Pitmedden Gardens, Aberdeenshire

It was a dull, overcast day last weekend and I had a need to visit a garden (as you do). We have been to all the ones that were open in the area and P suggested that we go to Pitmedden in Aberdeenshire. My heart sank a bit as this garden has never been top of my list of gardens to visit. Visions of clipped box hedges and some very controlled gardening sprang to mind. I'm all in favour of a bit of topiary but it needs to combine with loose naturalistic planting to give it a bit of 'joie de vivre'. 

So putting on my optimistic hat, (let's have a look at it so at least I can say I've been there) we headed north.

It's another NTS (National Trust for Scotland) gardens. We are lucky to have quite a few. The centre-piece of this property is the Great Garden, three of the formal parterres were taken from designs possibly used in the gardens at the Palace of Holyrood in  Edinburgh in the 17th Century. Having read over the information sheet at lunch (lunch and coffee being a very necessary part of any trip) I discovered that the present day elaborate floral designs were recreated in the 1950's and there are five miles of box hedge. Five miles! That must take some clipping! I wonder if it's done by hand or with a machine?

The garden is built on three levels and it can't all be seen at once. The first bit is easy on the eye with clipped yew and a couple of March hares frolicking on the lawn.

A short walk takes you to the next level down, with more lawn, some sculpture, two small parterres and what looks like pleached limes. Very green but not very inspiring on it's own.

 Beyond this is a low hedge and a drop to the next level down. The sight looking over the hedge quite took my breath away. Intricately patterned box hedge all immaculately cut and densely filled with brightly coloured bedding plants. It definitely made an impact!

Photographs don't do the garden justice but can give a flavour of the symmetry and the patterns in the four blocks of parterre. The bedding plants and the pink sedums seem absolutely the right plants to have chosen to go with the box. Latin features in the parterre and relates to one of the previous owner's coat of arms.  I just about managed to photograph the well known saying "Tempus fugit" (Time flies).

 The strict symmetry of the box is softened by the large herbaceous borders on two sides of the garden backed by cordon apple trees. Seemingly there are 80 varieties and if you're an apple addict you can buy some of the fruit  in the month of September.

It was very tempting with so much symmetry to take photos in straight lines along an axis. The eye is focused on the lines. What might have been more interesting was to go slightly to one side and take the photos from a more unexpected angle. But as you can see I didn't think about that until later.

I was surprised by how drawn I was to this garden and it's geometric planting. I even jokingly talked about doing away with the long vegetable border at home and making our own mini parterre. But sanity prevailed. It takes me long enough to trim two balls of box never mind five miles of it!