-
Lyme Park
Lyme Park was originally an area of the peak district moorland gifted to the Legh family in 1398 by Richard II in recognition of his service and it remained in the family for over five centuries. It was not until 1946 that the third Lord Newton gave the hall and approximately 550 hectares to the…
-
Stourhead
Stourhead is probably one of the most attractive gardens in England and comes as close to the idea of the Elysian Fields as any garden I have visited. The garden was in the main part created between 1719 and 1772, but some work on its development continued until 1840. There is in practice two areas…
-
How to prune plants
Pruning plants causes a lot of heart-ache amongst gardeners and a great deal is written about how it is done, often with little thought as to why it is done. It must always be remembered that all plants are either originally wild or descended from the wild and nobody prunes plants in the wild. Before…
-
Planting up an area with grown cover shrubs
The secret to making a low maintenance garden border is to start off with no perennial weeds, after that the maintenance is no worse than a lawn in the first couple of years and far less thereafter. When creating a border most people make the mistake of making it too narrow, a 300mm (1 foot)…
-
Stowe
Of all the landscape parks of England, Stowe is perhaps the most typical of the tradition which it represents –Dame Sylvia Crowe, Garden Design Stowe is rightly regarded as a defining example of an English Landscape Garden. Though not as beautiful as Stourhead; it is better than any other garden at capturing the spirit of…
-
Looking after a pony paddock
By a pony paddock I am referring to a small field used to keep one or more horses or ponies in usually under a couple of acres. Equipment: Chain harrow Roller Fertilizer spreader Quad bike or compact tractor Pasture topper Annual routine: Once the grass begins to grow in spring, chain harrow the grass and…
-
How to build a sleeper raised bed
As well as retaining walls timber sleepers can be used to create raised beds. A great variety of shapes can be created using these, but the shape of the sleepers only really work well with shapes based on right-angles. This though still provides great scope by interlocking the basic squares and rectangles, and varying the…
-
St. Nicholas Gardens
This is the garden created by The Honourable Robert James and Lady Serena James at Richmond in North Yorkshire. Bobbie James was an avid plant collector and member of The Garden Society, an exclusive group of Fellows of The Royal Horticultural Society (RHS). He was in the same social circle as Lawrence Johnson, of Hidcote…
-
Fixing trellis to a wall
Trellis is a very effective way of training climbers against a wall and can either be bought or made from scratch. Fixing it to the wall though can present problems but with a little care result can be both durable and effective. Equipment: Method:
-
Biddulph Grange
The gardens at Biddulph Grange were the creation of James Bateman (1811- 1897), though what you see today is the product of one of the greatest garden restoration programmes undertaken. James Bateman moved into the property in 1840, two years after his marriage to Maria Egerton Warburton, and was in the fortunate position of starting…
