Gardens & Interiors
The finest houses, gardens and interiors in Britain, and how to create the English country house look in your home, with advice from top experts.
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The Vita Sackville-West garden that 'numbed generations of gardeners into a state of hopelessness' has finally been completed, 64 years after her deathThe Greek-inspired Delos garden at Sissinghurst has at last been created, with Dan Pearson and the National Trust working alongside the team at this magical Kent house. Julie Harding reports.
By Julie Harding Last updated
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How to make a very new extension feel like part of a very old houseA calming palette ensures a new extension by Osborn Interiors blends seamlessly with the Cotswolds cottage it has transformed.
By Arabella Youens Last updated
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Amy Merrick: No self-respecting flower-lover would fill their vases with imported stems. We want seasonal British-grown flowers and foliageAhead of British Flowers Week, Amy Merrick meets the floral growers and designers showing at the Garden Museum's exhibition.
By Amy Merrick Published
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Gesamtkunstwerk will revolutionise how you decorate your home — just don't ask us how to pronounce itThe French architect, designer and art collector, who designed the hotel At Sloane was a master of Gesamtkunstwerk. Read on to find out why... and what it is.
By Giles Kime Published
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'The garden has run away and found its soul... It’s like being on a horse that’s ever so slightly out of control': Ferne Park's magical journey from dereliction to maturityThe transformation of Ferne Park, Wiltshire — home of Lord and Lady Rothermere — from derelict estate into a mature garden with surrounding parkland is nothing short of miraculous. Tiffany Daneff tells its story; photography by Jonathan Buckley.
By Tiffany Daneff Published
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Charles Quest-Ritson: The 'Sir David Beckham' rose is so good that one day he'll be better remembered as a flower than a footballerFrom spectacular South African blooms to a home-grown marvel, Charles Quest-Ritson shares his favourite plants from the 2026 RHS Chelsea Flower Show.
By Charles Quest-Ritson Published
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‘Why would anyone paint anything white?’ Step inside Butter Wakefield's colourful west London homeGrace McCloud talks to the American interior and garden designer Butter Wakefield about her London home and how the inside and outside inform one another. Photographs by Milo Brown.
By Grace McCloud Published
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Star of the show: How George Saumarez Smith's design for Country Life wowed visitors at the Chelsea Flower ShowPresented by ADAM Architecture
The Garden Lover’s Library, created by George Saumarez Smith for Country Life, dazzled visitors at this year’s RHS Chelsea Flower Show.
By Country Life Published
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Reader event: The art of the country house garden at DaylesfordPresented by Daylesford
What are the ingredients of the perfect country garden in the 21st century? At this Country Life event, five leading experts will share their wisdom on achieving pleasing good looks, creating comfortable spaces for relaxation, manageable maintenance and how to make a garden your own.
By Country Life Published
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Music, dancing and jellied eels all round: The 'colourful world of plenty' in the iconic garden at the Festival of Britain75 years ago, the Festival of Britain turned austere, post-war London into a fairytale of lights, sounds, colour and celebration — and at the heart of it all were the pleasure gardens at Battersea. Kathryn Ferry looks back on those gardens — an outdoor space that may have been the last of its kind.
By Kathryn Ferry Published
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The ancient trees that laugh in the face of climate change and dinosaur-killing asteroidsCharles Quest-Ritson meets the 'living fossil' trees that survived mass extinctions.
By Charles Quest-Ritson Published
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How the sustainably-minded brains behind the London Eye rescued a Warwick Avenue townhouse from the brink of collapseMarks Barfield are known for their public projects, but behind the scenes they've been cultivating a reputation for outstanding residential renovations with sustainability front and centre.
By Grace McCloud Published
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Small-scale cut flower growers have now been formally recognised by the governmentThe UK trade body that represents more than 1,000 small-scale cut flower growers, has been awarded dedicated Standard Industrial Classification codes.
By Julie Harding Published
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Inspired by a Renaissance masterpiece, created by one of the world's great architects, this bed has done a century's service for a country house's owners — and their very lucky petsJohn Goodall talks to Sebastian Fenwick about his extraordinary bed, designed by the great Edwin Lutyens.
By John Goodall Published
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How to refresh a room without sacrificing your existing furnitureStudio Squire has given a fresh look to this sitting room overlooking a leafy London square.
By Arabella Youens Published
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'Science has not been kind to moon gardening, but feeling part of a centuries-old gardening tradition is rewarding'The popular Continental concept of gardening by the cycles of the moon is gaining traction in Britain.
By John Hoyland Published
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The hedge can be a Queen of Puddings, a veritable pie, which could have its uses in all sorts of placesIsabel Bannerman needed to hide some solar panels, so decided that the best way to do it was by planting a hedge full of bountiful fruits.
By Isabel Bannerman Published
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These rarely-seen photographs of the Prince’s Palace of Monaco were taken by a world-renowned photographer and rediscovered in the Country Life ArchiveCountry Life contributor Geoffrey Roland Ballance died too young, but some of his finest work lives on in our Archive, finds Melanie Bryan.
By Melanie Bryan Last updated
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How the British Museum's eight million-strong artefacts inspired the interiors in the new hotel that shares a wall with itLondon's latest hotel opening has both a global outlook and a strong sense of place — inspired by the British Musseum — finds Grace McCloud.
By Grace McCloud Published
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Forget a message in a bottle, how about a whole ecosystem? A five-minute guide to terrariums and their nasty historyThe solution to garden-less gardening began as a happy accident, has its roots in Victorian society and, also, the colonisers of Africa. The result, terrariums, are now beloved by hipsters everywhere, writes Lotte Brundle.
By Lotte Brundle Published
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Famous faces and moments you might've missed at the Chelsea Flower Show so farWe're halfway through the 2026 RHS Chelsea Flower Show, so it's probably as good a time as any for a recap.
By Rosie Paterson Published


