A simple guide to the wildflowers of Britain
Our regular guide to Britain's wildflowers is a real hardy perennial.
Birkhall: The home of The Prince of Wales on the Balmoral estate
The death of Queen Elizabeth II and the accession of King Charles III prompted us to look back at Alan Titchmarsh's beautiful article on Birkhall, the house and garden on the Balmoral Estate where the King made his base while still Prince of Wales.
Alan Titchmarsh on his favourite scented flowers of Spring
'If "apple pie without the cheese is like a kiss without a squeeze" then a garden replete with form and colour, but devoid of fragrance, is only half the garden it should be,' Alan wrote in March. Wonderful stuff — even if you'd never heard that apple pie proverb in your life.
The 12 best flowering shrubs to plant for year-round colour in your garden
'Shrubs are back in fashion,' wrote Charles Quest-Ritson as he opened his guide. 'For Country Life readers, of course, they were never out. They have long been the principal element in our gardens, both for their structure and for their intrinsic beauty.'
The Duchess of Cornwall’s gardens at Raymill, by Monty Don
Like the Birkhall article above this is another which now needs a headline tweak — but everything else is perfect. Monty Don looked at the Queen Consort's private garden in the issue which she guest-edited for Country Life in July.
Why you shouldn’t grow onions on your allotment — but if you do, go for these really exceptional ones
Mark Diacono is a big proponent of growing only those things which are difficult to find or expensive to buy — which would normally rule out onions. These are the ones he makes an exception for.
The best garden designers and landscapers in Britain
'A beautiful country house is as much about its surroundings as its bricks and mortar, something that the best garden designers in Britain all understand,' we wrote in the introduction to our definitive list of the best of the best.
Your month-by-month checklist of what to do in the garden and when in 2022
Keeping on top of the gardening jobs can be daunting. But the answer is almost too simple: keep a detailed checklist of jobs which need doing in each month of the year. You can't go wrong. (Unless you never get round to doing them, of course.)
Alan Titchmarsh: The old wives’ tales of gardening that are total rubbish — and the ones with a grain of truth
'I would never dream of describing my late mother as an "old wife", not least because, during the period in which I was at the mercy of her proverbs and prejudices, she was in her thirties,' wrote Alan. 'Yet I am unaware of any neater, more concise way of summing up those snippets of gardening wisdom that are encompassed by the term.'
Don’t plant climbers — plant clamberers
Clematis deserves a place in every garden, explains John Hoyland, the gardens adviser at Glyndebourne in East Sussex. Just not the way you think it does.
See Country Life's top 10s of 2022
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This blissful converted mill has sweeping views, a breathtaking library and gardens by a Chelsea gold medallistPenny Churchill takes a look at Stanbridge Mill, one of the finest properties for sale today in the west country.
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The smooth collie: A working breed with beauty and brainsOnce the go-to Scottish herding dog, the smooth collie is as elegant as it is dependable — a working breed with beauty and brains.
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Blurring the lines between ornament and recreation: Nine of Britain’s best Arts-and-Crafts swimming pondsBefore the vogue for bright blue, chlorine-treated swimming pools, members of Victorian and Edwardian society built naturalistic bathing ponds inspired by the Arts & Crafts movement.
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Ballynure House: The magical estate that transformed its bramble-covered historic garden into a pollinator paradiseWhere brambles once engulfed the historic gardens at Ballynure House in Co Wicklow, Ireland — home of Clare Reid Scott — colourful flower borders now hum with pollinators. Photographs by Jonathan Hession.
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Defanging the Gardens Trust will hurt our most precious landscapesThe Government has proposed to remove the Garden Trust's position as a statutory consultee in planning permissions for up to 1,700 historic landscapes and gardens in order to speed up building.
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‘I was rather excited, not remotely daunted... With hindsight, I should have been': The 25-year creation of the gardens of Glenarm CastlePay 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.
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The pinnacle of the English style of gardening, as fine today as it was a century agoCharles 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'.
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The curious incident of the vanishing glasshouses: Country Life's photographs are all that remains of these awe-inspiring structuresThe ‘winter garden’ and the ‘terraced grounds of exquisite beauty’ were two of Cherkley Court’s featured attractions. They were advertised for sale in Country Life in 1910 — and then they vanished.
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Eat up your daylilies: The underappreciated east Asian flower that's a marvel in the kitchenMark Diacono was at first suspicious of cutting the stem of a gorgeous red daylily, until he realised how delicious they are.
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'Knoll offers a masterclass in the adaptability of grass': The Dorset garden that went from tourist attraction to specialist nurseryTilly Ware visits Knoll Gardens in Dorset, which offers a masterclass in grasses and how to make your garden stay beautiful for longer.
