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
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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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An utterly charming island home in Scotland with gardens so beautiful they made the cover of Country Life
An Cala on the Isle of Seil has a fascinating history that is only enhanced by its amazing setting.
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The legacy od Dad's Army
Kate Green takes a look at Dad’s Army, the iconic BBC sitcom written by David Croft and Jimmy Perry.
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Myddleton House: The place that 'will help you learn what true gardening is' is open to everyone, and just 30 minutes from central London
E. A. Bowles created a horticultural playground in the gardens of Myddleton House that was years ahead of its time, and continues to influence even today. Isabel Bannerman takes a look.
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Wakehurst: 500 years of history, 2.4 billion seeds, 500 acres of planting, and scientists who might just save us all
Charles Quest-Ritson takes a look at the amazing work that's been done to update Wakehurst, Kew's trailblazing outpost in Sussex.
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A dozen slices of al fresco inspiration from the best designers in Britain
Amelia Thorpe shares her pick of the most beautiful outdoor furniture and accessories to help you make the most of summer.
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'Victorian magnificence skilfully simplified and distilled': A peek at the restoration of Somerleyton Hall gardens
Recent works have retained the former theatrical splendours of these gardens near Lowestoft, Suffolk, finds Tilly Ware.
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Alan Titchmarsh: I've tried every slug control known to man, and these are the only things that have ever worked for me
Alan Titchmarsh is as charming, warming and friendly a man as anyone you'll ever meet. Unless, of course, you're a slug... in which case you'll awaken his ruthless side.
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One of the most spectacular rose gardens in England has come in to bloom two weeks early
It's time to head to Mottisfont — come for the roses, stay for the fascinating exhibition shedding new light on the history of this beautiful Hampshire house.
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The first new botanical gardens to be created in the UK in almost 200 years is celebrating its 25th birthday
The National Botanic Garden of Wales helped put Carmarthenshire on the map and its Great Glasshouse, designed by modernist architect Sir Norman Foster, was once the largest single-span glasshouse in the world.
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Chelsea Flower Show 2025: Take a peek behind-the-scenes of the Country Life stand
Discover how interior designer Isabella Worsley and landscape designer Hugo Elwes brought the Country Life Chelsea Flower Show stand to life.