It's all in the genes
Country Life UK|August 23, 2023
As well as honouring her family’s history of plant breeding, the artist and garden designer Caroline Thomson has created a remarkable garden
Caroline Donald
It's all in the genes

THE best gardens are those that add up to more than the sum of their parts and this is especially so at Backhouse Rossie in Fife, home to Caroline and Andrew Thomson since 2005. On one level, visitors can wander happily through the 10 acres of walled garden and woodlands; dig a little deeper, however, and you find art, science, history and horticulture are represented here in happy coalescence.

Perhaps the most striking manifestation of such thoughtfulness is the wide path that crosses the 1½-acre walled garden from east to west. It represents the double helix of DNA, using granite setts recycled from the streets of Edinburgh (an hour to the south), after they were removed during works on the city’s new tram system. The background is filled in with crushed white cockle shells, which refer to Cave 13b in South Africa, where the presence of discarded shells is regarded as one of the earliest signs of civilisation. On a more personal note, the couple’s son Hamish was surfing nearby at the time, so their use was a reminder of him.

Esta historia es de la edición August 23, 2023 de Country Life UK.

Comience su prueba gratuita de Magzter GOLD de 7 días para acceder a miles de historias premium seleccionadas y a más de 8500 revistas y periódicos.

Esta historia es de la edición August 23, 2023 de Country Life UK.

Comience su prueba gratuita de Magzter GOLD de 7 días para acceder a miles de historias premium seleccionadas y a más de 8500 revistas y periódicos.

MÁS HISTORIAS DE COUNTRY LIFE UKVer todo
A tapestry of pinks
Country Life UK

A tapestry of pinks

THE garden is now entering its season of vigour and exuberance.

time-read
3 minutos  |
May 29, 2024
Bringing the past to life
Country Life UK

Bringing the past to life

An event hosted by COUNTRY LIFE at WOW!house is one of the highlights of a programme that features some of the biggest names in interior design

time-read
1 min  |
May 29, 2024
This isle is full of wonder
Country Life UK

This isle is full of wonder

GEOLOGY? A bit like economics, the famously boring science? I confess I suffered the prejudice—agriculture and history being my thing, both of them vital in every sense— but Robert Muir-Wood’s voyage through the past 66 million years of the making of the British landscape has biblical-level drama on almost every other page. Flood, fire, ice… or, perhaps, the formation in rock, sand, mud and lava of these isles is best conceived of as fierce poetry.

time-read
6 minutos  |
May 29, 2024
Empire protest
Country Life UK

Empire protest

Without meaning to issue a clarion call for independence, E. M. Forster perfectly captured the rising tensions of the British Raj. One hundred years later, Matthew Dennison revisits the masterpiece A Passage to India

time-read
4 minutos  |
May 29, 2024
Hops and dreams
Country Life UK

Hops and dreams

A relative of marijuana, hops were a Teutonic introduction to British brewing culture and gave rise to the original working holiday

time-read
2 minutos  |
May 29, 2024
Life and sol
Country Life UK

Life and sol

The sanctuary of the Balearic Islands has enchanted a multitude of creative minds, from Robert Graves to David Bowie

time-read
4 minutos  |
May 29, 2024
'Nature is nowhere as great as in its smallest creatures'
Country Life UK

'Nature is nowhere as great as in its smallest creatures'

Giving himself neck ache from constantly looking upwards, John Lewis-Stempel makes the most of a sunny May day harvesting ‘tree hay’ and marvelling at the myriad wildlife including flies and earwigs–that reside on bark

time-read
4 minutos  |
May 29, 2024
'Plans are worthless, but planning is everything'
Country Life UK

'Plans are worthless, but planning is everything'

Country houses great and small were indispensable to D-Day preparations, with electricity and sanitation, well-stocked wine cellars, countesses to run the canteens and antique furniture to feed the stoves

time-read
7 minutos  |
May 29, 2024
The darling buds of May
Country Life UK

The darling buds of May

May Morris shared her father’s passion for flowers, embroidery and Iceland, but was much more than William’s daughter. Influential both as a designer and as a teacher, she championed the rights of workers, particularly women, as Huon Mallalieu reveals

time-read
6 minutos  |
May 29, 2024
Achilles healed
Country Life UK

Achilles healed

Once used to comfort the lovelorn or soothe the wounds of Greek heroes, yarrow may now have a new starring role in sustainable agriculture

time-read
5 minutos  |
May 29, 2024