Country Life's top 10 gardens articles of 2020, from Petworth's private wisteria display to Prince Charles' Aberdeenshire home
Every week, Country Life looks at the country's most beautiful gardens and asks questions about why we dedicate so much time to the pursuit of this natural beauty. These are the most viewed of those articles from 2020.

Birkhall: The home of The Prince of Wales on the Balmoral estate
Credit: Clive Nichols/Country Life Picture Library
As HRH The Prince of Wales was locked down at his Scottish home, Birkhall, this piece from our archives about the beautiful Aberdeenshire gardens proved hugely popular.
Arthur Parkinson: The ‘intensely creative’ gardener with ‘spectacular flamboyance’ rising to the top of the gardening world
Credit: Daniel Gould / Country Life
Arthur Parkinson is the fresh-faced social media sensation hailed as the rising star of the gardening world. Caroline Donald went to meet him.
Alan Titchmarsh: ‘I suppose I should be going stir-crazy in self-isolation. The reality has been rather different'
Credit: Val Corbett/Country Life
Exquisite houses, the beauty of Nature, and how to get the most from your life, straight to your inbox.
Not going to the Chelsea Flower Show for the first time in half a century set Alan Titchmarsh musing about lockdown — and how it reminded him why he took to a career in gardening in the first place.
Reddish House: The ‘dream house’ and gardens of Cecil Beaton
Credit: Val Corbett/Country Life
Reddish House came on to the market in the summer, prompting a surge of interest in this fascinating 2019 look at the great Cecil Beaton's former home.
The secrets of the wisteria pergolas in the Private Gardens at Petworth House
Credit: Val Corbett/Country Life
Non Morris paid a visit to the parts of Petworth normally hidden from the visitor's gaze.
Monty Don: 'The point of gardening? It’s to find solace, to be happy, to make beauty, have fun and muck about. How you do it doesn’t matter'
Credit: Derry Moore
Monty Don, gardening writer and broadcaster, spoke to Country Life’s Tiffany Daneff about dogs with film presence and the lockdown recording process.
How to master the fine art of pottering
Credit: Alamy
The joys of doing things slowly are something Alan Titchmarsh discovered in the spring.
10 of the best secret gardens in Britain — and how you can visit them
Credit: Wyndcliffe Court
Inspired by a recent adaptation of the Frances Hodgson Burnett classic, Juliet Roberts selected a few of her favourite secret gardens.
Moor Wood, ‘one of midsummer’s most beautiful and romantic gardens in England’
Credit: Britt Willoughby Dyer for the Country Life Picture Library
Charles Quest-Ritson visited the National Collection of rambling roses, which showed these most romantic of plants at their very finest.
The centuries-old Italian gardens that evoke the romance of Romeo and Juliet
Credit: Alex Ramsay
Jenny Condie took a look at Giardino Giusti in Verona and Villa Fracanzan Piovene near Vicenza.
Charles Quest-Ritson: What English country gardeners can learn from their German counterparts
Charles Quest-Ritson has spent years making trips to Germany to gather ideas and new plants — but is puzzled that nobody
Credit: Getty Images
Charles Quest-Ritson: Why every gardener in Britain should be growing philadelphus
Charles Quest-Ritson's list of flowers that every garden should own includes the usual names — rose, daffodil, clematis. But he'd also
The best honeysuckle to grow in your garden – especially if they’re gifts from now-departed friends
Charles Quest-Ritson extols the virtues of delightful honeysuckle.
Rage against the buttercups: How to wage war on the weeds in your garden
Charles Quest-Ritson loves plants — but in his garden, he only wants the ones he chooses.
Toby Keel is Country Life's Digital Director, and has been running the website and social media channels since 2016. A former sports journalist, he writes about property, cars, lifestyle, travel, nature.
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Sold, singed and sunk: The sorry tale of Normanton Hall
Few English country houses suffered more than Normanton Hall.
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A Clarkson's Farm of one's own: Five properties with just enough farmland for you and your family, from under £1 million
Moving to the country is one thing; moving to the country and being able to grow and rear all your own food is another level entirely, and all these properties offer exactly that.
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Rare species: Meet the young gardeners destined for greatness
Sam Finch is the youngest head gardener at the National Trust.
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What Britain's top garden designers are planting now to create dazzling spring meadows around their homes
Non Morris reveals the techniques behind the contemporary take on William Robinson’s original idea of naturalising bulbs in long grass, creating an effect even more dazzling than a meadow.
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'The best bulbs are those that give maximum pleasure for minimum effort — and these are the ones which will keep delivering for years'
Now is the time to decide what bulbs to plant to make the most of next spring. Charles Quest-Ritson offers his advice.
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This restoration of a Cliveden garden honours the original vision of Norah Lindsay’s 1930s design
A biodiverse climate-friendly planting scheme replaces the annual bedding displays at this National Trust garden in Buckinghamshire.
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'Why do I allow the fuchsias in my garden to live on? Because, despite their visual shortcomings, I am a fool for edible pleasure'
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The best flower borders in Britain, and how they work their magic
We may have invented the flower border, but planting them remains one of the trickiest things to get right. Charles Quest-Ritson looks at the secrets behind the very best.
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The enchanting world of Christian Dior’s gardens
Christian Dior’s love of gardens and gardening is celebrated in a new book and exhibition at his family home.
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Inverewe: The making of 'The Oasis of the North' in a wind-battered corner of north-west Scotland
Innovative 21st-century composting and mulching techniques combined with a 19th-century shelterbelt ensure that the famous gardens of Inverewe in Wester Ross continue to thrive. Caroline Donald explains more; photographs by Andrea Jones.