A visit to Kew Gardens.

Hi guys!

Today, a not-so-food related post. After all, it's holiday time isn't it?

I went to Kew Gardens for the first time on saturday. Don't ask me how I managed to live almost three years in London and never visited before. Me. A landscape designer...

Anyway...
I think we chose one of the hottest day of the year to go there. After a one hour trip in tthe Tube to the south-west part of London, we arrived in the lovely Kew Gardens surroundings. Beautiful houses with expensive cars in front of them.

Lovely neighborhood, but very noisy neighborhood too!
The Gardens are on the direct path to Heathrow International Airport. That means we had the displeasure to observe a swarm of planes passing over our heads all day long.

One plane every minute!! And they were flying so low that we could see everytime which air company it was.

Anyway...

It was great to finally visit these very prestigious Gardens. Founded in 1759, and declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 2003, Kew has always been at the center of international botanical research, collecting plants and seeds from all over the world and making groundbreaking discoveries in the botanical field. With the Millenium Seed Bank Partnershirp based in Wakehurst, West Sussex, scientists are creating the largest plant conservation site in the world, trying to preserve endangered plants species from all over the planet. We can compare that to an Noah's Arch for the plant kingdom.

In terms of landscape design, well, they are beautiful gardens, on beautiful grounds, with beautiful architectural features like the different Glasshouses, the Queen Charlotte's Cottage and the Kew Palace (and its Royal Kitchens).
And it's beautifully designed in terms of all the vistas constructed accross the Park to give viewpoints of all the magnificent buildings.

But I didn't really like it as much as I liked Sheffield Park or Hever Castle in Kent. There was something missing in terms of atmosphere. Maybe because there's not so many mixed borders. I can't really say a lot of things about theses Gardens. I'm still a bit perplexed about Kew.


Ok now I'll stop the botanical/landscape design blabing and just leave you with a (long) serie of pictures taken Saturday!

Enjoy!

The Palm House




The Waterlily House

 
 

The peacocks
You may not know it, but I have a total aversion for peacocks. Might not sound really frightening for you, but these beasts creep the hell out of me!
I risked my life sanity to take these two pictures, hunting down the creature!

 
Look at him, hiding away from the camera!
 

The Temperate Glasshouse
 

At the moment, there's an exibition from David Nash all around the Gardens and the Glasshouses.
No, the first one is not from the Big Egg Hunt!


 Is it me or the last one looks like a big wooden laddle? #KitchenAddict


 

The Glasshouse and the Plane (sounds like a new Fable de La Fontaine, isn't it?)

The Pagoda and the Japanese Garden


 



 The Treetop Walkway



 A bear in the Park


The Queen Charlotte's Cottage



Tea anyone?

 


 And finally, the Kew Palace !


I hope you enjoyed those pictures of Kew Gardens.

Have you ever been there?
What's your favourite part ? (Don't tell me it's the peacocks please!)
Have you visited the Kew Palace Royal Kitchens?





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