Hey Blog! An unusual one here, because it’s not often I talk about gardens. Not being in gardens, or gardening, just gardens. But a couple of weeks ago I visited one, in particular RHS Bridgewater, which I thought would make an interesting post.
The garden is on the opposite side of the Peak District, so it was quite a drive to get there and back. I have never been to a garden like it before, it’s always been part of going round a historic house. The Eden Project or Lost Gardens of Helligan in Cornwall comes close, but that’s a restored garden and I was more interested in the Arthurian legend next door. It was also a very long time ago and I don’t remember all of it, just a few trees and the rope bridge and a walled garden or two.
We visited with my grandparents, who were staying with us for a few days; Grandad had donated to the garden when it was set up so he’d wanted to check his investment in a way. This garden is a new one, and bits of it are still under construction; it may be on the site of an old hall, but that has since been demolished. Almost as good a use as a Scout campsite which can be dug up later. I doubt, however, that the Royal Horticultural Society would appreciate an excavation – though if the request was phrased as help to replace some compost…
Jokes aside, it’s a really nice garden. I especially liked the middle eastern style garden and the lake. And the café. There was plenty of wildlife, including a dragonfly that kept coming back, too fast for a very good photo of course but I did get something with it in. Perhaps the closest the wildlife got was when a very large brown moth (though brown doesn’t do it justice, it was a thousand shades of brown and more) landed on the back of Dad’s coat while we were having lunch. I rescued it to take outside, and it promptly flew off my hand without getting through the door, so I hope it stayed safe. The whole place was an explosion of life; after the hot weather of the summer, and with so many plants, animals, and humans in one place it was very nice indeed.
Most times when you, or at least I, see a garden, the first impression is of natural beauty, the second is of global plants brought to a single garden, the third is wondering if there’s a hidden pattern behind the planting, and fourth is realising that the garden goes on and on and on. I’ve no idea how many gardeners it takes to construct and maintain such a garden, especially as to keep it fully foliaged throughout the year requires several turnovers of vegetation. Generally I prefer as natural, as native a garden as possible, and usually with a patchwork of trees, but Bridgewater is more like a landscape-sized dictionary of plants, and I can see the appeal in that. However, it’s more than a classification system with all the trees here and all the plants in the genus plantus, shrubius, or flowerii together. It’s about building an ecosystem in miniature. And while this snowglobe-y effect may seem unnatural, it’s more natural to the species to have plants from the same biome together than to throw them together in how we see them. Whether or not singing to plants helps them grow, putting them in an environment they recognise certainly will. This garden has been very well done. I may consider revisiting, or going to something similar!
