Little Sparta

I had an unexpected trip to this interesting garden in the Pentland Hills. Created by the poet Ian Finlay Hamilton in the Arcadian style, it it a fascinating piece of personal history and design. Love it or hate it, it is impossible to not feel the passion and delight that must have been integral to…

Visit to Le Jardin Champêtre

I have been visiting Le Garden Champêtre in Caunes-Minervois over the last two years. It has been lovingly created by Imogen Checketts and Kate Dumbleton on a normally very dry site near to the river L’Argent Double and specialises in perennials, ornamental grasses, bulbs, ground covers and herbs. These drought-resistant plants form a demonstration garden and…

Visit to Lowther Castle

I visited Lowther Castle near Penrith this week. These are magnificent ruins set in huge grounds scattered with the reminders of past eras. Roman baths and pillars intermingle with the remains of abandoned Victorian Iris gardens and huge ancient rocky stone steps lead into woodland rock gardens covered in ostrich ferns, mosses and lichens. Outside…