I’ve never really been that interested in flowers, and I still prefer growing vegetables or herbs, but a recent trip up to Harrogate and the Royal Horticultural Society’s garden at Harlow Carr may well have changed that. We were watching an episode of Gardener’s World and the RHS garden was featured, it looked lovely, as did the forecast, so we chugged up there to have a look.
We knew we were the oddballs from the very start, when we parked our mud-spattered Ford next to gleaming 4x4s and personalised number-plated Jags. A quick look at the Bettys Restaurant menu made us glad we’d brought our dinner, which we had in the willow garden, basking in the sun.
I always feel a little out of my depth at places like this, like everyone else knows far more than me. A lot of the people there looked like they’d retired and would spend all their time in the gardens, bursting with knowledge, Latin plant names tripping off their tongues, a sit-on lawn mower and a man who comes in twice a week to ‘tidy up’. So I was heartened when three women walked past, close to the sea holly, and I heard one say: ‘I don’t know what they are but I really like those pom-pommy things.’
The gardens themselves were fantastic. The herbaceous borders being my own personal favourite; inspiring and depressing at the same time. I found the kitchen garden too higgledy-piggledy, with too many flowers in among the vegetables. The scented garden had seen better days but the new alpine house and the forest walks were lovely. To walk through the trees when the rhododendrons were in full flower would be spectacular, so we may well be back for another visit.
