Top 7 Impossible Gardens

Have you ever grown a garden in a piece of furniture, or decided to have your ashes sprinkled in a coral garden shaped like the lost city of Atlantis?

Well get your green fingers at the ready, as these are some of the strangest gardens around!

Image by Joel Olives

1) Splice Garden (USA) 

Our first contender for the top impossible garden is the Splice Garden at the White Head Institute in the USA.

Now there are some very strange gardens coming up, but the reason that this garden is impossible is due to the fact that it defies a very basic principle of what a garden is.

It doesn’t grow!

The Splice Garden is entirely plastic!

The garden is supposed to reflect the dangers of gene splicing. It’s apparently still a relaxing space for the scientists to sit in, but I’m not sure that I fancy it!

Impossibility Factor: 5/10

2) Musee du quai Branly (France)

Image by Isamiga76

Our second contender is across the channel in France.

The Musee du quai Branly is where you’ll find the garden -but it won’t take you long to find it! Instead of growing in the museum’s grounds, the garden grows on the side of the building!
Vertical gardening has gained popularity in the last few years, and the museum is a great example!

It may be rather difficult to relax in this garden, but it’s certainly an amazing feat of urban gardening!

Impossibility Factor: 6/10

3) EDITT Tower (Singapore)
Ok, so this third entry is a little bit of a cheat, as this building is pending construction. But it only takes a quick glance at the plans to realise that this could be one of the strangest gardens of the future!

The EDITT Tower takes urban gardening to the extreme, with the garden appearing to overtake the building!

If you’ve been following the recent Chelsea Flower Show, then consider this to be Diarmuid Gavin’s ‘Magic Pyramid’ in skyscraper form!

The building collects rainwater and light, so not only does it look pretty amazing, it’s also energy efficient!

Impossibility Factor: 9/10

4) The Garden of Cosmic Speculation (Scotland)
Image by Yellow Book

In this strange garden you may feel like you’ve slipped into Wonderland!

The 30-acre Garden of Cosmic Speculation took nearly 20 years to complete. But the garden wasn’t inspired by Lewis Carroll; it was inspired by physics!

Chequered floors, curving mounds and double helix staircases, come together in a surreal landscape where nothing is quite as it seems.

Pay a visit and you too can speculate on black holes and parallel universes!

Impossibility Factor: 8/10

5) Furni Bloom (Icelandic Designer)

The exciting thing about this impossible garden is that you could have one of your own!
Furni Bloom was designed by Icelandic landscape architect Dagný Bjarnadóttir. It’s garden furniture with a twist; the garden is inside the furniture!

The chairs and table are made of transparent acrylic glass and are hollow inside. This enables you to plant a garden inside the furniture and then watch it grow!

Impossibility Factor: 7/10

6) Giant Hanging Basket (UK)

Lots of people have hanging baskets, but not many have decided to plant an entire garden in one!

But in 2009 the Hotel Indigo in London decided to install a giant hanging basket outside. How giant you ask? Well it weighed more than a quarter of a ton and contained over 100 varieties of flowers!

Sadly it’s long gone, but while it was around it would certainly have caught your eye!

Impossibility Factor: 8/10

7) Neptune Memorial Reef (USA)

There are many strange things about our last contender, but one of the most obvious is that it’s underwater!

Instead of growing flowers, this is a coral garden.

This garden can be found at Key Biscayne in Florida, and is designed as a resting place for the dearly departed.

Modelled in the style of the lost city of Atlantis, the memorial garden is formed of statues that are made up of ashes and cement.

It certainly looks very peaceful, and I love that new life comes from old!

Impossibility Factor: 10/10

So the Neptune Memorial Reef comes top for me, but which is your most impossible garden?

Or do you know a better candidate?

Gavin Harvey is a personal trainer with a passion for travel! A lover of all things weird and wonderful, he’s always in search of the next big adventure. When he’s not working, he can be found partying at music festivals, and he’s also a part time blogger for Out There Interiors.