Two years in the past, the BBC gave the inexperienced gentle to 12 half-hour programmes by which I might make a journey from the highest of Scandinavia, round central and japanese Europe, down the Adriatic coast and find yourself in a backyard I have been engaged on for the previous 5 years on the Greek island of Hydra.
The aim can be to go to gardens in locations the place we do not usually search for them and to disclose hidden horticultural splendours.
Then Covid got here to city and it was shelved for a yr. However final spring we received manufacturing going once more, though it was now three hour-long programmes masking the second half of the unique journey – beginning in Venice and wending our method down the Dalmatian coast of the Adriatic, by Greece and ending in Hydra.
We started filming in Could, the day after journey restrictions had been eased and the ultimate filming journey was initially of September simply after obligatory quarantine was lifted for guests to Italy.
We had been very fortunate; travelling underneath the shadow of Covid was demanding, irritating and tough, however the privilege of visiting gardens I might by no means have in any other case seen made all of it worthwhile.
Monty Don (pictured) begins in Venice and travels down the Dalmatian coast of the Adriatic, by Greece and ending in Hydra in three hour-long programmes airing on the BBC
Though it was the final part to be filmed (in truth the entire thing was shot in reverse order), the story begins in Venice. Venice is, after all, probably the most lovely and romantic cities on earth however few individuals affiliate both its magnificence or romance with Venetian gardens.
Nevertheless, they do exist – by the hundred – though most are non-public and hidden away, usually down tiny aspect canals and behind excessive partitions.
There are some great public gardens such because the just lately renovated Giardini Reali simply by St Mark’s Sq. (Piazza San Marco) with its splendidly harmonious planting of billowing cream hydrangeas spilling out underneath the shade of a protracted wisteria-covered pergola that runs the size of the location.
The excellent, delicate and but invigorating planting is a mannequin of utilizing restricted colors and textures to realize a extremely dramatic impact.
It was the key gardens that felt most particular, such because the ‘orto’ or allotment created on an ex-rubbish dump on the base of an enormous campanile (bell tower) or the swags of roses hanging over the balustrade on the Grand Canal of the Palazzo Malipiero which, after days of negotiations, we had been allowed in to see from the within.
Covid restrictions meant our deliberate visits to gardens of the Veneto (the area of which Venice is the capital) had been restricted to at least one backyard – however what a backyard!
Villa Barbarigo in Valsanzibio, close to Padua, is a baroque gem, virtually unchanged because it was made within the late Seventeenth century with its unique maze, fountains, scores of statues, a rabbit island and lengthy hedge- lined avenues.
From Venice we travelled to Trieste, with the close by gardens at Miramare fortress created for doomed Maximilian of the Habsburg household.
Monty stated deliberate visits to gardens of the Veneto had been restricted to at least one due to covid restrictions. Pictured: the Palazzo Malipiero in Venice
Then we headed down the Dalmatian coast of Croatia, visiting a nursery run by an ex-DJ who was so in love along with his crops that he did every thing he may to not be parted from them, the impossibly stony island of Pag and the turquoise lakes and waterfalls of Plitvice.
Most Croatian gardens are targeted on rising meals however, progressively, flowers are beginning to be cultivated because the privations of the horrible conflict within the Balkans within the 90s recede in reminiscence, and I visited among the finest unique gardens I’ve ever seen – on a housing property on the outskirts of a provincial city.
Vegetation had been introduced in by mule – very environment friendly
I ended this Croatian stage of the journey on the island of Lopud, a ferry’s experience from Dubrovnik.
There aren’t any automobiles, its native inhabitants is dwindling however it’s favoured by rich Europeans and People who’re creating excellent gardens across the half-ruined hillside homes they’re restoring.
The third and ultimate journey started in Corfu the place I had particular entry to the Rothschild property overlooking the slender straits to Albania, with probably probably the most glamorous swimming pool in any backyard, in addition to groves of giant olive timber pruned within the method distinctive to Corfu.
Monty stated he visited among the finest unique gardens he has ever seen whereas travelling by Croatia. Pictured: a non-public backyard visited by Monty in Croatia
I spent a day with Lee Durrell, widow of Gerald Durrell, who took me up into the mountains on the north of the island the place we walked in wildflower meadows amongst historical oak forests.
Corfu’s local weather is atypical for Greece – the rainfall is almost twice that of London – so up within the hills it’s lush and inexperienced and numerous crops prosper that would not survive on the mainland only a few miles away.
