BENTHAM'S HOUSE, BARBADOS

 
I’ve been visiting Barbados for over a decade and my husband and I now own a half acre plot in St Lucy which is swept by the salt-laden winds of the Atlantic Ocean.  We have a house on the plot and a coconut tree and that, as yet, is the full extent of the garden.  I’ve visited quite a few Bajan gardens  including Andromeda Botanic (http://andromeda.cavehill.uwi.edu/ )and Hunte’s Gardens (www.huntesgardensbarbados.com ) both of which are visited by many on the tourist trail.  

But this year (2013) I set myself a challenge.  I really wanted to find the unexpected and surprising gardens that the one-time visitor to the island may not usually get the opportunity to see.

BENTHAM’S HOUSE

 

On numerous occasions whilst driving to Speightstown, I’d always wondered about the garden behind an orderly roadside planting of Palms and Plumeria (Frangipani) trees.  I was sure that there must be a garden there waiting to be discovered so when I eventually tracked down the owner, Helen Knighton, via e-mail, I was thrilled when she invited me round.

One morning I took the road from St Lucy’s church, headed towards Speightstown and drove down the track past the post office as instructed.

To say that Helen is a force of nature is an understatement.  She swept me out of my car and towards the house, introducing me briefly to her husband Chuck along the way, and then she was in full flight, guiding me through the 2.3 acre garden she has been creating since 1996.

On her own blog she describes herself as a self-opinionated individual who speaks her mind but I found her to be a passionate, extremely knowledgeable gardener and nurserywoman.

 I've grubbed around herbaceous borders and kitchen gardens of the UK for a couple of decades and can, on a good day, name or shame most plants from 20 paces; but tropical plants and plantings are a whole new discipline for me.  Oh, we can all recognise bananas and Colocasias and the odd palm but Helen’s garden is an education in the diversity of tropical plants.  She describes it as a ‘tropical cottage garden’ and it’s exactly that – eclectic and full of foliage and colour.


Orange Cosmos

White Begonias

Ferns

There are areas of full sun where bright orange Cosmos are happy to self-seed and areas of shade where Helen has planted ferns and white Begonias.  She has pergolas which are draped with climbing plants and borders brimming with ginger lilies.  She was quick to show me a few highlights - the ‘garlic vine’, Mansoa alliacea, which was in full flower on my visit and whose leaves, when bruised, smelled of garlic and also Duranta repens, dripping with bright blue flowers. The small white bracts of Snow on the Mountain, which is a member of the Euphorbia family, was also in full flight and this plant can also be seen all over the island around Christmas time. Bright colour shots of red were provided not only by ginger lilies but Clerondendrum.

Clerodendrum

Red Ginger Lilies

Garlic Vine

Duranta repens



Snow on the Mountain

 Helen is also a water garden consultant and she and her husband grow  and cultivate water lilies. Two ponds are bursting with Nymphae in flowers of all colours and, for me, the blue was exceptional.

Planting for butterflies also features high on the garden agenda and a beautiful Orion butterfly was feasting on a rotting banana when I arrived.  Whilst I was on the island I visited again and, even though there had only been a couple of weeks since I had last been in the garden,there were new flowers to see.  Helen is a truly ‘hands on’ gardener who is constantly revising and replanting areas of her garden as well as propagating plants for sale.

You can contact Helen via her website. http://benthamshouse.blogspot.co.uk/