The Gardens at Chatsworth

On the way home from our camping, the young man suggested that we should look around the gardens at Chatsworth(!!!!!). Turns out, a few of his school friends had recently been on an arts class trip and he couldn't ever remember looking around the gardens (even though has been loads of times!) and he must have felt as if he was missing out - so off we went.



The gardens are the work of the genius Joseph Paxton - I love this passage from his diary. I often think I fit a shift in at home before I get to work at 9am, but Mr Paxton beats me hands down!! (double click to make it more readable.)





Chatsworth is the stately home by which I measure all other stately homes - only Versailles has ever impressed me more up to now. The location of Chatsworth is simply stunning, and the "Devonshires" have really made the most of this stunning building. I find it amazing that they manage to still live here as well as let Joe Public ramble about too.

Paxtons glass houses are full of peaches and nectarine's.

The borders of the formal gardens near the house are planted with both hot and cold colour schemes. I couldn't decide which was my favourite.

Water features by the gallon around the gardens - this is the famous lake with the gravity fed water spout.

There are many gorgeous ponds teeming with wildlife.

A weeping tree

and of course the magnificent Cascade, fed by the lakes on the moors above.

No matter how many times I visit Chatsworth, I always find something I havn't seen before. On this visit, we discovered the coal hole....

...which led to a tunnel that allowed them to move coal about under the gardens without being seen.

There are some magnificent sculptures dotted around, both old and new.


This chappy kept a modicum of decorum.

I think this is Neptune.

The Rabbit is very similar to the ones in the Yorkshire Sculpture Park.

There were a couple of these - they looked great against the sky.

This chap appears to have cut his own skin off!!!!! No modesty here!!!!

My favourite bit of any large garden is the Kitchen Walled Garden. I would love to work in here. I have to confess that the raspberries, red and white currants were too tempting to leave. The Duke and Duchess may be a few berries short of a summer pudding this weekend! I couldn't think of anything that wasn't growing in the garden - fruit or vegetable wise. I so would love a garden like this - to pick and cook within minutes. The walled garden is on a very sunny slope and they even had watercress growing in a pond fed by a man made stream, which then went on to water the greenhouses.

The green houses were growing all manner of items including melons.

Apples and pears were growing in an old orchard as well as over the arches. They use every inch of space.

Of course, they grow everything organically here and they run courses throughout the year in the gardens, but the course that really took my eye was spending a day helping out on the farm. I could really fancy that.

One of the problems with Chatsworth is that there really is too much to see and do in a day. We spent all day in the gardens and didn't see all of them. Fortunately, we don't live too far away for a return visit. I do think that admission prices are great value for money too.

The biggest problem with the place though is the gift shops. Oh my. There are several dotted about selling gifts, fancy food, gardening paraphernalia, and just lovely lovely stuff. I couldn't find one thing that I wouldn't have loved to buy. In the end, I was very restrained and spent only £2.75 on a container for herbs for my kitchen.

A while ago, we watched a programme with Vic Reeves talking about his wife Nancy. He said that she had gone shopping for "baskets and sh*t" - my family pounced on this phrase, and now use it to describe the sort of shops that I like!! Nancy would love the shops at Chatsworth.