Great Temperate Garden Visits and pics

[Solko]

I thought I would start a thread with pictures of visits of remarkable gardens. I love to visit both Botanical and Ornamental gardens and thought it would be nice for all of us to share some pics of the most remarkable and inspirational ideas we've seen.

Here I'll start with a very little known garden in France on lake Geneva that has been designed as a classical medieval garden: Le Jardin des Cinq Sens in Yvoire - a classical medieval, temperate, espalier, medicinal and fruit and herb garden: http://www.jardin5sens.net/en/

What I really like is how they use the walls, hedges and espaliers to fit in a very large variety of fruits in a small space. Lots of pruning, though! 4 full time gardeners are employed to keep the 1300 species fo plants and fruits in check!

The garden is layed out in blocks that are bounded by hedges. Inside each hedge there is an espalier of apples about 1,5 meter inside of the hedge, and that works quite well...


All in all well worth a visit, even if it is just to see how they have organized the garden. It is so neat, you feel like they have vacuumed the place just before you enter!