Trebah Garden was a source of great delight for me and my much younger kids when we lived in Cornwall, writes CHRISSY HARRIS.
We’d often turn up there, picnics packed, ready for a walk through the 26 acres of exotic plants, champion trees and colourful blooms, past the pond and towards the private beach on the Helford River.
Now, a decade or so later, here we are again. Except this time, just with the dog. The kids are teenagers now and prefer hanging out in their friends’ gardens, if they venture outside at all. But that’s fine. It meant me and the dog (and my husband) got to spend some quality time together in this lovely Cornish corner.
Trebah, near Falmouth, has just started welcoming guests to stay in the site’s lodge house for a break which includes access to the gardens – including after hours. I’m at a stage in life now where a backstage pass to see rhododendron and hydrangeas is quite exciting.
We’d have to wait until the day visitors went home so filled time by having lunch in the on-site restaurant, Trebah Kitchen. My husband had a decent burger – the best he’s had in a while, apparently. I had a club sandwich, stacked high and with chips on the side.
It was a promising start. We checked into our accommodation, a recently and sympathetically renovated gatehouse lodge with two ensuite bedrooms. It’s been nicely done with a modern extension added to the old stone building. Our dog Penny was perfectly at home in her corner of the contemporary kitchen.
She liked her Garden, too. We went for a stroll through Trebah (dogs on leads) just after closing when the weather was just setting in. We marvelled at the towering palms and other-worldly looking bamboo. There’s some really unique planting going on here in a place that was originally a wooded valley before various owners (a Quaker family, then Victorian plant-hunters and then later the Healy and Hibbert families) added their horticultural influences.
We saved our big walk for the following day, when we got a taxi to Falmouth and trekked back along the South West Coast Path, just in time for dinner and drinks at the dog-friendly Ferry Boat Inn. Penny had lots of fuss, a couple of chips and then it was back to her private valley garden. What a lovely botanical experience for everyone.
