Exploring Serpentin Garden
A Serendipitous Garden in Greece: Discovering Doris’ Wonderland
It was a melting hot day in the wildest depths of Greece when I emailed Doris Schlepper to say I'd heard about her garden and was staying just around the corner if she wouldn't mind a visit. She invited me over that morning, and I went without preconceptions, for Serpentin Garden is not widely documented.
Doris' playground, attached to her Pelion home, was far more spectacular than I ever imagined. It's sizeable, for starters—roughly three-quarters of an acre—and its boundaries impossible to distinguish amid all its lofty foliage. It has a pond, a plunge pool, a showstopper of a glasshouse, fountains, art and animals (both the live and stone kind). It unveils itself in layers, revealing curiosities and treasures with every dip, step and bend.
I spent the morning as Alice in her wonderland; only Doris was far kinder than the Queen of Hearts. We spoke at length about the intricacies of her garden—where she'd found the mannequin legs that now sprout a thorny bouquet from the hip, how she'd saved a cactus (that bloomed that morning!) from a bin, and what life is like when she's snowed in here in winter.
When her friends arrived, she invited me to sit at their table for a drink and a natter, which I did before skipping out of her blue, iron gates on a botanical high.
Published in Blumenhaus, Art & Botanical Review. This is a personal edit of the story, featuring outtakes not included in the final piece.