-
‘I was rather excited, not remotely daunted... With hindsight, I should have been': The 25-year creation of the gardens of Glenarm Castle
Pay a visit to the gardens at Glenarm Castle in Co Antrim — home of Randal and Aurora McDonnell — is hard to credit that nearly all of the present garden was made this century, marvels Kathryn Bradley-Hole. Photographs by Clive Nichols.
-
The pinnacle of the English style of gardening, as fine today as it was a century ago
Charles Quest-Ritson has just returned to Great Dixter for the first time in years — and it's 'the high point of all my garden visiting for a long time. I cannot recommend it too highly'.
-
'Other people would have given up and turfed half of it over': The couple who turned 'the ugliest house with the nicest view' into a Somerset treasure
With many viewpoints and changes of level, Grove Ley in Somerton, Somerset — home of Dr and Mrs Michael Horder — was not an easy site on which to make a garden. But key to its success, writes Caroline Donald, has been enlarging the pond and creating long beds full of robust perennials and grasses. Photographs by Britt Willoughby Dyer.
-
A lush, 'tropical' garden in Devon where bananas and ginger grow happily alongside the staples of an English country garden
Steep inclines and rocky outcrops are nothing to the owners of this coastal garden, which is filled with plants-many from the southern hemisphere-that thrive in such conditions, finds Caroline Donald.
-
The Hollywood garden designers who turned their hand to a magical corner of Somerset
Caisson House's fifteen abandoned locks were part of the draw for Amanda and Phil Honey, who have created this astonishing garden in the grounds of the former headquarters of the Somersetshire Coal Canal Company just outside Bath. Caroline Donald discovers more; photography by Jason Ingram.
-
The 'Rose Labyrinth' of Coughton Court, where 200 varieties come together in this world-renowned garden in Warwickshire
Val Bourne finds the award-winning roses flourishing at Coughton Court in Warwickshire, where the historic garden is now in the hands of the latest in many generations of the same family. Photography by Clive Nichols.
-
'None of this would be here had the tithe barn not burned down that night’: How the terrifying destruction of a medieval landmark sparked the creation of the magnificent gardens of Bledlow Manor
After inheriting the Bledlow Manor in 2018, Lord Carrington has been devoted to the thoughtful renewal and replanting of this historic Buckinghamshire garden. Tiffany Daneff reports, with photography by Clive Nichols.
-
'The whole house shook. Everything was white. For four months, it felt as if we were on Mars': The story behind one of Hampshire's most breathtaking gardens
When Kim Wilkie sculpted a tiered grass amphitheatre behind this 17th-century house, the garden finally settled into place, as Non Morris discovers.
-
Hampnett House: A Gloucestershire garden where an empty, squelchy lawn has been replaced by 'gorgeous flowery generosity'
What to do if you inherit a garden that isn’t your style? Tiffany Daneff visits the garden at Hampnett House, Gloucestershire — home of Mr Sanjeev Shah and Ms Mansi Amin — and finds a space that has undergone a major transformation, from high-concept minimalism to flower-filled paradise. Photographs by Britt Willoughby Dyer.
-
'Nowadays, you can barely throw a heavy brick without it hitting a garden designer’: The renaissance of the country garden
Tiffany Daneff looks at how the English country house garden has been rescued from its thorny slumbers over the last 50 years.
-
10 outstanding British gardens from the Country Life Archive
With Chelsea Flower Show is on the horizon, we've mined the 128-year-old Country Life Archives for 10 inspiring gardens from across our Isles.
-
'I'd willingly give a year of my life for a fortnight there': The green dream that is the garden of Derreen
Exotic woods, labyrinths of narrow, mossy paths and thousands of tree ferns make this an internationally important garden, writes Charles Quest-Ritson. Photographs by Jonathan Hession.
-
The man who trekked Bhutan, Mongolia, Japan, Tasmania and New Zealand to bring the world's greatest magnolias back to Kent
Magnolias don't get any more magnificent than the examples in the garden at White House Farm in Kent, home of Maurice Foster. Many of them were collected as seed in the wild — and they are only one aspect of his enthralling garden.
-
Have your say in the Historic Houses Garden of the Year Awards 2025
-
Evenley Wood Garden: 'I didn't know a daffodil from a daisy! But being middle-aged, ignorant and obstinate, I persisted'
When Nicola Taylor took on her plantsman father’s flower-filled woodland, she knew more about horses than trees, but, as Tiffany Daneff discovers, that hasn’t stopped her from making a great success of the garden. Photographs by Clive Nichols.
-
The best rhododendron and azalea gardens in Britain
It's the time of year when rhododendrons, azaleas, magnolias and many more spring favourites are starting to light up the gardens of the nation. Here are the best places to go to enjoy them at their finest.
-
Great Comp: The blissful garden flooded with rhododendrons and azaleas that's just beyond the M25
Each spring, Great Comp Garden — just outside the M25, near Sevenoaks — erupts into bloom, with swathes of magnolias, azaleas and rhododendrons. Charles Quest-Ritson looks at what has become one of the finest gardens to visit in Kent.
-
Alan Titchmarsh's garden: No insecticides, no herbicides, just beautiful flowers, lawns, a statue of Repton and a swing seat that's impossible to resist
It’s always fascinating to see what a high-profile gardening personality does with their own home. Tiffany Daneff visits Alan Titchmarsh’s Hampshire garden, to find a place of endless delights and charm. Photographs by Jonathan Buckley.
-
A English country garden that brings the four corners of the world to one corner of Wiltshire
England, Africa, Italy or China — it’s possible to travel the world without leaving this imaginatively designed garden, which divides into four distinct geographical sections, each with a resonance for the owners. Caroline Donald reports from the garden at Seend Manor in Wiltshire, home of Amanda and Stephen Clark.
-
The Cotswolds garden that's cleverly designed to defy the worst of the elements
Coates Barn in Warwickshire — home of the Sonneborn family — presented a challenge: how to lay out this exposed north-Cotswold site so as to protect new planting from the elements, and simultaneously provide a garden that three generations of residents could enjoy. Tiffany Daneff explains how they did it; photographs by Britt Willoughby Dyer.
-
‘My God! What’s he done?… look at it!’: How George Harrison left The Beatles, turned his hand to gardening, and created a masterpiece
The garden at Friar Park in Henley-on-Thames — the Oxfordshire home of the late Beatle George Harrison and his wife Olivia — is breathtaking. The ‘Gardening Beatle’ did a spectacular job of reviving an historic alpine garden in the shadow of the ‘Henley Matterhorn’, and Olivia has enhanced what was Britain’s largest rock garden with her exceptional and imaginative planting schemes. Charles Quest-Ritson reports.
