Sunnyside Garden

The kiss of the sun for pardon, The song of the birds for mirth,

One is nearer Gods heart in a garden, Than anywhere else on earth.

(Dorothy Frances Gurney)

Inscribed on the back of an old wooden bench in the garden, I think this is one of my mother's favourite sayings. She and my father have toiled tirelessy over the past almost 40 years to develop and maintain what is now known as Sunnyside Garden. Although both had busy working lives, they immersed themselves in the garden, with my mother focussing on feasts for the eyes and my father on food for the belly.


Sunnyside, originally part of a larger property called Darlington was purchased in the 1920s by my grandparents. In the early '80s my mother bought the land next door, and began the herculean challenge of creating a vibrant tropical garden from bush. The feel of this second phase was far more tropical and less formal that the earlier Sunnyside phase, but is still fully integrated into the overall "Sunnyside Garden".

An old 'copper' or 'taiche' provides a container for some lilies. The zoysia grass in this section is left to bulk up, so it's about knee high.

A romantic and serene resting place? The reality of the tropics means that if the hammock were to be left out in the weather, it would be mildewed and rotten in no time...so it goes in at night.

A profusion of colour provided by a bed of various bromeliads, alocasia, cordylines, sealing wax palms and..that's it, that's all I know...In the background is the trunk of perhaps the only Baobab in Grenada, who knows how it got there...

Palms, cashew trees and a mango jostle for space with a mahogany, maybe over 100 years old, whose base is covered with bromeliads. See more photos of Sunnyside Garden here:

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