Join The Gardens Trust for a new four part series wandering through allegorical gardens with Dr David Marsh

In a garden, art, science, nature and the mind collide. It is no surprise then, that many stories in ancient religions and philosophies are set in gardens. Christians believe that the Garden of Eden once existed before Adam and Eve were expelled from it, while the Hanging Garden of Babylon has captivated the creative imagination of humans for centuries, as have legends about the Gardens of the Hesperides in the ancient Mediterranean world. Like ancient Chinese stories about the magical gardens on Mount Kunlun and its counterpart Mount Penglai, they all reflect the complex interaction between the human and divine worlds. In this series we will not only be looking be looking at the myths themselves but also, where possible, the reality that lay behind them and their impact on gardens more recently. This ticket costs £28 for the entire course of 4 sessions, or you may purchase a ticket for individual sessions, costing £8 [Gardens Trust members £21 or £6 each]. Register at www.eventbrite.co.uk. Attendees will be sent a Zoom link 2 days prior to the start of the talk, and again a few hours before the talk. A link to the recorded session (available for 2 weeks) will be sent shortly afterwards.

The garden of the Hesperides belonged to the queen of the gods – Hera in Greek [Juno in the later Roman version] and lay somewhere at the western edge of the known Mediterranean world. It became the setting for several well-known myths including the story of tree [or maybe an orchard of trees] which bore golden apples said to give immortality to those who ate them. These stories date back to at least the 7th century BC, and there are at least 15 different retellings in Greek texts over the next thousand years and at least six more in Latin. Then, in the 17th century it was picked up and reinvented by artists and garden writers writing about “golden apples” of a different sort.