The Garden of Cosmic Speculation

To Portrack, near Dumfries today, to visit Charles and Maggie Jencks's garden. It's an amazing place. They started work on it about 30 years ago, designing large landforms and lakes based on ideas from science and philosophy, and ornamented with sculpture and planting, found objects, unusual materials and quirky puzzles. There are around 30 acres to explore and there are long vistas and surprise views around every twist and over every little bridge. The names on the plan give you an idea of it - Fractal Terrace, Snail Mound, Birch Bone Garden, DNA Garden, The Universe Cascade ...

There's a lot of renovation going on - partly due to flooding and Storm Arwen and partly because some of the plants have outgrown the features they were meant to enhance. It will doubtless recover and develop as time goes by.

Maggie Jencks is well remembered for founding the Maggie's Centres.