Lost Gardens of Heligan

This weekend we went to Cornwall, I can’t remember the last time I went there, must have been at least 25 years ago. How can I have missed such a beautiful part of the country for so long? I will certainly be going back.

One of the places we visited was the Lost Gardens of Heligan.

I remember the TV programmes in the 90’s when they first opened the door to the walled garden and it was so overgrown you got the impression that they’d never make anything decent of it, but of course, now it’s perfect. Early spring is probably not the best time to visit the walled kitchen garden, there was a raised bed for the asparagus and the beds were all ready for planting but really there wasn’t much to see apart from bare earth.

Farm

We followed the map and made our way to the farm, we were lucky as it was nearly 12 pm and it was feeding time for the chickens, ducks and geese. Bless them they knew it before we did, they could hear the land rover coming before it came into view and they waddled over. I was amazed at how fast they could move and because there were so many of them the handler used a sheep dog to keep them at bay. The dog was so gentle with them.

The Jungle

We made our way down to The Jungle. It seems originally this was called the Japanese Garden and was planted as early as 1851, these days they call it The Jungle. I absolutely loved it. It’s a bit of a steep walk down the valley from the Farm and the wooden boardwalks lead you all the way around so that you get the best views of all the different planting.

You snake your way round banana plants, ferns, trees, gunnera and a variety of pools, one of which you can cross using stepping stones and another one has a path way which covers a delightful little waterfall.

At the bottom end is another large pool and an interesting sculpture made from charcoaled wood by a local artist. It’s supposed to represent the growth, death and rebirth of the planting.

Burmese Bridge

The garden boasts the largest Burmese Bridge in the country and although we weren’t brave enough to try it, the squawks and screeches of pleasure drew us to have a closer look. It’s really steep and scary looking.