Green fingers are crossed for fine weather this weekend, when the country's biggest open garden festival takes place. The National Garden Scheme (NGS) has more than 300 gardens opening on June 7-8 in aid of cancer charities Macmillan and Marie Curie. Most gardens are privately owned and not generally open to the public; visit www.ngs.org.uk to find your nearest.
Cae Newydd on Anglesey is one of the gardens open this weekend
Research commissioned by the NGS reveals -as if it were necessary-that time spent in a garden promotes health and happiness. In a survey of 2,000 people, one in three associated the garden with happy childhood memories. The actress Jane Asher, who is promoting this weekend, recalls: ‘My grandmother had a large weeping willow in her garden in Essex with a tap right in the middle of the exciting, gloomy tent created by the drooping branches. I remember the lovely feeling of the wet, muddy, quishy grass on my bare feet.'
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The garden created by a forgotten genius of the 1920s, rescued from 'a sorry state of neglect to a level of quality it has not known for over 50 years'George Dillistone’s original Arts-and-Crafts design at Knowle House, East Sussex, has been lovingly restored and updated with contemporary planting. George Plumptre tells more; photography by Clive Nichols.
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21 of the greatest craftspeople working in Britain today, as chosen by the nation's best designers and architectsWe've persuaded some of the most celebrated names from our Country Life Top 100 to name the craftspeople they have in their own personal little black books.
