This Rocky island crowned by a medieval church and castle was another of my West Country garden visits – or rather ir wasn’t. Access to the gardens was restricted to certain days during the summer (as a a conservation measure) and yes, we chose one of the closed days! So my visit was confined to aerial views from castle ramparts, glimpses through gates and over hedges. Still, I managed to get a good idea of what the gardens are like and I’ve tried to convey this in the photo montage below.
The island – a ‘twin’ with Mont St. Michel in Normandy on the other side of the English Channel – has some buildings dating from the 12th century. It’s sub-tropical Gardens feature exotic plants clinging to steep granite cliffs and terraces laid out with a mixture of formal and informal borders. These terraces are tiered close to the rocky water’s edge.
I witnessed an ‘abseiling gardener’ carrying out some ‘extreme strimming’ on the grassy slopes!
Plants that are natives of Mexico, the Canary Islands and South Africa thrive in the mild micro-climate created by the sun-warmed cliffs. As we found in many other parts of West Cornwall plants like Agapanthus, Fuchsia, Crocosmia ‘Montbretia’ and Hydrangea thrive here as well as along road – sides and more modest domestic gardens in the area.
I will revisit at some point to get the ‘up close and personal’ experience of actually being in the gardens, but from the views I managed they do seem mightily impressive.
Further information:
National Trust website
St. Michael’s Mount Garden Itinerary
Wikipedia- St. Michael’s Mount
Old School Gardener
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Our second recent Devon garden trip was to the beautifully located Overbecks- a house full of curiosity and a garden of sub tropical exoticism. The house itself is perhaps nothing special , but it contains a panoply of collected items and interesting artefacts accumulated by the original owner, a German inventor called Otto Beck. A room of dolls houses (witha lowered door opening to make the point that this is a room for youngsters), and dispays of bird eggs, stuffed anumials rocks and so on, make this a house of wonder.
Old School Garden 