's great that you feel such a sense of contentment with your garden and get to visit your favourite so regularly! Sissinghurst would be one of my honourable mentions in Britain, I particularly like the White Garden, there's something very ethereal about it. I know what you mean about gardens where you can take elements and apply them to your own, I love Stourhead but there's not much there I can apply to my tiny suburban garden, haha! I went with Hidcote because it may be refined and grand, but it's still essentially a cottage garden.

Not my thing either, but I still find them incredibly fascinating, that garden you visited looks so calming! I particularly like a couple of the rock/Zen gardens but this is probably my favourite there. Green is so dominant that shape is emphasised even more and the overall effect is so relaxing!



Thanks for all your contributions guys, love that I got so many replies and can't possibly convey how much I'm enjoying researching the gardens I was unfamiliar with! Taking a closer look at those I'd heard of is fun, too!

It's peculiar that on so large a gardening forum this question doesn't seem to have been asked before!

Nick

 

Hats off to Alana
I would have said my own too but lacked her courage Besides Alana will shield me from the bullets coming our way

I like my own garden best because it’s where I feel most comfortable, where my favourite plants are, where my sentiment is and where I am in total control

 

Having little knowledge of horticulture I'd be delighted with just "partial control" in my garden, Verdun!

Nick

 

Well Nick....”total” except for molluscs, vine weevils, the weather, etc., etc., and, worst of all, my whimsical impulses to suddenly move plants when in full bloom !

 

Nationally Rosemoor, Kew and Stourhead are favourites, internationally I too loved the Majorelle Gardens in Marrakech, Sydney Botanical gardens and Kings Park in Perth.

 

Crook Hall in Durham is perfect, if you plan carefully to avoid easter egg hunt, halloween etc organised theme days. The place is so traditional with different rooms and plenty of old fashioned (and Old!) planning and loving care.
Gardens Durham

In their philosophy a plant is established when it's been growing well for around 300 years

Can I also add a new category: private, non-professional gardens?

I often walk past a typical urban terraced house with a small front garden in our estate. This garden is magical, it's planted 100% with lush green Ivy which covers all walls, the conifer in the middle, and something which probably is lower growing conifers along the sides. It's all about the green mass of shapes, soft lines, light and shadow.

It's also very intentional and extremely well groomed, the owner is often seen out clipping this and that.

In the middle of the usual "driveway-patch of lawn-centerpiece rose- annuals in a pot"- world this garden truly stands out.