Be gardenful
GARDENS and grounds with Quaker links past or present have joined forces to create a Quaker Garden Trail. The collection brings together 16 properties across two continents, including Australia’s oldest folk museum, Narryna, in Hobart, Tasmania, the Ballymaloe Cookery School’s gardens in Shanagarry, Co Cork, and the Backhouse Rossie estate in Fife, home to trail founder Caroline Thomson. Her inspiration came from researching the botanical achievement of her husband’s and her own ancestors, such as legendary botanist James Backhouse. ‘I enjoyed visiting family homes and grounds, searching for long-lost plants, finding out about the Quaker connections, the forgotten or hidden beauty of the gardens and wonderful ancient woodlands they left us all,’ she says. ‘I thought other people might enjoy discovering the extraordinary and interesting, the sad, or the wonderful, inspiring and uplifting stories of the plants and gardens, people and places that still have a lovely history woven into them.’
Many of the gardens have a strong environmental ethos and some have contemplative spaces, such as the labyrinth on the Backhouse Rossie estate: ‘It is used by many visitors, who quietly walk the single unicursal path.’ For more information on the Quaker Garden Trail, visit www. quakergardentrail.co.uk