A garden to dine for at the Hampton Court Palace Flower Show
If you are as passionate about food and wine as you are about gardening then the Torres Tapas Garden at this year’s Hampton Court Palace Flower Show should be of interest. The Spanish Torres together with garden designer Anthea Guthrie, are to celebrate the gastronomy of Catalonia with an authentic reconstruction of a vineyard and a ‘tapas’ vegetable patch to add an interesting twist.
They are bringing from their own vineyards four 300-year-old olive trees. The olive trees are old ‘working’ trees which have been properly cropped for fruiting and not ‘garden-centre’ perfect; each will mark a corner of the garden to add height and shade. Underneath around 100 ‘Garnacha’ grape vines will be planted at hip height to give the impression of a hanging ‘hedge’.
Roses reproducing the various colours of wine with different shades of white, rosé pink and deep wine red will be planted in a central raised bed. This follows on from an ancient tradition which Torres still practise today, to plant a rose at the end of a row of vines. Roses, being the more vulnerable plant, will succumb to disease and act as an early warning sign for grape vines.
Alongside the beds will be orange boxes in which garlic and parsley will be planted. Mediterranean vegetables such as aubergines, chilli peppers and pyramids of green beans will be planted in baskets used to collect hand picked grapes. This tapas inspired vegetable patch serves to supply the traditional ingredients used in tapas dishes to compliment the summer wines of Torres vineyards – Viña Esmeralda, De Casta Rosado and Sangre de Toro.
“Two sides of an oak tree trunk, hollowed out to echo the shape of the burrs on the outside, frame the entrance to the garden. A wooden shell shaped sculpture in the middle is surrounded by the raised rose bed, the sides of which will be hand painted mosaics inspired by those from the roof of a Gaudi house in Barcelona.
This is a garden accomplished with grand gestures working well in a small space. Visitors will enjoy the mystery of the amazing T-shaped vines, the great wooden sculptures, the dramatic ancient olive trees and the simplicity of the Gaudi-inspired mosaic stonework and shell pathways. The planting has been pared back and truly minimal so that the hard surfaces and the sculptural nature of this garden can be seen at its best.”
The RHS Hampton Court Palace Flower Show takes place from 3-8 July 2007.
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I’d also suggest going to the Hampton Court Festival which runs just before the flower show. I went with some friends a couple of years ago to see Brian Wilson ( he was absolutely fabulous) and was struck by two things. One was how well Waitrose supported the event and how much of their excellent food was available. Secondly a large number of people had come prepared with their picnics which they laid out on the immaculate lawns, returning to them after the concert.
I can’t decide whether or not this year I’ll depend on Waitrose when I go and see Van Morrison or whether I’ll take a picnic with a nice bottle of champagne in the coolbox.