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Friday 29 August 2008

A garden of ideas...

I can bearly believe that nearly a month has gone by since my last post on here, there just never seem enough spare moments in my week for blogging at this time of year.... all the more opportunity to think up ideas for future posts when the weather keeps me inside!

At least during 2008, I've managed to tick a few more gardens off my list of "want to visit" in this area and so decided that I couldn't pass the opportunity by to mention this one...

The Jardins de Broceliande is a wonderful garden to the west of Rennes. It's almost what I'd call an experimental garden where so many different ideas have been tried out and there for you to discover. Some of them in my view really work, whilst others probably need some tweaking! All in all though if you're looking for some interesting ideas or you're new to gardening it's a garden I'd really recommend. As an aside, if you've got young children, there's plenty there for them too to discover aside of the various animals on site and playpark!





This was an interesting amateur garden of a "dining room"!

And an original idea for a water feature!


They had also got some novel ideas for labelling of plants too ....


Not to forget plenty of places to sit and admire the scenery...

The tour of the site starts with the potager with a good collection of vegetables being grown, followed by a rose garden - full of many different varieties. There are a collection of amateur gardens too which are in the process of development.












For those of you intersted in growing your own fruit trees - there are a number of different forms of tree here - especially good for people who maybe haven't got enough space for a proper orchard but are still keen to grow tree fruit.












They have a great collection of Dahlias too for those of you like myself who are fans of these beautiful plants - they make great cut flowers!





























Also in amongst all their ideas were some interesting pathways...

I hope you enjoy it as much as we did!

8 comments:

The Wessex Reiver said...

Great quirky garden Miranda, lover the watering can water feature, like you say where does the time go, still with the darker nights, more time to write. Hope all's well with you.

Meems said...

wow, you got some great photos of the garden. Those dahlias are stunning. I like the pathways too. sounds like a wonderfully enchanting place. Glad you found the time to publish a post. Can you believe August is almost over?
Meems @Hoe&Shovel

Miranda Bell said...

Thank you both for your visit and glad you liked the posting - if you're ever in France it makes an interesting visit - unlike some of the more "perfect" gardens! Where has our summer gone?

Anyway - will pay you both a visit v. soon - thanks for your patience... Miranda

Shirley said...

Hey Miranda, thanks for sharing your visit :-D

Like Border, I too liked the watering can water feature. I also liked the plant pot labels too. The deep red dahlia also caught me eye.

I hope you've had time to enjoy your own garden this summer. Blog posts are a bonus at this time of year! Enjoy your time outdoors :-D

Cheryl said...

Hi Miranda.......I love the pathway with the wood.......unusual and natural.......I personally am not a lover of dahlias....my father has grown them all his life...When I was a child Dad would fill our tiny London garden with them.....perhaps that is why I am not too keen......
But I must say the colours are very autumnal......

Miranda Bell said...

It's always a pleasure to share garden experiences with others -

Shirl - thanks for your visit and good that you enjoyed the watering cans and labels - they were things that particularly caught my eye as I was going round - it's always nice to get different ideas from places however querky!! There hasn't been loads of free time this year and the weather has been pretty disappointing but everything continues to grow... will visit your blog v. soon!

Cheryl - sorry it's been so long since my last visit - so glad you liked this posting and really nice that different things obviously appeal to different people - I loved the pathway surfaces too. Interesting you don't much like Dahlias - I must admit I wasn't a great fan until about 2 yrs ago when I grew some Bishop of Llandaf alongside Evening Primrose and they just looked stunning - since then have tried others - particularly love the deep reds - Arabian Knight, Chat Noir are two of the others I really like too. Lucky we all like different things though!

Look forward to seeing you both soon - take care and enjoy your own gardens whilst we still have some "summer" left!! Miranda

Chrissie said...

Another garden added to my wish list, thanks, Miranda :-) I love the original water feature, that is something we could perhaps achieve at the moment :-)

Miranda Bell said...

Hi Chris - great to see you back in the land of blogging! Seems that the water feature has been a favorite on here... hope you're not too flooded out from the weather this last week - we've had rain here but not nearly as much as the UK - having said that our garden was much in need as surprisingly the ground has been really dry. Have a good week - Miranda