In Athens there was the incongruity of two gardens at reverse ends of the monetary spectrum.
One was the Niarchos Cultural Centre on the outskirts of the town, which homes the Greek Nationwide Opera and the Nationwide Library of Greece and features a 50-acre park and an unlimited roof backyard.
The opposite was an allotment constructed on a carpark within the centre of Athens, divided into 45 small plots for individuals receiving state assist.
Each one in all these plots was producing tomatoes, peppers, aubergines, cucumbers and beans to eat greater than for horticultural enjoyable.
Monty stated Valsanzibio is a baroque gem, virtually unchanged because it was made within the late Seventeenth century. Pictured: the Seventeenth-century fountain on the Villa Barbarigo in Valsanzibio
Exterior Athens, I visited the Mediterranean Backyard Society backyard at Sparoza which is crammed with uncommon and indigenous crops, all chosen for his or her capability to thrive within the harsh Greek solar.
However again within the early Nineteen Sixties when Jaqueline Tyrwhitt purchased the land, it was so stony she used dynamite to create planting holes for the cypresses that had been to behave as a windbreak.
However my favorite backyard was the final, on Hydra. I’ve a deep private attachment to it.
It belongs to a good friend who requested me to assist remodel it.
It began as a uncared for plot with a couple of lemons, a lifeless almond tree and an terrible lot of rubble, and over time we have remodeled it and I’ve learnt an important deal about what a Mediterranean backyard is admittedly like, versus our northern European thought of 1.
Monty stated due to rainfall the hills are lush and inexperienced and numerous crops prosper that would not survive on the mainland in Corfu. Pictured: The Rothschild property in Corfu
Although the backyard is comparatively modest, we did plant half a dozen giant cypresses. There aren’t any automobiles on Hydra, so the cypresses had been introduced over from the mainland by boat, walked by the slender medieval streets, then squeezed within the entrance earlier than being manoeuvred into place and planted.
The opposite crops had been all introduced in by mule – very low-tech however very environment friendly.
What I’ve learnt from these journeys is that spirit can’t be quelled by lack of area, sources or a brutal local weather.
Regardless of the watery depth of Venice, the war-hit previous of Croatia or the sun-shrivelled local weather of Greece, gardens are central to the human expertise.
Good gardens make a great life and ‘good’ is not measured by cash or grandeur however by how a lot love and a spotlight goes into them and the pleasure they provide again.
Will I make the primary a part of the unique plan, going up from Venice by Europe and into Scandinavia? I do not know. Would I leap on the probability? Completely.
ANCIENT OLIVE TREES FOR EVERYONE
Venice dominated Corfu for greater than 400 years, from 1386 to 1797. There have been no olive timber in Venice so, after they realised that Corfu olives made particularly good olive oil, the Venetians paid the native individuals to plant hundreds of thousands of timber.
They continue to be one of many nice options of the panorama, not least as a result of they’re pruned reasonably in another way from these in the remainder of Greece, being allowed to turn into a lot larger. The Corfu olive groves are additionally among the oldest on the earth.
Monty stated the timber within the Olive Gardens of Lun, on the Croatian island of Pag (pictured) have a novel system
The timber within the Olive Gardens of Lun, on the Croatian island of Pag, have a novel system of possession and harvest. The 60 acres they develop on is communal with no recognized proprietor. Nevertheless, the 80,000 olive timber are all individually owned by separate households and handed on from era to era.
Every household harvests the olives of their very own timber, which could be in several elements of the gardens, and make their very own olive oil. A few of these magnificently gnarled timber are greater than 1,000 years previous.
I planted plenty of olive timber within the backyard on Hydra and, having noticed fastidiously how they’re pruned in several elements of the Adriatic, have pruned them in numerous varieties.
A few giant timber had been reduce proper all the way down to the roots and allowed to regrow earlier than being clipped as giant topiary balls. They give the impression of being nice with their silver mass of leaves that want trimming a few occasions a yr.
Different timber are skilled as requirements after which pruned arduous in order that they’ve a really open construction of branches, letting in gentle and air and inspiring the brand new development that can bear fruits.
In my backyard at residence I’ve olives rising in pots that are very good-looking, though they want safety from the chilly – and can by no means present ripe fruits. For that I must return to Hydra!
Monty Don’s Adriatic Gardens, Friday, 8pm, BBC2.