Secret Garden in the heart of Town

Mr Bee spotted this open garden advertised in the Globe. It coincided with the week my Dad visited in June. 'La Bigoterie' opened its doors from 2.00-5.00pm on 19th June with all funds going towards helping the Guernsey Alzheimer's Association. Fortunately the way was clearly signed otherwise we might not have found it.

What a view! It must less than 100 meters, as the crow flies, to the Harbour. We had the kids with us so we didn't linger near where they were serving tea and cakes to avoid the whinging.

Such a wonderful, uninterrupted view of Castle Cornet. We made sure we arrived early as we have been to quite a few open gardens in Guernsey and on a fine day, as this was, they are very, very popular.

This was one of the loveliest flowers on the day. I have tried to grow foxgloves, white ones, but the sea breeze at Bumble Bee Cottage has other ideas and they ended up bending over so much that you couldn't see them over our front wall. I have since seen some rather good metal plant supports so I may give them another go.

I love blue and lime green together in a garden. We have a few beds with this colour combination. I have never grown Irises, as I have always thought of them as fussy plants, however I have seen them on a gardening show recently and they claimed that they are easy to grow.

The Garden comprised of four graduated tiers down the hill. The first tier was housed the entry gate and car park. The second tier held the house and largest lawned area with large swathes of flowers beds. Tier Three was the orchard (which you can see in the background) and a formal hedged garden, complete with Roman statue. and the fourth tier was the vegetable garden, sheds and large pond.

This is the view from the fourth level. What you can see is 'The Maze' , also called 'Commercial Arcade'. It is not really very maze like comprising of four intersecting alleyways which run off the High Street. This house really is in the centre of town but you would never even know it was there whilst you shopped below.

The arcade holds all manner of shops. They were originally built in Victorian times and the original plan was to enclose the entire area under a glass domed roof. Unfortunately the developers ran out of money and the roof was never added. It is such a shame as it would have been such a lovely place to shop during winter and would be a wonderful venue for weekend markets in all types of weather. We would not have had to worry on this day however as it was truly spectacular.

As you can see the crowds were starting to arrive by now. This is the view of the length of the third tier.

The orchard was my favourite part of the garden as although it wasn't that large it seemed to exude the very essence of 'The Secret Garden'; high stone walls, gnarled fruit trees. It was a lovely place.

The view looking out toward the Town Church across Commercial Arcade and out to the Causeway which leads to both Castle Cornet and the Lighthouse.

Here is a shot through the entry to the vegetable garden with some naughty little pixie dashing through.

We left the garden via the fourth level gate which lead to a side road which was literally 10 metres to the High Street; there is alot to be said for the wonderful privacy high stone walls grant.

A new French patisserie and ice-creamer had opened up in Town so we took the kids and Granddad for a well deserved Saturday afternoon treat.