Happy new year! Time to dream and plan....My Top garden to visit in 2021
Hopefully by the second half of 2021, we can start to roam and wander around a bit more. I don't know about you, but researching, planning and dreaming about my next trip, is a very important and enjoyable part of the process. So to help you dream a bit more, here is my favourite gardens to visit - with a little list at the end which is me sharing my dreams.
The Real Alcazar, Seville
I love, love, love this place. Happy place, happy place Real Alcazar (as well as Anfield - but that's a different blog though that I'd need to start).
I don't know how many times I have visited, but Seville and Andalusia as a region, is a big and accessible favourite from the UK.
Its been a Muslim and Christian place of worship, but is now officially a palace for the Spanish royal family. Look at the buildings from the outside and go inside the free bits - I wouldn't pay for the closed off rooms areas again. It really is all about the gardens. There are many different "rooms" that are very paradise garden like, topiary mazes, fabulous fountains and rills, giant koi, amazing tiled walls, vaulted ceilings and seats.
There are rose gardens, water gardens, shady avenues lined with ferns and Acanthus, giant palm trees smothered with hundreds of noisy green parakeets, and of course, many, many orange trees.
I don't thing I have ever seen it at its 100% best....as different things peak at different times, so one day I will do an Alcazar year. I will start of in Feb / March to see and smell the orange blossom, go back to see the roses in full bloom and then later for the masses of Agapanthus that take over in the box edged beds. Or perhaps, I'll just live there for a year. It is the hottest city in Europe, so beware when you go. Oh, and you can always just play spot the Game of Thrones locations in the grounds... it was used as Sunspear In Dorne in season 5.
Dream gardens? So here is my list. Who knows when, but I'll get there one day....
- Not really a garden, but the cherry blossom season on Japan. When a country becomes one garden
- Japan again, the Bamboo forest of Kyoto
- Thomas Church's Donnel resident in Sonoma (that one with the view and swimming pool). It is someone's house though, so may not happen
- Piet Oudolfs garden in Hummelo (near Amsterdam).
-The gardens by the bay in Singapore. I've been to Singapore many times, but also a long time ago. Time to go back and be amazed
- The Victoria House / Valley garden, at Giardini La Mortella, Italy
Perhaps I can do a Far East garden odyssey (see top 2)…now that's some planning and dreaming joy