King Charles’ newly redesigned garden at Windsor Castle opens to the public

A garden at Windsor Castle, reimagined under King Charles’ vision and inspired by Venus, will be open to the public this summer.

The former East Terrace Garden has been redesigned to resemble the planet’s orbit – which forms a petal-like pattern – and features beds of perennials, evergreen hedges, tree-lined paths and wildflower areas to support biodiversity.

The site of the new Venus Garden was originally a bowling green used by Charles II in the 1670s, and has been adapted by monarchs ever since.

In the 1820s, it was transformed into a landscape garden by George IV. Queen Victoria’s husband, Prince Albert, also redesigned it, and during the Second World War, it became an allotment for Princess Elizabeth – later Elizabeth II – and Princess Margaret.

The late Prince Philip simplified the layout of the garden by creating formal rose beds and commissioning a central fountain.

Adam Scott, gardens and nursery manager at Windsor Castle, said: “This has been a significant project to reshape this historic garden for the future, reflecting His Majesty’s vision to create a space that will offer beauty, interest and biodiversity throughout the seasons and for generations to come.

“After around 18 months of careful transformation, we are delighted to open the Venus Garden to visitors this summer, marking the start of an important new chapter in the garden’s 200-year history.”

The garden has been planted with mixed perennials and roses, with about 11,000 bulbs used. Visitors will also see new avenues of pear trees, topiary yew shrubs, bronze Hubert Le Sueur figure sculptures made for Charles I, from the Royal Collection, as well as large marble, bronze and stone vases.

The area where the Venus Garden has been created has been accessible to the public only intermittently throughout its history, so the opening of the gardens during parts of July, August and September will be a rare opportunity for non-royals to see the east facade.

The King spoke earlier this year about his philosophy of “harmony” in nature in a documentary for Amazon Prime that charted his lifelong commitment to the environment.

In Finding Harmony: A King’s Vision, the first film to be premiered at Windsor Castle, he said: “It all boils down to the fact that we are actually nature ourselves: we are a part of it, not apart from it, which is really how things have been presented for so long.”

In the documentary, the King also discusses the importance of rescuing rare cultivated plants – something he has showcased at Highgrove.

While walking around the gardens he has nurtured since 1980, he says: “I wanted to find ways of ensuring that you could rescue all these threatened heritage varieties. Everything, all the vegetables, potatoes, cauliflower, peas, beans ... I mean, a lot of them were being just abandoned.

“So, I did my utmost to have as many rare breeds here as possible to demonstrate how valuable they are, because it was concentrating on just a few varieties makes us unbelievably vulnerable, as we’re finding, to disease and everything else.”

The monarch has also restored the gardens at Sandringham, the 8000-hectare estate in Norfolk, creating a topiary garden, a thistle-shaped maze with a sundial as a centrepiece.

Access to the Venus Garden is included with a standard ticket to the castle from July 16 to Sept 13.

The Telegraph, London