The Gardens

A romantic and unique walled garden

Chris Parkinson, Head Gardener at The Castle & Gardens of Mey, has started to stamp his mark on the garden and grounds. When he first came to Mey, he observed the garden for the first season until he met with His Majesty King Charles III when Duke of Rothesay to discuss methods of improving and revitalising it. Planning to start at the top of the walled garden with the cut flowers and work their way down taking it a section at a time, Chris and the gardening team have created a new layout including a sitting area with arbours at the top and the bottom.  Having achieved a great structural change with the new feature at the top, the next task was to neaten the hedging around the garden to best display this.  This was no small task, involving lots of work to straighten the edges and under planting the hedging to thicken them once again.  Pathways have been freshly gravelled and visitors will notice a greater variation of planting. 

“My goal is to create more focal points in the garden, it felt like some repetition existed so we are going back to a different style, and creating interesting features that make you want to have a nosy round time and time again.  One of our focusses is to make the garden interesting all year round, in past years it has been for show in July and August but we are changing that and you’ll find more diversity all year with grasses, rhododendrons and fuchsias.”