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The French Capability Brown meets English-style design in this German gardenA jewel in Germany’s crown: there’s more than a hint of the fairy tale about Schloss Dyck in the Rhineland.
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'If you garden like this, it is almost impossible to get help — it’s more akin to doing a painting or an embroidery': The exotic and wonderful Copper House garden in KentSuccessional planting is one of the trickiest skills to master, but the results in this intensively and brilliantly planted new garden speak for themselves. Kathryn Bradley-Hole paid a visit to the garden at The Copper House in Cranbrook, Kent — home of Stephen and Eleanor Cochrane — to find out more.
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'Stately, spacious and much more enjoyable': The RHS garden show that outdoes ChelseaA visit to RHS Badminton left Mary Keen impressed.
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'Mystery, subtle magic, and strange, elusive charm which must be felt but cannot wholly be understood': The exquisite Italianate gardens of Renishaw HallRenishaw Hall in Derbyshire is one of the earliest and finest gardens to appear in Country Life. The Anglo-Italian landscape created by Sir George Sitwell — and now home of Alexandra Sitwell and her husband, Rick Hayward — continues to enthral visitors with its elusive charms over a century later. Main photography by Clive Nichols.
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Alan Titchmarsh: Beautifying your bordersThe gardener, writer and broadcaster Alan Titchmarsh shares his tips on making the most of your flower borders.
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On top of the world: The spectacular clifftop garden at ChygurnoLife on a Cornish clifftop presents particular challenges, but also bountiful rewards for Robert and Carol Moule, the intrepid owners of the garden at Chyrgurno. Kirsty Fergusson finds out more; photography by Mark Boulton.
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Charles Quest-Ritson: Today’s best young gardeners are well educated, well qualified, and well underpaid. No wonder they're voting with their feetUp and coming gardeners are dotting from job to job like the journeymen gardeners of late-Victorian and Edwardian times, says Charles Quest-Ritson.
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It is like 'rush hour for foxes and badgers' every night: A Sussex garden with timeless views and perfect harmonyHarmony and sympathy with the surroundings are the watchwords in the charming East Sussex garden at Underhill House, nestled between the South Downs and the sea. Kathryn Bradley-Hole paid a visit; photographs by Mimi Connolly.
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Rooms with a view: The new Oakwrights garden pavilion collectionSponsor Content Created With Oakwrights
A new collection of garden pavilions from Oakwrights offers hand-crafted structures designed for those who want to spend more time in their own great outdoors.
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Homegrown heroes: The British stone from Artorius Faber which transformed Country Life's RHS Chelsea Flower Show standPresented by Artorius Faber
George Saumarez Smith’s design for the floor of Country Life's stand at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show has been brought to life by Artorius Faber.
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The timeless books that will change the way you think about your house and garden, as recommended by Britain's leading interior and garden designersWe all stand on the shoulders of giants, and the interior designers, architects and landscape designers in the Country Life Top 100 are no exception. They spoke to Amelia Thorpe to share the timeless books that have been enduring sources of inspiration in their work.
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Generations of owners at Fonthill destroyed the house and neglected the gardens — today, they're simply perfectOver the past 20 years, the long since dilapidated Arts-and-Crafts garden at Fonthill House in Wiltshire — the home of Alastair Morrison, Baron Margadale — has been gently coaxed into its resplendent new guise. Christopher Stocks paid a visit; photography by James Stopforth.
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'I thought I had taken pretentiousness to a new level, but actually it has gone down well': The magical gardens at Broadwoodside, full of the humour of their irrepressible creatorsThe grounds of Broadwoodside in East Lothian — a 17th-century Lowland farmstead that's the home of Robert and Anna Dalrymple — are a testament to the endlessly inventive imaginations of the couple who have shaped them over a quarter of a century. Caroline Donald explains more; photographs by Andrea Jones.
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When is a weed not a weed? When it's a wildflowerIf cultivated plants are a sign of orthodoxy and order, are weeds symbolic of anarchy and wildness? Who really decides whether flora is wildflower or weed, asks John Lewis-Stempel.
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A billionaire's walled garden amid the most undisturbed and beautiful countryside in the west countryGeorge Plumptre visits the one-acre walled garden that forms the centrepiece of the 12 acres of new gardens at Lasborough Park, Sir Hans Rausing's home in the Cotswolds, where Tom Stuart-Smith has worked wonders.
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The most demanding, delicious pelargoniums, from the variety that likes it drier than a Martini, to the flower with peppermint-scented leaves 'as soft as mouse fur'Pelar
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'A dream of England': The Hampshire rose garden that's one of the finest in private handsA thousand English roses now bloom in the restored walled garden that forms the heart Dummer House, Hampshire, home of Sir Crispin and Lady Davis. Charles Quest-Ritson visits this beautiful 27-acre estate; photography by Mimi Connolly.
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'He arrived with three bunches of flowers and told me to shut my eyes': From curation to creation, the story of the garden at Holme Hale HallOne of the great garden designers of his generation created a masterpiece at Holme Hale Hall near Swaffham in Norfolk — but what happens when the great man moves on? Tilly Ware spoke to the owners, Delia and Simon Broke, to find out. Photography by Richard Bloom.
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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.
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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.
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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.
