Charming visit to Highgrove draws a blank
Yesterday (Monday) I took a day’s leave and joined an Australian Women’s Club
tour to Highgrove, Prince Charles’
garden and country home in Gloucestershire. (And yes the AWC did notice I
wasn’t fully one of their kind.)
The tour started appropriately enough next to a Transylvanian meadow planted near the meeting room and restaurant. His Royal Highness has some property in
Transylvania, in Rumania, and wants to recreate a wildflower meadow typical of
that region in western England.
At the moment the meadow is dominated by Yellow Rattle (Rhinanthus
minor), at the noisy stage of this name, having sucked the energy out of
its host grass. The idea is that by doing this, it helps create space for other
(Transylvanian) flowers to flourish. Elsewhere in the gardens there are plenty
of local (English/British) meadows, often supplemented by bulbs from all over
the globe.
The garden as a whole is hard to describe. It’s idiosyncratic, quirky
and fun. I liked it. I like the individuality, the rough and ragged edges in
places (and the tight control in others), and the fact that it isn’t like every
other garden.
The Stumpery , with lots of
upturned Sweet Chestnut stumps reminiscent of giant star anise, worked well for
me (but not for everyone in the group). The follies and foibles, and funny
topiary, were all good fun. There was plenty of natural limestone as well as
carved rocks and wood of various kinds. Many of the sculptural pieces are gifts
to Prince Charles and this seems like as good a use for them as any.
The Kitchen Garden was very cheery and full of flowers at this time of
year, with Teucrium hedges replacing
boxes lost to blight.
The formal garden around the house was charming, befitting for a
Prince, and the eighteenth century Cedar
of Lebanon that died a few years ago has been converted into a spire-topped
hut with new plantings erupting from its roof and an old branch from the cedar
still decorated with bird houses and feeders.
Sure some parts are better than others. The Carpet Garden, an
adaptation of a garden Prince Charles designed for the Chelsea Flower Show,
didn’t work for me. But that’s OK. This is not a perfect garden or a garden
aiming for perfection. It’s a personal garden that just happens be the creation
of a well-know Royal personage.
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Catherine