If a person says, I love God, and hates another person, he is a liar, for those who hate their brothers and sisters who they see, how can they say they love God that they haven’t seen.
1 John 4: 20 ( Sandy’s wording)
Today on RoadsWeTravel, we left very early this morning by train to catch the Ferry from Lymington to Yarmouth on the Isle of Wight. The trip was through parts of the New Forest, and it was raining. I was reminded of this quote I had read recently:
I see pictures all the time. I could stay for hours and watch a raindrop.
Alfred Eisenstaedt.(1898-1995 He was a German born American photographer and photojournalist. ‘ ‘He had a knack of freezing emotions and stories in time.‘)
This is how our journey started.
The weather then changed as we came into Yarmouth scurrying, fluffy clouds with a strong wind moving them through a blue sky.
It is a pleasant town, but it was the Ventnor botanical garden I really wanted to see.
The Ventnor Botanical gardens were once the hospital grounds for a Victorian chest and respiratory disease hospital.
A gardener proudly showed us two palm trees donated to the garden by Prince Albert, Queen Victoria’s husband.
The gardens, on average, are 5C hotter than the rest of the island and the mainland so there are many areas boasting plants that grow in South Africa, Australia,New Zealand, the Far East and the Mediterranean regions.
I soon made a comment:
” It seems like they are short staffed.”
My husband was quick to show me this paragraph I had neglected to read.
The Ventnor Method
We aim to show plants growing in association with each other as they would in the wild. Much like nature itself, they are not orderly. We do not plant in threes and fives as in a standard mixed border. Dead plants and fallen leaves are left in place to allow decay and self-seeding , reducing the influence of the gardener. The Ventnor Method allows our ecosystem to fill in with the ants, pests, parasites, fungi, and rusts that would not appear in many pristine gardens. In our view, if we want to conserve or protect a plant , put it in an ecosystem , not by itself in a heated greenhouse. You might say, “What a mess!” Or ” How innovative!“
A visitors guide to VBG
With this method in mind, I hope you experience a little of this garden. However, looking at my photographs this evening, I seem to have ignored the ground with all its debris.
It was really too early for the big displays of hydrangea and Agapantha. I did however, see a protea bud, so I am sure there will be more of them. The structure that the palms gave to this warm space close to the sea was enough for us to know that it was a unique place to be loved.
Our short experience of a mid-April day in 2024.
Take care,
Sandy🙂
If you tend to a flower, it will bloom, no matter how many weeds surround it.
Matshona Dhliwayo
The archway of palms makes a grand entrance.
It will be even more special later on in the year.