Steep slopes

[Xpamh]

I am looking for gardens or parks in a temperate climate that have been developed on a sloping site, whether a natural hillside or man-made. The idea is to examine and compare gardens (both public and private) on precipitous slopes as a design challenge. Often this ground got and still gets terraced - but other means of coping with the slope have been developed. It is of great interest to this study to first of all find existing examples of gardens where the slope was turned from a nuisance into an advantage i.e. made an essential part of the design.

TIA

[Janet Baraclough..]

The message from [e-mail] (Xpamh) contains these words:

There are several famous natural-terrain examples in the Highlands and Islands of Scotland. Crarae and Brodick Castle gardens are both over a hundred years old, and owned by the National Trust of Scotland which has a website..they are also well documented in books.

The other one, in Perthshire, belongs to Geoffrey Dutton and is only about 40 years old (but stunning).He has written a couple of books about it, and has also written extensively about his garden in the Royal Horticultural Sopciety's journal (called The Garden).

None has been terraced. The steep slopes are adapted with zigzag paths, gorge bridges, rock and wooden steps, etc.

Janet.

[David Ross]

On the Pacific coast of North America, see the following (some of which might be considered more subtropical than temperate):

Descanso Gardens, La Cañada Flintridge (near Los Angeles), southern California, USA; extensive plantings of camellias forming a camellia forest under native oaks; in bloom season (December through February), stand at top of slope and look down into the garden for a spectacular view.

University of California Berkeley Botanical Garden, Berkeley (San Francisco Bay area), California, USA; sections representing various parts of the world.

Butchart Gardens, Vancouver Island (north of Victoria), British Columbia, Canada; created in an old limestone quarry; peak blooming season is last two weeks of July through first two weeks of August.