Tag Archives: gardening

Barcelona’s Horta Labyrinth Gardens: The Romantic Garden

Located in the Horta district in northern Barcelona, the Labyrinth Garden was created in the late 18th century by the owner of the estate, marquis Joan Antoni Desvalls i d’Ardena, who commisioned Italian garden architect  Domenico Bagutti. This is when the maze was created and part of the gardens in the neo-classical style.

In the mid 19th century, the gardens were then expanded by the marquis descendants to expand the garden in the romantic style with a waterfall, large trees, gazebo, statues, and flower beds.

This garden is the oldest of its kind in Barcelona. The family turned it over to the city in 1967, and it opened as a public park in 1971.

To read more about this garden, click here, here, or here for Wikipedia.

The park can be roughly divided into three main areas: the first includes the country house and adjacent gardens, the second would be the 18th century maze and pavilion, the third includes  the romantic garden and waterfall.

In this post, I will feature the Romantic Garden. It is the latter 19th century extension of the maze gardens. It features small hedged squares with large shade trees; the focus of this garden is the water features, starting at the top with a waterfall, continuing with canals along this narrow garden. The main garden ends with a false graveyard garden before leading to a small garden arranged symetrically around a pond.

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Bright Colors for this Camaret Flower Garden

Camaret is a small fishing village on the northern coast of Brittany, France, where a mild microclimate in this coastal region allows for an unusually large number of plants to thrive in local gardens.

It is impossible to pass this garden without stopping to admire the extravagant display of annuals, perennials, flowering and foliage shrubs, specimen plants, climbing roses, shrub roses, potted arrangements and water features.

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Brittany Garden and Pumpkin patch

Tis September and the season for pumpkins and assorted squashes that absolutely thrive in Brittany, France, and few vegetable gardens fail to have a patch of pumpkins spilling over. This one also has some rows of trellised tomatoes approaching the end of the growing season. Flowering shrubs hedges and a “flowered” wall covered in blooming groundcovers enclose the garden.

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Xeriscape Oceanfront Garden in Northern Brittany

This truly exceptional garden was created in the small village of Roscanvel, in Brittany, overlooking the ocean. It is terraced to accommodate a hilly lot and also affords some protection from the sea spray and wind, and of course winter storms that are commonplace in the region.

A variety of hardy and low maintenance shrubs and evergreens add visual interest with different shapes and foliage colors. A few flowering shrubs and perennials such as pink oleander or lambs ear add touches of color. The grey foliage of the lambs ear by the garden remains when they are finished blooming.

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Lambs ear and purple ice plant
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Amazing ocean view
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Hebe in bloom
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Mixed shrubs
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Various shapes add interest

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