Island Garden Castle Pond in the Botanic Garden of Meise

First came the castles with their ponds. The botanical garden arrived later. The castles and their ponds are still here. In one of the ponds lies an island with trees, a typical element of the English landscape garden. For decades, the island has stood neglected and unused. Fallen trees lie in the water; geese roam freely. There is now an ambition to make the island accessible and usable; a place for mosses and aquatic plants. An island is best left an island. No bridge, but a ferry takes you from shore to shore. It docks at a sheltered stand in red timber. A group of children sit on different levels, listening to a guide. Keep climbing, and you reach a small balcony among the treetops. Beneath the stand is a shelter for rainy days. The path leaps into the forest like a lightning bolt. The woodland remains intact, apart from the clearing of hazardous trees. Thick carpets of moss grow on rocky walls in the forest’s shade.

The path continues. It hovers just above the ground; through the grating you glimpse ferns and fallen leaves. A red edge, gentle but clear, guides and contains without scolding. Then, suddenly, the path ends. A clearing opens in the woods, flooded with sunlight. The shore lies just beyond. Through the trees, the castle comes into view.

The path resumes, shooting out across the water. It becomes a jetty. Below the metal floor: water, plants, frogs. At the end, a view of banks, of trees rising from water, of aquatic plants, and of the castle itself. On the return journey, the same stuttering path offers a different perspective.