Growing up at Highgrove: A King's garden, and a Prince's playground

Few places create indelible childhood memories as gardens do and, of all the gardens to grow up in, those created by The King at Highgrove in Gloucestershire are bound to bewitch a small child.

As every visitor who has been here since the garden opened to the public in 1996 discovers, these 15 acres, comprising 15 distinct areas, offer anything but the restrained formality expected of a royal home. Yes, there is an underlying geometry, giving magnificent long views and dramatic vistas, and there has been much consideration given to every choice made in their creation, but there is also a natural exuberance and charm.

This is expressed most clearly through the abundance of the planting and the way in which flowers, shrubs and trees are layered to create a feeling of depth, yet are also left to their own devices so that they spill over boundaries and ease themselves into corners. Alchemilla mollis self-seeds into cracks in the paving, the mosses on the Italian fountain in the kitchen garden are allowed to, well, gather more moss, and the magnificent Magnolia grandiflora, wisterias and other climbers have colonised the main house.

Above all, Highgrove feels like a family garden and it is not hard to imagine the pleasure it must have given the young Princes, who were allowed to play hide and seek here and, when they were older, to zoom around on their bicycles underneath the flickering green canopy of the lush and almost otherworldly Stumpery.

Among the unexpected pleasures to be found in the gardens — and there are many — are those places that have been created with the simple purpose of allowing you to stop and sit, actually be in and enjoy the surroundings. Summerhouses, pavilions, the Princes’ old treehouse, each has been commissioned from an architect or craftsperson, most often using materials sourced from this and other royal estates and is thus a unique piece.

The summerhouse in the Cottage Garden where The King often writes was a collaboration with Mark Hoare, a former student of The Prince’s Institute of Architecture. Its wavy-edged shingled roof is a brilliant touch. Cleft-oak benches surround the oak pavilion, created by Mr Hoare to commemorate the 18th-century cedar of Lebanon that once stood here. The roof was designed with a hole to allow a self-seeded oak sapling to grow through it and the oak steeple that tops it is a reference to the steeple of St Mary’s, Tetbury, visible from the steps of Highgrove House.

Elsewhere, seats and chairs are painted in 18th-century colours chosen by The King. There is so much attention to detail: the gates at either end of the Terrace Garden appear the same until you open them and discover that one has rounded spindles, the other square. The more you look, the more you notice a certain playfulness at work. The shingle roofs echo the natural curves in many of the 200 topiary pieces in the garden. Each piece is slightly different, notably in the famous Thyme Walk, where The King asked the gardeners to work on a particular piece.

The result is a wonderful fantasy of forms that could have come out of the pages of an illustrated children’s book. In the Stumpery, Rackham-like twisting roots of giant tree stumps are now mossed over as Nature gradually absorbs all to her own. Hellebores and epimediums and ferns have settled in, adding to the wonderland feel. The green-oak temples made by Julian and Isabel Bannerman for The King speak to the same feeling of enchantment.

The lush foliage feels so much a part of the place that it’s hard to believe that this area was a tangle of brambles before work began on the Stumpery in the early to mid 1990s and that tons of manure were brought in to lighten the heavy clay before any real planting could begin. Mr Bannerman remembers constructing an arch of old worn stumps. ‘It was surrounded on all sides by sharp root spikes, but the Princes used to come rocketing through it on their bikes and tear around the Stumpery.’

Not far away is the treehouse designed for the Princes by the architect Willie Bertram. Called ‘Hollyrood House’ because it was first set in an old, now lost holly tree, it perches on Welsh-slate standing stones. The little room above, with windows that open, is reached via mossy steps, but the dangerous-looking swing recalled by Mr Bannerman has sadly gone.

When The King bought the estate in 1980, it was with the aim of making his mark in creating the gardens. The fact that they were almost a carte blanche was very much the appeal. He was in no rush; there was no masterplan — instead, there was a gradual evolution.

Rather than employing an outside designer to oversee everything, The King enjoys collaborating and taking the decisions himself. He has been hands on from the beginning, seeking advice from people he admired. Rosemary Verey came with her assistant Rupert Golby in the mid 1980s and discussed ideas for the Cottage Garden. This has a meandering grass path leading past beds that, in summer, sparkle with old-fashioned cottage garden plants.

Delphiniums, one of The King’s favourite species, are here, with roses, phlox, lupins, pinks, geraniums, cosmos and mallow filling the air with a busy hum. Mr Golby remembers spending ‘a very happy day’ planting the Cottage Garden. ‘The King and the two Princes were there and they clearly were involved in the garden and enjoyed working with their father. It was a long day, we were there from 8am–5pm and The King did a lot of planting with us. Rosemary was on great form and we all had lunch on the terrace.’

The King’s friend the late Mollie, Lady Salisbury, saw the potential of returning the old kitchen garden — which, in 1980, was used as an agricultural-storage area — to a productive potager that today provides fresh fruit and vegetables, herbs and flowers for the house. In days past, this was a lovely place where the Princes could pick damsons and apples.

Sweet peas are now trained against a willow and hazel tunnel woven by Emma Stothard, whose work appears elsewhere in the gardens. The beds radiate from a central round dipping pond and the old apple branches have wound themselves so firmly that you hardly notice the metal arbour that supports them. Every so often, a colourful planting of flowers brings a smile and, as on the whole estate, everything here is managed organically.

The scientist Dame Miriam Rothschild, a friend of Lady Salisbury, was invited to help with creating the now-famous four-acre wildflower meadow. Wildlife flourishes and the meadow is now home to well over 100 wildflower and grass species, with seven species of British native orchids being recorded.

The garden is now overseen by The King’s Foundation, which organises public tours and runs apprenticeships in heritage crafts on the estate. Melissa Simpson, head of horticulture for the foundation, manages the gardens here and at Dumfries House, Ayrshire. She oversees the team of 10 gardeners — including one apprentice and one WRAG (Work and Retrain As a Gardener scheme) trainee — at Highgrove, who are helped by an enthusiastic team of volunteers.

As well as constantly editing the gardens, there is a focus on further improving the soil (much of the garden is on Cotswold brash) and on water catchment. It was so hot this year that even the soil in the compost bays became dust-dry. New planting areas have also been added, following discussions with The King, who remains as involved with the gardens as ever. These include some exotics beside the Mark Shand gate — as well as the beginnings of a topiary elephant and, most notably, two mirroring parterres on the main lawn.

The box-edged parterres surround some of the original topiary pieces and are delightfully infilled with prairie-style perennials. These give the whole area a lovely lift into late summer and are a colourful treat for visitors of all ages, something that is always a priority for The King and his head gardener.

Highgrove Gardens, Tetbury, Gloucestershire. Find out more about the King's Foundation, and the art of Emma Stothard.

This feature originally appeared in the November 11, 2026, print edition of Country Life, guest-edited by The Prince of Wales. Click here for more information on how to subscribe.